CHINESE WHISPERS

Hoping to address this question of interpretation, I conducted an experiment that had some really interesting results. I took a series of photographs of some of my garments, where none of which revealed their entirety. The photos were all close up and from different perspectives, documenting a variety of details. The first participant was to view the images for two minutes or so, before then constructing a written response based on what they remembered. I was interested to see how the details were interpreted and whether the participant would fill the gaps and recreate how they imagined the garment to look. The second (different) participant was to reinterpret (without seeing the original photos) the description in a visual sense, where again, I was interested to see what details were lost and/or gained and how the written reponse would then translate back into a visual sense. These are the results:

PHOTOGRAPHIC SERIES, GARMENT #1: JACKET.



WRITTEN RESPONSE.
Landscape and Architecture student, RMIT.

Skin's relationship with fabric ---> skin vs. tone.
White loops are strong forms next to the dark fabric.
The arm hair creates another textural layer to the other photos.
White loops ---> button holes.
Dark, heavy material against chest ---> flesh ---> appealing.

VISUAL INTERPRETATION.
Fashion student, RMIT.



PHOTOGRAPHIC SERIES, GARMENT #2: SHIRT.



WRITTEN RESPONSE.
Random girl at Hungry Jacks, Melbourne Central.

Orange.
Skin.
Coil.
Freckle.
Black.
Lines.
Waves.
Warm.
Peach.

VISUAL INTERPRETATION.
Fashion student, RMIT.



PHOTOGRAPHIC SERIES, GARMENT #3: DRESS.



WRITTEN RESPONSE.
Landscape and Architecture student, RMIT.

Linear, sharp, hard.
Grey buttons, jacket, ripples.
Army, pointy.
Loose fitting.
Volume, shape formed by shadow.
Shadows, smooth, falling, frail.
Curtain drawn ---> appears soft to touch.
Lifts in the breeze.

VISUAL INTERPRETATION.
Fashion student, RMIT.



PHOTOGRAPHIC SERIES, GARMENT #4: SHORTS.



WRITTEN RESPONSE.
Landscape and Architecture student, RMIT.

Denim crotch.
Denim with part of hand.
Denim pocket.
Jean zipper.
Blue denim pocket with a bit of skin showing.
Possibly a denim bodysuit bodysuit, however multiple shots of crotches suggest a sexual theme.

VISUAL INTERPRETATION.
Fashion student, RMIT.



The visual interpretation was dependent upon the richness of the visual response, where both of these factors, I think, also relied on the participant's ability... The glory of personal interpretation. But nonetheless, an assumption I had made in an earlier post was confirmed. What we end up with is a representation of what was before that has been dissasembled and distorted, to be reassorted in a more sensible way. I found out that participants did not in fact piece the garment back together, but further dissassemble the images in terms of lines, shapes, colours and associations. I think that the associations are a key factor that I would perhaps be interested in further exploring, as it might be a way to incorporate some of this



Salvador Dali.

Next step?