Sewing Scores

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Sewing Scores
This is an experimentation with my grandmother’s sewing machine, by using it as an instrument. It is an object of sentimental value as it was her wedding gift from her parents from the 60s. My inspiration to use it as an instrument came from its resemblance to music boxes (same concept of rotation). While it is representative of my memories with my grandma and my old music boxes, the machine also has a deep-rooted history linked to the Industrial Revolution, and an Indian historical reference as an essential wedding gift for a bride; through this project, I wanted to bring out elements of association with my grandma, by incorporating a visual element representing the sounds through the means of graphic scores.
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  • Sewing Machine Sounds 00:00

I began with a few abstractions: representing specific sounds I recall from my childhood. I used waste cloth, mostly cotton, from my grandma's old clothes. She raised me, and was also my yoga and Hindi teacher. The blue cloth is a result of the sound of a Punjabi folk song she used to sing to me; the pink with the gold border is the outcome of my ballerina music box; the red depicts the sound of 'Om', a yogic chant; and finally the dark magenta is the Hindi alphabet.

This was my initial inspiration board: https://www.pinterest.co.uk/girotipavanee/spatial-dynamics-final-inspiration-board/

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My initial plan was to make a blanket/some sort of wearable cloth combining the pieces of fabric, but unfortunately my machine stopped working while I was working on the sixth piece. I think that my main goal was to draw a connection between auditory and tangible, the seemingly invisible and the tactile, and at the same time bringing in an element of emotion and time: the past into the present.

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