The reason why

I remember the moment, the epic culmination like it was yesterday. In the streets of Port of Spain, South quay to be exact I waited amongst the band members in anticipation for the stage created ahead. Security formed a human link barrier, corking the bottled up energy of the masqueraders. We rallied ourselves with the chant and movements of the year's jumbie dance. It was a tremendous amount of excitement in the milieu of bodies and costumes.

"Jumbie, Jumbie dey... outta body back to yuhself! ....Dip in the center do the jumbie dance, lean back and reverse do the jumbie dance ..."

Fresh in my mind was the unison of bodies, arms and legs jumping and pelting about, following the instructions of the song than had left a spell over the masqueraders. We were ready to display ourselves , to play ourselves. The jumbie was ready to come out, every sense had brimmed and was now overflowing in a mess of sweat, feathers, rain and beads. Rushing forward toward the stage I remember the vibrations of voices, music and bodies that left me speechless, breathless and removed. Floating out of body I could see the chaos of the street below, in that moment I saw the sweet revelry of an island that I felt more than ever I belonged to . I held this moment wondering what it was ,why it happened and when again I could soak up this joyous experience. It is with this thesis I choose to find the answers to these questions.

An Old Jewish Story

"Once upon a time there was a great traditional ritual for the inner protection and norisuhment of the people. The rabbi and all the people of the community went to a particular tree, in a a particular forest, in a particular place, on a particular day, and performed a highly prescribed ritual. Then, so the story goes, there were terrible times. A whole generation was scattered and the ritual was forgotten.

When things got better again, someone remembered that there was an old ritual for protection and norishment, but he could remember only its overall structure. The rabbi and the people went into the forest, but they'd forgotten exactly which tree was the right tree. So they chose a tree and performed the ritual as best they could. And it was sufficient.

More hard times came and another generation was excluded from the ritual. Somebody remembered that in the old days their ancestors had gone into the forest and done something, so the rabbi and the people went out into the forest and made up a ritual. And it was sufficient.

And then there were more bad times, and much more was lost. The people remembned that in the good old days their ancestors had done something or other, but they didn't know when or what or where. So they just went out and did the best they could. And it was sufficent.

And then there were more hard times, and all that was left was the vague memory that in the olden days somebody had done something. So the new generation went out and improvised and did the best they could, intending their new ritual to be for the protection and norishment of the people. And it was sufficient."

pg 86
ECSTASY Understanding the Psychology of Joy.
Robert A. Johnson

I find this story interesting as it shows that there is no concrete structure or system to make something or do something in order for it to be complete,correct or effective. It is if you attempt the task with the most of efforts and conciousness will be sufficient. The idea of ritual lies behind this thought, we can create our own ritual.

This is the same way I prehaps view my thesis and the every changing face of carnival. Its content over the years can't always be the same and it will not always be the same, but the underlying purpose of self expression and ecstatic release is ever present ,once we participate with full enthusiasm and conciousness toward the event and its cultural purpose.

It's at times such as these I realize the need to just "do it" and get fully involved with my thesis by being concious of my attempts and efforts to produce and express what I believe is trying to be said or created. At times I can't remember exactly which direction I was trying to take but i go ahead with the process as its purpose is still being fulfilled even though the end result may vary. This proves more effective than sitting back and trying to think of the "right" way or thing to do in order for it to be successful. The truth is there is no "right" way.

traditional costume as high fashion?

I drew a comparision between today's high fashion designers and Trinidad's traditional costumes. Similarities in shapes, geometries and attention to body movement and restrictions exist in both cases. Nowadays the traditional costume is a dying element in the nations carnival. Today they resort to costumes that though eye catching they rarely acknowledge the arquitectonic spaces that can be created. Varying elements and techniques to achieve the desired effects that both realms of design seek to acquire are left to be explored. I hope to explore these techniques. I have acknowledge that in today's trinidad carnival it has become more about the glitter and beads and less about the art form. Though some designers have tried to bring it back the masses still flock toward the sequins and beads. I beleive there is some sort of middle ground where both can coincide. Having tried my hand at jewelry making , I thought about the existing elements of todays costume and how they can be played with ,altered and reinvented. These pieces include the headpiece, neckpiece/shoulder piece, arm bands, leg bands and waist bands.

Oskar Schlemmer

Associated with the Bahaus school, Oskar was a sculptor, artist and designer who worked with the human form as his subject. This form he reduced to basic geometrical shapes that illustrated the human body as a system of proportions and functions which held true to a basic structure.

Well known for his Triadic Ballet, Schlemmer through costume and choreography drew relationship between the body and the space it occupies and also the body in relation to other bodies around it.The costumes when worn were sometimes transformed into living scuplture as the body structure and system of joints brought it alive.

