mundillando:the enigma of a contemporary tejedora

mundillando. fashion ART. CONCEPT II

inspired by the traditional lacemaking technique of

 Puerto Rico:Mundillo, and the culture behind it. 

i explored the enigma of a contemporary tejedora.

Los Padres Foundation 2007-2008

I am a Los Padres Foundation Tuition Assistance Scholarship recipient... every year we are required to renew our scholarship documentation and certify that we have contributed significantly to our community as per our "contract"...

The experience and knowledge I have acquired in college has assisted me in the pursuit of my goals and aspirations as well as in the development of my community simultaneously. The more complete, skilled and successful I become, the more wise and capable I am to contribute to the development of my community.

This past year and a half I have volunteered with various organizations, mostly with Student Life department at FIT but not limited to it as I have also worked with Garden In Transit, Gen Art and NY Blood Donors. Volunteering has helped me become a more well-rounded individual by allowing me to meet and establish relationships with people for reasons other than my major, by connecting me to my community, and making me aware of the needs and strengths of others; by exposing me to new challenges and experiences.

Student Life helps us develop a more involved student body that feels like a community. At a city “campus” where commuter students form most of our population, it takes a big effort to have that college spirit. Wanting to be a part of that effort, I was chosen to be one of three coordinators. I never thought I would do this in college; it has been such an honor to be leader of a program that does so much for students. It aids a great deal specially for those who are far away from home, or by themselves- it builds community! We are like a family of people that are trying to better this world.

We are the mediators between the authority and the disoriented, help-needing student. I have gone through it, and now know how to solve the problems. In orientation week this past august, I helped a girl from Puerto Rico by pointing her to the right people at the right time. To be able to change someone’s life radically –to save them the frustrations and a year of college, and encourage them to get involved and reach out is incredibly rewarding.

In my involvement with the Latin American Student Organization, I have showcased our diverse Latino talent and promoted awareness of our culture. From Capoeira performances, to alerting, and informing our peers about the Women of Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, to a Fashion Show and the organization another one just for Latino students, and Hands on NY Day, where we painted a mural at a middle school in the Bronx and bonded with the students. 

I was also recommended to attend the NY Model Senate Session Project, being the only representative from FIT. I gave the opening debate speech at the senate chamber and was part of the democratic minority party that for the first time in 12 years convinced 5 people from the opposing party. I never thought I would be delivering a speech at the Senate Chamber in Albany NY!

Not only has it been amazing to do community service-but in doing that, I have grown so much. I have become more successful. Yes, being an accomplished individual helps me HELP my community, by helping my community I thrive to revolutionize, and make a difference, generate positive change. A little bit of extra effort and time, just as the Foundation has done with us, it is our responsibility to give back, to share the knowledge. Los Padres  has allowed me to have a better future, and I hope to do the same for others. 

ECO.logi.ci!

concept I: fashion art IV||| portfolio class

ECO.ci

"its a matter of responsability"...  reinvent.reuse.reduce.recycle

exploring others... summarizing

For our Fashion Art III class last semester we had to do a market/designer research|summary report that covered 3 couture/high-end designers...

some of my new knowledge... shared! >.<

Le nonne... A body. A sculpture.

"it all comes to an end... but its not just the end... its the road you went through to get there"

The project of the Italian Grandmothers really took over most of our 3rd semester running through the beginning of the 4th... but not only was our time/curriculum transformed, it was our perception of the female body that completely changed|IT WAS rediscovered| understood!

from below

from above

Each 2-3 people group had a lady... ours-not as old(as the other ones) neither of AGE or of SPIRIT-which is what counts the most- Sassy and Energetic, she always made me and Jessica laugh. She would tell us stories of the 50's and how she had a dress "JUST like that one" (the one that was assigned to a different group). And how clothes used to be so finely made before, and how she used to have custom made clothes.... As she spoke and we tried to understand|translate|speak back|be understood... we also tried to do our work... Adjust our drapes, pinch here, take away from there, OMG! how did we come up w that shape??? Did she loose some weight?

detail.bust

In order to be "freer" in this game... we were told to "create" a grandma' body... we stuffed the basic bodice and stuffed the basic skirt we had adjusted... to FORM a new "form". We started off with a "perfect" size 8 WOLF® form, and little by little started padding, criss crossing pieces of batting, then make a whole, add a circle, add more stuffing! Okay, we realized two people=4 hands=one area... is a bit caotic. Jessica would do the back, I would do the front, then we critique... I sculpted the bust(It was so fun)and The belly(make a wish) , Jessica the back, her unbalanced shoulders and her small almost "hump"... her deformations we came up with!

boobs.belly

A new mannequin... and our grandmother could be with us in the draping room. Of course, this one was missing the spark and charm our little italian lady had... but we could at least stay in the lab until 8' AND DRAPE AWAY... you half, I half, you the collar, me the skirt.. etc... 

