Connecting Personal Histories by So In Yoon

Sainsbury’s knitted bag:

Firstly, I was interested in easily discarded objects such as plastic shopping bags, bus tickets, etc. The plastic bags are definitely needed when we shop but we normally use those plastic bags for trash bins to put rubbish after shopping. I thought the plastic bags are similar with forgotten/ or unrecognizable precious memory. Because people normally do not thank for the moment that they are having right now, but they miss the past as time goes by, since they cannot have the exactly same time as before.

Refill paper:

As the same vein of the sainsbury’s bag, refill paper represents easily discarded objects. Because it is very easy to find refill note pad around us, and it is also very easy to tear the pages off from the note pad and throw away if you don’t like your writing. By making exactly same refill paper through knitting and stitching, it shows the same image but make the viewers to re-think of ‘value’ of refill paper.

My main area of investigation is making a connection between personal histories and knitting/stitchin/printing. I am researching how I can approach ways that combine my diary and personal history with recycled materials.

My project is about ‘memories’. Since I am documenting them like a journal, I believe that memories are the best materials for me to ‘denote’ my life, which is an accumulation of the days that I live. However, what I want to achieve through my art, is not merely describing my major theme, memories. Instead, I want to ‘rediscover’ the traces of my life through memories, and remind viewers of the preciousness of the things that cannot be brought back ever again. Since we are not normally aware of the preciousness of everyday we are living, since we are carried away with flatness and wontedness - daily lives that we always face. People usually feel no emotion but that of boredom in their fixed routine of everyday lives, rather than feeling grateful. 

To represent these ideas, I have emphasized the value of  my working process as well as the selection and use of the material. I am adding value through delicate working process, (knitting/stitching/felting/drawing/printing), to discarded objects. By using this subject matter, I can play the oppositional meanings between being thrown away and being treated worthily.

  

The reason why I have chosen those discarded objects was to represent histories beyond the objects. My main idea of memory, which is unawareness of preciousness, is kind of related with over consumerism for somehow. That is to say people today are easily bored with things they already have - largely oblivious of our time, careless of what we have already bought, we always have strong desire to get something new. Plus, consumerism is very much connected to socialism as many people are perturbed by surroundings. So, I can say that sustainable design is basically connected to societal discussion, and it should guide us towards new ways of consumption and production, as traditional approaches lead only to postponing the unavoidable resource crisis.

   

To sum up, making sustainable design means not only means using sustainable material but also it could mean ‘design’ itself. In other words, we, as designers, should design products which people can be attached to, so they can cherish what they have, in order to prevent over consuming.