Unbelievable fashion Vogue 2008

This is a fashion editorial from teh Vogue December 2008 UK Issue. In the name of high fashion its features risk taking designers such as Alexander McQueen, Comme des Garcons, Gareth Pugh, Hussein Chalayan, Issey Miyake, John Galliano, Thierry Mulgas, Hussein Chalayan, Rei Kawakubo, Viktor & Rolf and Yohji Yamamoto.

"Through the generations of designers there are visionaries who conjure fabulous creations that go beyond the boundaries of the imagination, transporting us to other worlds."

UK Vogue December 2008
Photography by Nick Knight

This is the very effect that costumes during carnival can take on, its is crossing over into the second world and realm of play and ecstatic revelation. It is in swinging between the oridinary world and the second temporary world of carnival and play that high fashion becomes costumes and costumes indeed become high fashion.

costume designing

So I've decided. I'm making these killer costumes. I broke it down to the modern costume parts of today's carnival costumes in Trinidad, that consist mainly of the headpiece, neckpiece, leg and arm bands, waist bands and bra. The designs at present rarely push the limit with the possilibities theses components can create. I've been finding inspiration in existing jewelery pieces and also while playing around with the components of the jewelery I was working on previously. Basically its a system of attaching something to the body then attaching something to that something. The process continues from there.In its simplest form, its a jump ring, that is a circular metal ring that has an opening. By opening its you can loop another ring to it and continue the chain. This basic construction is the basis for majority of jewellery pieces. I hope to work as well with grommets and metal snaps closures. I realized in alot of design the single unit alone looks uneventful, but in multiples its creates a language of its own. By finding a variety of ways to attach things to the basic formwork of the previously mentioned components I can prehaps form something that can create a rhythm ,a movement, a sound or simply something to be enjoyed by the effectiveness of multiples.I'm making something in order to think about it and not the other way around.

I've attached two inspiring videos, first is the Trinidadian Mas Designer Peter Minshall who is known for creating fabulous costumes that he refers to as 'dancing mobiles', second is American artist Nick Cave who stumbled upon the idea of the sound suit while building a scupltureout of twigs, as the body moved in it ,the rustling of the twigs against each other created sounds. From there he made 50 more sound suits. It's this sort of stumbling upon something new that I hope to encounter.

So the mission to play and create continues. I found myself in the beading aisle of Micheal's and all hell broke loose. I stayed up for the past two nights linking hoop to hoop and bead to hoop and connecting bead to bead. The way it flowed was interesting, not quite knowing the next step but just bead by bead... it because a judgement call on what 'looked right' whatever right is. I think i like this enough to keep at it. I also started playing with different gauges of wire to create devil horns.

BLUE

This is the Blue devil painting i spoke about previously.

The Trinidad Carnival By Errol Hill

As the glorious morning approachs, the true masker becomes a changed person. For weks he has been getting into his part. No seasoned actor ever worked harder on a role. He has Visualized his character a hundred times over. He has watched its outward form take shape slowly under skillful hands. All that remains for his complete metamorphosis is to enter his costume and step into the street. For two days he will be the living embodiment of his most fancied imagination. ...

Contest, competition. the desire to excel all others in perfection of representation is the keynote of the Trinidad carnival.Here, two maskers. meeting in the middle of the road, stand facing each other, displaying their costumes with peacock spread, rocking on their heels arms outstretched, pivoting to the music, each confident he has outshone the others in fidelity and magnificence.

pg 84-85

So halloween just passed and in the excitement of creating my costume,I realized that this is the one holiday or event that can try to compare to what its like in the build up of carnival and preparing your costume.
I had more fun preparing my costume than at the party itself. I was mrs. pac-man and we went all out creating the giant yellow head. Supplies were boughts, sketches were made, and its varying pieces were cut out as neatly as possible, trying my hardest to have a costume that appeared well crafted and well thought of. I took great pride in the final product and was happy to debut it.
We made the joke that if we put this much effort into our thesis we would be out of here in no time. Its funny how creating something as silly as mrs. pacman consumed my every thought. I dedicated hours to its craftmanship because I wanted to impress others with its size ands well thought out detail.
What is this thing we experience when we create a costume that represents something that is not us? Why are we so dedicated to it?
I guess it only happens once a year, same as any festival such as carnival and thats part of its attraction. It comes and goes and leaves you longing for the next time you can have an excuse to enterntain yourself with the absurd.
Another point I would like to make is the disorienting factor of wearing the pacman headdress.
I had severe tunnel vision and it was frustrating and dizzying at times. I thought to myself most carnival costumes dont have this limitation and its with that, the excitement of wearing the costume was greater and more fullfilling. Most other costumes wearers were happy to sport spandex for majority of the night, not the most forgiving material when it comes to body appearances however the best for flexibilty and mobility. Most carnival costumes resort to the use of spandex or stretching fabric, not boxed in pacman heads . Its a freedom thing.However why is it that we are so terrified to wear spandex for the other days of the year but everyone is happy to sport it on halloween, not seeming to have any qualms about it .