back view

Once the project was over, and the show had happened, we came back to the draping laboratory to find a room of "naked, red, black, white, stitched-up grandmothers" silently awaiting, reminding us of the journey we had just come back from... We were asked to let them go... and so we did, our grandmas were gone, and the young ''perfect size'' missies came back... But in our heads, in our hands... the body was no longer a flat, asymmetrical, 34, 24, 32, balanced thing... It was three-dimensional, attitudinal, it had a lifestyle, and it had to move and be comfortable...

insides.all opened up. cut in half

Scratches... all over the place... lets re-organize!

insides.batting.threadinsides.batting.thread

insides.batting.thread

Support call: metadata advice

Institution: Bangor University
Date: 28th April 2009
Subject: Metadata

Bangor University are using their master publications database to feed information about research outputs into their repository. They recently called the WRN team to seek advice about transferring various fields of metadata from their database into the repository, and specifically which of the Dublin Core (DC) fields were most appropriate for various bits of publication information. These are the fields in question:

Conference name
We advised to map this to the publisher field in DC. Even if the conference is not strictly 'published' this is probably still the best place for the conference name information to be stored as the DC qualifier nameConference can be used in this field.

Commissioning bodies
We advised to map this information to a DC description field. It could be mapped to a contributor field but the catch all of description is probably the better option.

Patent number
We advised to map this item to a DC identifier field. At present there is no qualifier within the identifier field for patent numbers but one could be used in the metadata scheme as a local modification so on the full item record the field would be tagged as identifier:patent number.

Media of output
During discussion we discovered that the media of output field is used at Bangor to house a mixture of information, sometimes containing information about the type of deposit such a conference poster and sometimes about the format it comes in such as on CDROM etc. As such we advised to again map this item to a DC description field as it is a catch all place for information to go, much like an additional information field. The varying contents of this field raised an interesting question about item types in the repository. The type information about publications in the Bangor publications database is stored as a letter code in a specific field and this should transfer over to the repository and into the DC type field quite happily. However, when we were asked about agreed terminology for the types within the repository we uncovered an interesting conundrum. There is a recommendation within DC standard to use a vocabulary within the type field, but this is quite restrictive and does not align with what are typically considered to be publication types in the repository. The vocabulary categorises most repository item types as 'text' which is not sufficiently detailed to indicate whether the item is a journal article, a book chapter, a report etc. We consequently advised Bangor that two DC type fields can be used within the metadata schema, one to store the required DC vocabulary terminology, and a second one to contain the more descriptive item types we would expect to see. At Aberystwyth University we have made this addition to our metadata scheme and added a local qualifier to the second type field - type:publicationtype - and defined our own set of values for this field to reflect the various types of information we store.

If anyone would like further clarification of this information, or would like help with their own metadata choices then please do not hesitate to contact the WRN team via wrnstaff@aber.ac.uk

Firenze has showed me today!

I don't want my blog to turn into something personal, a novel where I post all my feelings and thoughts about life and love... but today I got inspired to share something with you... that -in a way- DOES have to do with my work and my career...

I have finished the academic year abroad about 10 days ago and have until the end of the month to move out of my apartment... asides from the fact that IAM an art student... i have realized how much of a "pack rat" I am ... maybe it is because I am an ART STUDENT... hmm

I've been waking up at 7 am everyday,and of course by 4 pm I am hallucinating- coffee or nap??-

... but I really enjoy those morning hours-you feel so productive- Not to mention I spend the first 3-4 hours hypnotized by the World Wide Web and between emailing FIT NY, creating the ETSY website, updating my blog and figuring out my Summer/Work PLANS and my post-summer study/living plans... there comes a moment where I panic... I remember the temperature outside is lovely, and I am in Florence and "on vacation". I need to get out! Oh... I need to empty the shelves/throw out magazines, clean the bathroom and the kitchen.. move out... Okay! two more hours of work... so I start classifying, organizing, cleaning...andhah! time to go out...

Its amazing.. the sun, the people... I've had quite the BICYCLE experience... we have a relationship.. two accidents, had one stolen and now I ride one with half empty tires and a NEW bell! but I love it! riding it really stresses me.. and makes me think... hah! the breeze!

Ive just realized... as long as I feel productive-not fooling myself, I meant as long as I AM productive- I think... these days have made me discovered that NYC lifestyle is NOT the only way! I could be hapy working from home... creating... as long as I get to "uscire"/escape/salir/ser libre... for about 2 or 3 hours of my day and feel the LIGHT AND THE HEAT mother earth provides us... I am merry!

who would have known... 10 months ago I felt so lazy... I though ALL people who live here were... just because food time is sacred, home time is sacred... and you are allowed to eat gelato more than once in a lifetime... because you burn the "fat/i would say SUGAR"walking and bicycling...

I return home.. at the border of a proudly owned -heat- headache... to an evermore empty room.. I am moving once more- CITYSCAPE here I come... I hope you don't reject me... but if you do... it doesn't matter... I am ready... I am becoming more "hybrid"/mobile"