Making with Meaning - exploring objects through drawing, print and stitch

I'm at West Dean for a few days.  Caroline Bartlett is running the course, with 6 students.  One recent textile graduate - Flo, and the rest middle-aged women like me.

Overview session last night was inspiring.  I will probably focus on monoprinting and paper stencil silkscreening. Key questions will be what do collections mean to ourselves and others; how do we interpret them and what conditions our responses; what stories get told, to whom and how?

For me, one of Caroline's key terms was 'overwriting one history with another' so erasing, conceal/reveal, overlaying, and empty space might be useful.

I could learn useful stuff about presentation - ordering systems and conventions of display.

We laid out our work.  Some people are stunning at presentation!  I'm not, but Caroline did note that my collection of work tools had been deliberately laid on a work table, not on a sheet of paper or cloth.

Consider that our relationship with objects is socially, emotionally and historically determined.  Emotional responses are more complex (keys - freedom, safety or security, or oppression; bees - stung, yummy honey; essential pollinator).

Memory - subjective.  Objects as containers of memory (1950s swimsuits provoke memories of people with Alzheimers).  Shared memories for group identity yet individual to person.  Memory is vulnerable to repeated process of telling and retelling; overwriting one experience with another.