Archives

• Photographs

      for long-term preservation

•  Ledgers 

        records classified and summarized financial information from journals

•  Catalogues

         a book or pamphlet containing an enumeration of things

• Files 

        systematic in storing data and easy to access

• Annual reports

        information about the company's activities and financial performance

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Research Interview: key issues in Research Interviewing

 

Interview with hsiaoron cheng

September 10, 2015

 If you’re the type of outside diner to catch a quick bronze while waiting for your chicken parm, you’ll appreciate this new design by artist and illustrator, Hsiao-Ron Cheng. A specialist in combining hand drawn illustrations and digital finishes for portraits, Hsiao-Ron Cheng contributes to the Upper Playground archive with this first design. Here are few questions we asked Hsiao-Ron about her and her work:
UP: Tell us a  bit about your background as an artist.

HRC: Hi I’m a commercial artist based in Taipei, Taiwan. I studied Fine Art in Taiwan University of Art. I quit my day job in 2012 and then only concentrate on my own illustrations since then. I love walking, hiking, traveling, sleeping.

UP: There is a sense of serenity in your portraits. Can you explain the tone and mood of your subjects?

HRC: I’ve always love pastel colors. As for the mood, I think maybe is because I’m a calm person so it reflects on my works.

UP: What is the balance between digital and hand drawn aesthetic in your work?

HRC: I only do digital works, from drafts to final. But I do have experience of making oils, pencil drawing, water color etc. so I’m very aware and know how to make digital works with hand drawn texture.

UP: Where do you find inspiration?

HRC: Pinterest and life.

According to Gillham (2005), interviews are inherently flexible. The interview with the designer usually flexible which is depends on the interviewer to set the setting of the place that can be anywhere such as coffee shop, the artist’s studio, artist’s house, etc.  Usually, there is no dress code which is the designer can wear anything that comfortable compared to formal interviews. The designer can be responsive right away after the questions were asked. The answers can be simple yet satisfying or the designer can explain more about the topic were given.  The designer can describe or explain themselves according to the question or topic focus of the interview. This can be express through their arts and design or artwork that relates to the topic and question. In this case, the designer has the freedom to answers the question in any way possible.

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The House of Fraser Archive

1.       ­­­Paterson manages her text well-organised by provides facts and history of the background to support and convey the wealth of material available in the House of Fraser Archive.

2.       Based on my reading of Paterson, I understand that archive is a rich resource of collection such as data, photographs, files and etc. Archive is widely used in the fields of fashion/ design/ business history because it provides valuable evidence, records, and photographic collections.

3.       I can use an archive to advance my knowledge of a particular designer, brand and topic because archive provide a large collection of history background of the designer, brand and topic that I might interested in. From that, I can learn the history of the background of the designer, brand and topic. Some problem that I may encounter is I find that archival catalogues difficult to interpret, with lots of information to sift through before locating appropriate resources.

4.       According to Paterson (2009) the key problems with the House of Fraser Archive is that the Archive is underused. The project aims to improve the accessibility for information about the Archive as to attract more users to use the Archive for their research purposes.

5.       Archival research provides valuable evidence that is hard to find and maintain its originality. Also, large collection that gather many information that might be valuable for the researcher.

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Gendered Aid Interventions and Afghan Women: Images versus Realities

                The author of Gendered Aid Interventions and Afghan Women: Images versus Realities, is Lina Abirafeh and the editor is Faegheh Shirazi. Lina Abirafeh, She also the author of Gender and International Aid in Afghanistan: The Politics and Effects of Intervention, Director of the Institute for Women's Studies in the Arab World Lebanese American University, International Advisory Board Member, Forced Migration Review, Advisory Board Member - Gender-Based Violence Technical Specialist, ABAAD Resource Centre for Gender Equality.

                Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located within South Asia and Central Asia. It has a population of approximately 32 million, making it the forty-second most populous country in the world. It is bordered by Pakistan in the south and east; Iran in the west; Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan in the north; and China in the far northeast. Basically, this book is about the limitation of Afghan women can do in their life. They also found themselves at the centre conflict between the ideas of modernization but they still have to stick to their codes culture. The Taliban, fundamentalist Muslim movement whose militia took control of much of Afghanistan from early 1995, and in 1996 took Kabul and set up a radical Islamic. The Taliban imposed a virtual state of curfew on women, curtailing their freedom to move, to work and to be educated.

                Media plays a major role in influences the way aid institutions approach gender issues during conflict. Media always portray Afghan women as victim, hidden away and anonymous. This stereotype makes Afghan women looks like weak, can’t handle themselves, and mysterious. They were rarely portrayed as someone that strong, independent and have the courage to manage of themselves. Lina also describe the Afghan women’s identities, which is their place often defined by family, community, economic and social security. Their five aspects of their identity mainly are, national identity, religious identity, ethnic/tribal identity, gender identity, and family identity. Religion is important part in their life. Majority of them is Islam. An eighteen-year-old single female pointed out that “religion is an important part of our society. Without it, there cannot be progress”.

                Overall, Lina did a nice work by interviewing the real people in Afghanistan to know the real story. She also used another point of view from different person to support what she knew about the culture. She also good organizing the paragraph and makes the text really interesting to read. This book is really recommended for people that want to learn more about Afghan women and history of Afghanistan.

                

       

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Hair: Styling, Culture and Fashion

Geraldine Biddle-Perry and Sarah Cheang are the editors of Hair: Styling, Culture and Fashion. Sarah is Senior Lecturer in the Department of Cultural and Historical Studies,London College of Fashion, University of the Arts London, UK. She joined the Royal College of Arts in September 2011. She has a special interest in the role of Chinese material culture within histories of Western fashionable dress and domestic interiors. Meanwhile, Geraldine is a cultural historian whose main focus on production and reproduction of mainstream fashionable identities in the late-nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and the assumptions of class and gender that underpin this.

The Hair: Styling, Culture and Fashion book is basically about the importance of hair in explaining cultural representation and the growth of hair histories and rituals. In the introduction, the editors emphasize the Hindu concept in explaining the histories of growth hair that represent Hindu cultural beliefs.  The writers also mention about ‘black henna’ which is has been used as cosmetic hair dye approximately 6,000 years.

The first sub-heading is Hair Myths, Histories and Taboos which explain that hair is a rich source of myth in India that where each state and region has its own stories about the myth of hair. This explains that hair plays an important role to represent each of state and region in India. ‘Shakti’ which means power or empowerment related to the female power which when woman’s unleashed hair.

The second sub-heading is Purity and Pollution: The Role of Barber. Shaving in Hinduism occurs at significant life stages. The barber who performs at such ceremonies is classified as so-called ‘untouchables’. The Untouchables works has been traditionally ‘barbering, laundering and removing nightsoil, so that the purify of the Brahmans and high caste people is preserved by other who performs polluting tasks for them’ (Fuller 1992:15).

For the third sub-heading which is about ­­­­­­­­­­­­­Piety and Profit: The Trade in Hair At Tirumala are about the income of the ‘temple hair’ has earned. Tirumala-Tirupati Devasthanams (TTDD) is known as the temple hair. Only talented barbers that meet requirement can work here.­­­­

The last sub-heading is ‘Soft as Flowers’- Traditional and Contemporary Hair Products For India and The Diaspora is about the poem Cilappatikaram, or the The Epic of the Anklet, that reveals the affluence and composure of of a courtesan’s hair dressing, and gives an implication of the variety of brand traditionally used for conditioning, cleansing, and dressing hair. Home or locally made hair treatments from shrub and fruits are still widely use. Popularity of black henna has travel beyond to South Asia and also across the globe. Black henna are reportedly being exported to international market. Specialist group of farmers plans to increase the expanse for leaves to 600 so that he can make more money by exporting dried indigo leaves. The future of Black henna looks bright and the farmers of South India are hoping that the export of this product can match that the ‘temple hair’. Personally, overall I think this book is suitable for the people who want to explore the culture in India and for the people who want to know about hair.

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