This is just me thinking.

Also I've started a painting and almost finished a painting ... and in the name of "play" i've been experimenting with dripping paint and making a fun mess of things (of course still keeping with my usual style of painting, but kicking it up a notch :)). I'm liking it ... now I want to just work on bigger canvas. I'm working my way up. I'll show you soon enough.

Origami devil

Waste and Carnival

"The carnival mentality seriously, solemnly dedicates itself to the concept of waste, ephemera, of built-in obsolescence, but this is not the built-in obsolescence of manufacture but of art, because in Carnival the creative energy is strictly regulated to its own season. Last year’s intricate sculptures are discarded as immediately valueless when it is midnight on Shrove Tuesday …"

pg 55 Critcial Perspectives on Derek Walcott by Robert D. Hameer

"And every year we dance and sing,

And every year we kill the king,

Because the old king must be slain

For the new king to rise again. "

from "Batai" by Derek Walcott (Unpublished manuscript in author's files)

Gathering

I'm going to start gathering things. Random things, things that have no relevance, things that hold a memory, things to build with, pull apart and put back together again. With these things I will begin to play, like a child would, trying to step away from all the intellectual research about why,where and when we play. Basically I'm trying not to over analyze the situation. I would attempt to truly play. It's easier said than done, because I keep telling myself I need a reason why. As of now I have decided that the process and its result will be analyzed in the future, but I would leave that for after I play.

I want to play with materials I have not used before, try techniques I have not tried before. This would help me step away from the conscious efforts for tastefulness and respectability that I aim towards in my other art work where I am comfortable and familiar with my media and technique.

I also scanned all my sketches I have produced over the past few days. I may not yet know their significance to the larger picture of what my thesis may be, but I do know that my obsession with drawing these dragon and devil scenes will be useful to the process and development of my thesis. I will post some images I created with the scans.

I Often sing this song by the Calypsonian Penguin, everytime I draw devils and dragon scene:

You ‘fraid de devil? You ‘fraid him bad?

Well look de devil right in your yard!

An’ he grinning while you saying grace

Shaking up he tail in people face

Wey de devil dey? Wey de devil dey?

Look de devil dey!

The costume

I started flipping through the book: Analyzing Performance: dance, theatre and performance by Patrice Pavis. I found a a few quotes about costuming that i've written down. In addition to making my own notes , i think analyzing the costume in respect to the body and the space it occupies will aid in the development of my proposed re - creation of the dragon costume and prehaps another project that will be a contemporary costume relating to a specific theme unknown at the moment. I think contrasting the traditional dragon and devil mas and costume performance against the contemporary costume (a king or queen individual) will be great grounds from which to view the effects of festival setting and theatre and its effect on how the wearer performs the given costume and its cultural significance.

Like any sign of performance, a costume is both a signifier (pure materiality) and signified ( element intergrate into a system of meaning). In fact this is exactly how Roland Barthes conceives of the “ good costume” : it “must be material enough to signify and transparent enough not to turn its signs into parasites.”

Pg 174 (Analyzing Performance: dance, theatre and performance by Patrice Pavis)

Costume and Body

A body is "worn" and "carried" by a costume as much as a costume is worn and carried by the body. Actors develop their character and refine their underscore while exploring their costumes; one helps the other find its identity:

A sleeve that is too wider or too narrow, too long or too short, can alter the stage projection of a character , and require from th actor a modification of his attitude; this then provokes subsequent inventions/constructions in terms of the costume, and so it goes on.

Costume and Space

Costume often constitutes a kind of traveling scenography, a set reduced to a human scale that moves with the actor: a decorcostume, as the costume designer Claude Lemaire calls it.

With the above quotes, I will try to create a series of diagrams that illustrate the relationship of the costume to body and space.

To begin ...

I decided the best way to get the ball rolling on this project, is to document all my sketches and ideas that will lead up to the dragon costume I will create ( I envision this as one project in a series of design projects I would undertake to examine my thesis aims) . I want to be able to document step by step, hour by hour all that takes place . If in the spirit of "Priesthood" I gather a few "Acolytes" the more the merrier. The idea of group work and forming of communities in 'mas camp' (where costumes are made) will also be developed and explored.

The idea is to create something from scratch and envision the space the body will soon occupy. Therefore paying attention to materiality, flexibility and movement. Also with the use of limited materials the folding and manipulation of the material ( paper or rigid fabric) will have to show the textures of the dragon costume and aid in animating the costume. Something that would usually be done with the addition of paint, glitter and sequins. I would like to explore costume making in its raw state, minusing all the layers of beads and sequins that cover up the body and structure of the costume itself. Whatever its framework, it is this arquitectonic costume space that the body occupies that will be examined.

