I DARSAN

‘Darsan’ (sometimes spelled ‘Darshan’) is a Sanskrit word meaning “sight” (that is, in the sense of seeing and beholding) or vision, and is used to describe the concept being in the presence of the divine or holy person or object.

A poet Gary Snyder interviewed by Jonathan White in his “Talking on the Water” book said about it that: “It’s a gift; it’s like there’s a moment in which the thing is ready to let you see it. Darshan means getting a view, and if the clouds blow away, as they did once for me, and you get a view of the Himalayas from the foothills, as Indian person would say, “Ah, the Himalayas are giving you their darshan:” they’re letting you have their view. This comfortable, really deep way of getting a sense of something takes time. It doesn’t show itself to you right away. It isn’t even necessary to know the names of things the way a botanist would. It’s more important to be aware of the suchness of the things: it’s a reality.”

However, Darsan is ultimately difficult to define, since it is an event in the consciousness of the mind. It is the result of an interaction in presence between observer and an image or sculpture or object etc., which focuses and calls out the consciousness or realization of the observer. In either event, a heightening of awareness and perception and often spirituality is the intended effect.

In the talk by a video artist Bill Viola he described Darsan as the state the state of “seeing and being seen”. As the title of this project it reflects my understanding of the artifacts, which I consider the objects, that operate on both conscious/mental and physical levels, that can give you their darsan, let you have their view and understanding.

Made or given shape by man, such as a tool or a work of art, they highlight the path of Mankind’s evolution and provide us with an understanding of where we came from and where we are going. Like prehistoric man, who used art to understand the world and tools to change and appropriate part of it, we still have the same approach, with the difference being of the latter developing using the most advanced technology available. The history of the invention of tools is similar in some ways to the history of humanity. First tools have enabled people to create new things, and later many scientific endeavors have become possible only through technologies, which assist humans to travel to places we could not otherwise go and to probe the nature of the universe in more detail than our natural senses allow.

This project is centred around memory. It explores the role of marking tools in tracing reminiscences and examines the inborn manner of recollection. This project seeks to experiment with natural charcoal drawing/marking processes (following and exploring the historical cave drawing methods) and the transformation of the fiber/cloth in order to stimulate reflections on the fragility of the relationship between human and nature, which nowadays lies mostly in the sphere of technology.

This endeavour is also a response to the question of how we cannot really understand the direction of the development of our technologies without looking back to times where they were only simple primitive tools and spiritual techniques.

The aim of this project was to examine how the concept of memory drawings can be translated into both the fashion and art worlds. The results are a series of flowing, dream-like marking tools for recollection, which were used to make traces, marks and imprints on garments and transport the viewer and wearer into the imaginary of filmed reality.

I I TOOLS FOR TRACING REMINICENCES

As we increasingly live our lives in “the cloud” we are seeing a change in the way we use our memory. More and more we are utilising our transactive memory and storing our experiences digitally. We use keyboards and mice to write, smart pen to draw and save our drawings online. While digital tools revolutionized the way we use our memory, in contemporary design we are seeing a desire for sensory re-connection and digital disengagement. This begs the question, what do we lose in communicating with clever machines, and what sensory and emotional qualities do we miss most?

This work highlights shifts between the emotional and spiritual bonds people had with their tools in their early age and intellectual and phisical connections with the technology, which we have now.

A major aim of this project was to map the ritual for the human-made drawing tools. Drawing as a inborn way of recollection went back to 20,000-30,000 years ago, when cave walls were painted in memory of past. The best known sites such as El Castillo Cave and Chauvet Cave had polychrome (multi-colored) paintings made of charcoal and ochre and other natural pigments and were used to illustrate extinct animals, humans and geometric shapes. Chauvet Cave includes marks that were made intentionally and traces, which were left on surrounding materials unintentionally by people.

The key point is that all the traces provide a record of occurrences of an event and telling a story about the life anytime and anywhere.
This project aims to develop a body of work around the theme of time and memory. This reflects the view as to the rapidity of fashion and the phenomenon of quick changes that it denotes.

The beautification and acceleration of the printing process of fabric grants more uniqueness to garments to increase their value both in design and emotional relationship between garments and wearers. This project intends to use fabric design to make an emotional durability for design and build a new use mode of garments. Creation of the marking tools, establishment of garments’ emotional life and improvement of durability of the relationship established between wearer and garment are the main reflections of this project.

The project intends to realise sustainable and emotional relationship with clothing by providing tools and materials in designing emotionally significant garments.

Designers can strategically create products that have more emotional relevance (Mok, 2011). His primary purpose is to reduce consumption established between the wearer and his/her garment. Therefore, a more durable relationship will bring longer time use of the garment. Few products could replace it and would, beneficially, lower the impact to environment through its extended period of use. The project tries to meet requirements of increasingly demanding people who insist on both personal and individual identities and hope to display their different tastes in the real world by building the emotional relationship between wearers and clothing with expressive durability design.

Final outcome

Blurring the line between art and fashion, tools and garments brought to the existance the original interpretation of the ritual for the human- made drawing tools.

The marking tools are designed to give a dose of emotion, to fill the fashion object and give a new perspective for looking at them. Artistic direction of this project took place in a peaceful, cultural investigation of tools.

The created tools are not to be used, but, instead, are to be experienced.

They are not for a generic audience but are instead bespoke and very much for the individual.

The video Darsan is designed as an experience but it also stands for a representation of a usage of human-made tools. The resulting film features a collage of events showing the ritual.

This project is a poetic work that focuses on the immaterial world that we humans are made of.

I think it is important sometimes to look at things and raise questions so unusual for fashion world to try to bring some deep emotional qualities into it.

As it is going very quickly nowadays to new 3d technologies it can be the right time to contemplate over some forgotten sensory and
emotional connections between people and objects.

I I I MY PRACTICE Research Methodologies

Starting working on the project, I intended to use a personal approach to design and research in order to develop a product with a strong poetic and metaphoric sense. I took this approach in order to evoke certain emotions and reflections in the observer. Firstly, I started with researching materials and techniques associated with the main design concept, exploring into materials as the source of metaphors.

I have been experimenting with a process of marking the surface that was done with a burnt wood piece. The lines on the coat provided markings of time in a similar way that growth rings do the same for a tree. In this literal manner, the burnt wood represented the past and created the fashion garment for the future.

During this process, I identified a number of key interests. My work was structured along two main approaches: poetic design and natural design. I have been viewing and analyzing contemporary performance and video artists such as Marina Abramovic and Bill Viola in order to enhance my understanding in the representation of artifacts I was working on to show their poetic nature. The research in natural design included artists who work with natural materials, such as Andy Goldsworthy, Kate MccGwire, Giuseppe Penone and others.

I did a research in ancient tools dated by second half of IV millennium BC paying attention to their materials and the way they were made. This brought me to understanding that they are really sculptures with functions, sometimes understandable, sometimes unknown. But even if we can’t understand the purpose of using them, the eye can catch the movement living in them for which they were created. They are the manifestation of the so-called nowadays natural design, an approach that holds that concepts such as "motivation", "emotion", "inner feeling", "development", "adaptation".

- Tatiana Kobikova - 

MA FINAL PROJECT (p.3 -9)

Exhibition

MA Fashion Artefact Degree Show, London College of Fashion

Victoria House Basement, London 2014
Tues 11 - Sun 16 Feb = open to public
Wed 12 Feb = PV & film event

(LINK) Showtime, Tatiana Kobikova

Jaime Miranda Bambaren