As an artist I find the graphic narrative communicates my energies, thoughts, emotions, and experiences. My own personal struggles with intrusive thoughts, anxiety, and depression have crafted my work and style leading me to find focus and expression through creation. They have brought me to the decision to work with black ink and white paper. Increasingly, I am finding that by narrowing myself to work within the frame of these two colors I can widen my ability to portray strong emotion and shifting psychological states. Through this form I am able to depict, dramatize, and even process what I am going through; additionally, I am able to share with and inspire others to find meaning and perhaps 'metabolize' their own struggles. My aim is to complete a graphic novel that expresses my own inner workings and experiences. I have included representative pages that depict my experience of intrusive thoughts.

I am submitting my work thus far to an "interactive colloquium" that wants to re-evaluate the role of comics. This conference, "Comics in Medicine & Teaching: Rethinking Comics as a Therapeutic and Educational Tool" is a perfect fit for my graphic narrative because their focus is in work that "demonstrates people's own lived experiences with mental and physical illness." Attending this conference will help me further my research in comics as a therapeutic vehicle as well as help me to better understand and apply my practice as I continue to explore ways to narrate and give shape to inner conflict.

The Beauty of Poison

Name of Authors: Shiyao Peng

Department: Fashion School

Problem:

To create a Fall/Winter and Holiday 2016 women’s clothing collection that incorporates personal aesthetics and market trends. Visual research was conducted from different perspectives relating to the theme of “beauty of poison.”

Methods:

• Design style identification: Evening wear in the Ready-to-Wear category
• Design inspiration research: Imagery of creatures which have attractive characteristics, but the fragile and dark ‘souls’ inside of them are poisonous.
• Market research and trend analysis: Used WGSN to research the forecasting season, colors, fabric and texture and knit wear designs to find out my design direction.
• Fabric and color story: Soft, light weight silk chiffon, silk mesh and silk jersey were selected to contrast the stiff, heavy weight knits and leather. Rich contrasting colors of dark blue were implemented with the flare of coral orange.
• Swatch sampling and creation:

Digital textile prints- Designed abstract prints which were inspired by the texture and dark soul.

Hand-knitting- Created extreme boulder-like volume knit samples with bobble shape and cable details.

• 3D Research: Draped garments on the dress form.
• Design Development: Problem solving worked out in fashion illustration with which clearly showing garments’ silhouette, fabrication and color.
• Flats: Illustrated different view of the garments, to visually explain the design construction, details.

Results: Mood board, fabric and color story, prints designs, fashion flats and fashion illustrations.

Conclusion: The collection displayed effectively integrated the theme of the ‘beauty of poison’ through the integration of the design elements and materials used.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate and test the viability of the sustainable movement in fashion. Specifically utilizing the unique skill set of designing, drawing, and sewing zero – waste apparel, that is garments made sustainable by manipulating patterns to have no fabric waste. The study assessed The Fashion School Store’s current sales, and developed a collection of sustainable garments based on those findings. The research included was appraising The Fashion School Store, researching different apparel manufacturing and sustainable fashion materials, and finally, designing and creating a unique collection of saleable apparel for The Fashion School Store. This project explores the full process of design, from entrepreneurial concept to the eventual creation of a product. This study adds to our knowledge and understanding of the marketability and salability of sustainable fashion apparel.

I wanted to explore a classical text from a typographer's perspective. I was curious to examine how modern technological conventions could be taken advantage of to illustrate the emotion and power of the story. This fusion brings the classical text into the modern age for an audience that is unprepared for this unique relationship. I typeset The Iliad by Homer and examined the visual vernacular that would push the story I was trying to illustrate, through text.

My research is focused on digital printing and how we can relate this to body movements and emphasizing depths. Fashion is an art form that has come to life and functions with us daily. I wanted to expand on the idea of movement in my prints to enhance regular body movement.

My prints are inspired by the Memphis Design, was a group of young furniture and product designers that led-Milano postmodern style movement in the 1980s. There prints were bright and vibrant while creating structural pieces of furniture. The Group would highlight angular furniture pieces by adding a movement print that enhanced the design. I focused on this idea for the body.