Folding and costuming techniques

I made attempts at origami to experiment with various folding techniques that may be incorporated in making a costume. The motivation here was to draw attention to the use of basic and cheap materials but with an intensive labor technique, to create an end costume result that was reflection of the time, energy and patience that goes into traditional costuming. Folding is not usually found in Trinidad carnival costuming techniques however I wanted to introduce a new technique to help futher develop the arquitectonic nature that the carnival costume shape and space can create.

"In truth, it was in a spirit of priesthood that Aldrick addressed his work; for, the making of his dragon costume was to him always a new miracle, a new test not only of his skill but of his faith: for though he knew exactly what he had to do, it was only by faith that he could bring alive from these scraps of cloth and tin that dragon, its mouth breathing fire, its tail threshing the ground, its nine chains rattling, that would contain the beauty and threat and terror that was the message he took each year to Port of Spain. It was in this message that he asserted before the world his self. It was through it that he demanded that others see him, recognize his personhood, be warned of his dangerousness.” (35-36)

- 'The Dragon Can't Dance' by Earl Lovelace

Pulling inspiration from the protagonistic character "Aldrick" in Earl Lovelace's book " The Dragon Can't Dance" I would like to place myself in the role of Aldrick the Dragon costume designer and performer and imagine what the process was for him to create the dragon costume from scratch each year. The book describes the dedication and faith he had in the costume making process as being in the spirit of "priesthood". I hope the patience, intricacies and discipline of folding will help to discover this "spirit of priesthood."It should also aid in developing a project that goes through a creative thought process that is stimulating for future projects and encourages the designer to have a greater awareness of the spaces he creates, as he is more in tune due to the focus and patience that folding requires.

The use and integration of sailor's prop (the cane) analyzed.

Ignasi de Solà -Morales writes in Differences: Topographies of Contemporary Architecture :

" Architecture is not a tree but an event, resulting from the intersection of forces capable of situating an object that is partially signifying, contingent." (p.16)


"... that is to say, there is no system of objects governed by formal laws that might guarantee aesthetic efficacy. Instead, in the first instance, what exists is the subject's willingness to establish relations with a world that is to be constructed through the mediation of the body. The subject, who is a nothing, a useless passion, constructs the world by looking ahead. through openings, and through consciousness. The work of art is a gesture that emanates from the body." ( p.52)

Mike Presdee writes in ‘Cultural criminology and the carnival of crime’ :

“…The performance of carnival uses the body as the stage, claiming it back from those who wish to control it, who wish to appropriate that which it produces, to civilize it, or even imprison it. Carnival –places the body in a trance-like state where, like the carnival of rave, one can play with one’s body and carry out a state of enthusiasm … near to the happy state of mind’ (Jeanmaire 1951:58) Now Artaud’s ‘festival of the street’ takes the people not only out of their bodies but in so doing out of society into a state of ecstasy.”

“...he wanted for the audience to be able to see the music and hear the dance, in Mas that is exactly the purpose! ...you want to be able to see the music dancing!”


“I don’t design costumes. I provide the means for the human body to express its energy.”

Peter Minshall

OCCUPYING ECSTATIC FESTIVAL SPACES – The costume and the city stage

Abstract

This thesis examines the role architecture plays in the profound nature of collective human joy during festivals. It will look at human behavior during the festive hours and the events, places and actions that encompass play in festival. There are many different types of festivals but there are basic commonalities that exist in all. There is a voluntary participation, celebration in excess and its occurrences outside of ordinary life.
The Stage and Costume are vital contributors to the collective ecstatic joy experienced at festivals. This includes the spatial role of the city as a theater stage and the stage structures that exist during festivals. While some stages are permanent others are temporary and subjective. At times a stage can be a specific route or area where something symbolic has occurred. The stage creates a relationship between the performer and the audience. Another element that stresses differences from the ordinary world outside festival is the costume. Seeing the Costume as architecture for the body and as the space the human body occupies is relevant. The line between friend and stranger is diminished with the adorning of a costume. Transformations such as these lead up to the climatic joyous feelings that encompass festival.
Parades, festivals and carnivals are celebrated in many cities around the world. While the customs, religions and cultures may be different, a common thread is the profound nature of collective human joy experienced in these diverse cities. However industrialization and human obsessive drive to succeed in social rank and class has dampened our festive nature. This thesis will assist in renewing the capacity of festival particularly in Trinidad's Carnival. By examining the role of architectural space in the actions that encompass this urban festival, it will propose both new and revived forms and spaces that contribute to the festivals collective ecstasy.