Mandy's ITP Blog

Per wikipedia, a Venus of Willendorf is a high statuette of a female figure, discovered at a paleolithic site near Willendorf, Austria, in 1908 by archaeologist Josef Szombathy. It is carved from an oolitic limestone that is not local to the area, and tinted with red ochre. As of 1990, upon a revised analysis of the stratigraphy of its site, it was estimated to have been carved 22,000 to 24,000 years ago. Very little is known about its origin, method of creation, or cultural significance.

For my own Venus of Willendorf, I decided to take on a different approach. I wanted to create something that you could wear, and something that was both very explicit and also very vague at the same time. I thrive on contrast, and wanted to express this in my work. I began my undergraduate career as a fashion design major, and was a member of the Division I lacrosse team. I was the only athlete in my design classes, and would many times come to class with my cleats tied on my backpack, and my clothes covered in sweat and dirt. (Needless to say, this type of "style" was not typical of my fellow fashion design students.) Although I switched from a fashion design major to management information systems, I continued to design handbags and also create ceramics when I was not working on my PC.

To convey this notion of contrast, I began with the idea of using a T-shirt and somehow incorporating many, many small pictures. I copied and pasted approximately 200 small pictures onto a word document (some were very clear, and some were construed to others but clear to me) and and printed out this large rectangle of pictures onto transfer paper. I then cut out the shape of New Jersey (where I am oringinally from) to play with the idea of an explicit statement.

To take the idea of contrast further, on the back of the T-Shirt I formed the number 18. (My college lacrosse number) All images that created the number one, were of my handbag and ceramic designs, and all images used to create the number eight, were of my physical computing projects. I wanted to converge the ideas of design and technolgy into one, single element.

Here are the images of my finished T-Shirt: