MINDCONTROL first collection: designprocess [3rd semester]

MINDCONTROL

Last semester (3rd one) was all about realizing and developing our first own collection out of one general topic.
This was the reference to a film.

I picked “Shutter Island” and this is my concept:

MOODBOARD:MINDCONTROL

„Eat!” the uniformed man told you. You are starring at the silver dog bowl in front of you. The mash is like wallpaper paste – not only optically. You have to eat up everything, without any contradictions. The bowl has to be empty. As every day. If you are defending, you would have to suffer. Eating it up obediently you’re allowed to go back into your cell. Being alone.
Alone – but only until they’re going to see you there. In their hands: cigarettes, knifes, baseball bats. The physical pain is not everything they are doing to you. Even more hurtful are their words. Cold and demeaning. They tell you that you deserve it all. You have to pay for everything you did. They smile on you, preventing that you don’t do something like that again. You are mentally ill, they tell you. Disturbed.
However you can’t remember. Your memory is nearly empty. You did nothing wrong? Always been of a good character, weren’t you? Slowly you are starting to believe that you really deserve it. Why else should they do this things to you?




Thoughts and memories is the probably valuable asset a human being owns. Untouchable and secret, for no one accessible. The human mind controls everything. Even pain occurs in your head. But is the brain that secure and untouchable?
Mentally diseased people should get help. For them it is desirable that you have access to their thoughts. This would mean healing.

This thought of controlling peoples’ minds is an idea existing for centuries. During the Middle Ages exorcism has the aim to get evil demons out of the body.
Doctors of modern ages were convinced mentally diseased could be healed by ice bathes and electricity.
In the 1950s lobotomy is growing popular – a treatment where an iron bar is inserted through the eye or the skullcap in order to cut diseased synapsis in the brain. This method is not often the healing. If the wrong synapsis is damaged humans get even more insane than before.
However, when is your mind „sick“? What makes you mad? Is it possible to manipulate your brain and delete memories or to create psychopaths intentionally?
In this connection there have already been researches. Especially in concentration camps during World War II doctors experimented with human minds. This yield knowledge was passed to the American secret service. “Operation artichoke” this program from the CIA was called, making supposed double agents speak, deleting their memories to get them on their side. How? With drugs, tortures and hypnosis in different variations.

Now what is the truth? What is hallucination and who tells us that we are not all insane?

These questions ran through my head while creating my clothing.
The designs developed with doing collages and using oilcolors afterwards. Here some of my process:

The basis of sticking collages are pictures. I had to find images showing exactly what I want to express with my clothing.
For me MINDCONTROL means that free, complex and independant thoughts are locked from plain and straight simplicity.
Accordingly I picked my pictures showing exactly this contrasts.
After this collage process I abstracted the outline in order to get the silhouette and shape of clothing.

These inspirations were the first and important steps in developing my own design.
As a result I created 5 outfits, consisting out of 11 pieces: