[ Blue Dragon ]
Photos credit: ANDREW WILLIS
Background//
This project was inspired by NCP China Study Tour 2019 course. Over the course of around 3 weeks we spent time with two universities, one in Shangdong, Shangdong University of Art and Design. This course was the convergence of traditional Chinese garments/ fashion design and wearable technologies, In teams we worked together with the students of SUAD to create wearable technology that would compliment their garments for the final fashion show. Once completed and back home we were tasked to further develop the items we created for our own exhibition of our trip which also featured some of the garments made by the students in SUAD. on top of that i decided to explore the use of VR and AR technology and express my interest and reflections through this mode.
In between my trimester of study, I had the opportunity to fly over to China and engage in field research relating to my degree and beyond, exploring the emerging fields of wearable technology, jewellery and wearable objects. This trip was of a collaborative nature, focusing on heralding traditional Chinese practises whilst merging items with current design practises, an intersection of culture and technology. We collaborated with the students from both Shanghai University of Fine Arts and with the students from Shandong University of Art and Design, resulting in a fashion show displaying alongside our wearable items designed to abide and complement the design goal of emerging tradition and technology. I learned the pleasantries, difficulties and benefits when collaborating with different cultures, traditions and the importance of respecting a places’ history and heritage to even superstition and religious practises. Working at fast pace, rapid prototyping and ideation through to development and fine tuning. In our return we were tasked to oversee and curate our own exhibition which was held at our university. A gratifying and unique experience was this trip.
Artist Statement//
A lot of our collaboration with SUAD revolved around the mythical creature, dragons. In honour of our comradery with the students of SUAD and in the spirit of modern technology, this piece aims to immerse the user through AR and to admire a universal creature, the dragon. This dragon was sculpted within a VR headset, the Oculus Quest, then exported through necessary means.
