My research proposal is maybe more a research direction. I want to show you which way my thoughts are pointing. A lot of questions are still open and yet to be asked. I’ll explain my drive, my fascination and lastly a few dreams and directions I want to explore.
As a foundation / starting point for my research, I want to build upon my project "VORMT" - a visual language based on the architecture / surroundings of a group or place. (see portfolio).
"DRIVE" or "INSPIRATION"
When I tell people where I live, I mention my address but also say it’s next to the pickle factory, with the bright pink 'NEE NEE' sticker on the door and the lace curtains. Friends of my mine live in the little corner of the street where two housing-blocks connect, ring the bell decorated with feathers.
These little mundane things are part of our identity, albeit often subconsciously. VORMT is a way to make the more conscious connection with your surroundings. And make it part of a "visual identity" that depicts the overall surrounding and the little things that make your unique part in that.
The idea of connecting, seeing the similarities we have with the people we share a space with.
During my time at the Beach (see portfolio), we invited woman in the streets around the studio to bake bread with us. These woman with all different nationalities, did not know each other. Almost everyone had some kind of pre-assumptions about the others. But then they found out they were all baking bread for their families every day, and they all had their own stories of the recipes they learned from their mothers and grandmothers. All breads were completely different, but they connect us because they came from the same basic ideas.
During my time at the Beach (see portfolio), we invited woman in the streets around the studio to bake bread with us. These woman with all different nationalities, did not know each other. Almost everyone had some kind of pre-assumptions about the others. But then they found out they were all baking bread for their families every day, and they all had their own stories of the recipes they learned from their mothers and grandmothers. All breads were completely different, but they connect us because they came from the same basic ideas.
When I was working in the fabric store the past two years, I learned that women with Surinam roots had specific colours / prints / materials to wear for specific events. For example; you dress in purple when you turn 60, or you wear a white headscarf when someone has died. It reminds me of the stories of vlisco-prints (something that inspired VORMT as well), particular prints are worn to show at what stage you are in your life.
I like this kind of 'pride' and honesty in showing what is happing in your life, and the connections that come from that.
I like this kind of 'pride' and honesty in showing what is happing in your life, and the connections that come from that.
When a woman would come for purple fabric, we could get excited together about the prospect of a big party. When woman with white headscarfs came in, we could approach them more reserved, tell them sorry for their loss and wish them strength.
Besides the aspect of not being ashamed, isn’t it beautiful that strangers can connect without having to explain too much? When someone dies, strangers might get angry because you don’t smile enough. Or you did something great but nobody knows and you don’t really want to shout it at everyone.
Once I had an idea that you could get 'scout-patches' for all the 'normal' cool things in life - like the first time you send out an invoice, or managed to fix your own bike, or getting aunt or grandma. As a kid you get praise all the time, a diploma for tying your shoes or wiping your own butt. I had a necklace and I got a new hanger for each milestone.
Then I realized, this pride in showing birthdays for example, it does happen in my (Dutch) surroundings as well: a flag with a bag when you graduate, a stork in the window when a baby is born, Sarah and Abraham when you turn 50. So this connects back to VORMT: using the house to express ourselves.
But when you don’t pass my house, you won’t know what happened. Can you take your surroundings with you? Make connections with strangers who are more like you than you ever thought, or just realize you’re not the only who just learned how to put carpet in.
With all of this in mind. I put together how I can see my research. It starts with an overall motivation. The motivation brought me to VORMT, which is in the middle as a start for the research. Then there is two parts: the how and the what. How can I connect and work together, and what can we do with the language we create.
OVERALL MOTIVATION / FASCINATION
Celebrating the small and daily things in life, finding beauty in the mundane, finding connections between strangers and finding what connects us and also what makes us unique, using something 'small' to get a conversation start and work together as equals to make something that can grow and develop over time.
Most important, what it comes down to:
Find a place and a group. Create a visual language together. Build a community. Create ways to express your own uniqueness with and within. The end. But it’s not an end, it’s the start of movement.