First in my process of creating my print designs, I paint my inspiration to get more of a flow and then upload them to illustrator to make them digital. I have formulated abstract prints that focus on angular movements using Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator techniques. My print designs all play with the idea of optical illusion especially where it is placed on the body. The print designs help the viewer focus more on that area or mute them out. I wanted to showcase that where I placed the print plus the fabric choice enhances the movement of the body simulating movement.

I believe that digital printing can be used to enhance parts of the body we would love to showcase but can also mute the problem areas. My prints center on body movement and they magnify body movement when worn.

My research is choreography that is intended to help audiences understand that grief and emotions surrounding human loss can be conveyed through movement alone. As a population, it is difficult to express our emotions and grief regarding the loss of our loved ones. Specifically, the loss of physical connection to those we love the most is the hardest feeling to bear. Following an extremely tragic event, it has been my focus to explore these numerous emotions through my movement and choreography, instead of using words. My BFA senior piece, "Forever present.", should assist my audience in understanding that their loved ones are always with them, even if the physical aspect is no longer. With my rehearsals being held every Monday and Wednesday night from 7-8:30 p.m. since October, I continuously worked with my dancers to create the technical and emotional aspects that have ultimately created my final product. In order to create my piece objectively, I chose to choreograph in silence. Additionally in rehearsals, to begin new phrases of movement I danced with my own tragedy in mind. To improve the emotional side of the work, my dancers and I shared our own experiences of loss with one another. A playlist was also created that included pieces of music directly encompassing the theme. By instructing my dancers to solely view my improvisatory movement, mentally process what they saw, and immediately dance my phrasing in their own bodies, I have created a piece that is completely raw and original.

Musicologists have divided western music into distinct musical eras spanning from the secular music of the Renaissance to the avant garde music of the 21st century. The result when composers live during the end of one and beginning of another is endless debate and inevitable debacle to determine which era they belonged to. I have therefore determined to investigate the development of Shostakovich’s harmonic language throughout his compositional lifetime, with the intent to discover how he bridged the musical eras of romanticism and 20th century music.

My methodology in conducting this investigation is:

1. Gaining an understanding of the social and political context in which Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 5 and other compositions were written as well as becoming knowledgeable of Shostakovich’s life and possible influences by means of reliable biographical resources both secondary and primary.

2. Obtaining an in depth understanding and complete comprehension of the techniques used by Shostakovich throughout various compositions through macro and micro analysis of Shostakovich’s scores of:

a. Symphony No. 1

b. Symphony No. 5

c. Piano Trio No. 2 – Passacaglia

d. Symphony No. 9

- Comprehension of Schenkerian and Neo-Riemannian analysis was developed through extensive study with my private teacher.

3. Come to a conclusion based on my investigation.

The results of my investigation conclude that Shostakovich’s harmonic language became increasingly atonal and chromatically oriented throughout his compositional lifetime. The cause of this change in harmonic style was inclusive of both personal expression under the eye of political oppression and the contextual movement toward more symmetrically based music among many composers.

This study’s main focus was on the following research question: Does the major of undergraduate students, fashion versus non-fashion, add pressure to the student’s appearance management? We received 147 responses from 55 fashion majors and 91 non-fashion majors. We employed a quantitative research method for the present study. The data was collected through an online survey through Qualtrics. When we examined the levels of pressure felt by the different majors, we found that the fashion students feel added pressure to maintain a certain appearance, more so than the students who are majoring in different fields. Not only do the fashion students feel pressure due to their major, but also from the other students who surround them. The results proved that this added pressure affects the amount of time and money put into managing one’s appearance. By comparing the feelings of judgment and the effort put towards personal appearance between fashion majors and non-fashion majors, this paper offers an insight into why undergraduate students of a specific major dress and present themselves a certain way.

Keywords: Fashion students, Non-fashion students, pressure, judgment, appearance management, personal appearance

Article Type: Research paper