Katie Nolan

In my self-initiated project, I aimed to push myself to work with materials I don’t regularly work with as I have found in previous projects it is easy to allow yourself to become comfortable with materials.   So, after deciding in wanted to focus on rock climbing walls, and the feeling of climbing as my theme I began making 3D samples, using different materials with 3D capabilities such as clay, sponge and fabrics filled with rice/wadding.   Visually, I found my samples really interesting but felt the initial ideas I wanted to portray had been lost through my making process. This is when I started adding more interactive components into my samples. This is also when the idea came to build a non-functioning climbing wall. Something that would appear to support you but in actual fact would cause you to fall, emulating the feeling I have when rock climbing. For example, below is a sample made from Baked clay and para cord, seemingly strong but when weig...

Below are visualisations of how my samples could be used in place of traditional interior materials to add elements of texture and softness, in the examples below, to the seats and car door panels.  I think this sample works particularly well when situated in the context of a luxury car as the colours match the subtlety of those used in the Bentley shown below.   

I  began this project by thinking about how I could challenge both myself, and the brief. My initial thoughts were to look at different elements luxury cars possess, such as seatbelts, seat covers, dashboards etc. and how I could reinvent these elements in a more exciting fashion. However, after beginning my research I became interested in the idea of making Luxury more familiar. This idea stemmed from travelling on the London Underground, noticing the interior, specifically the tube flooring. I wanted to incorporate the speckled pattern of the flooring and the colour scheme into the more traditional interiors of luxury cars. As noted on the brief, “Rolls-Royce cars have developed the finest quality ‘embroidered’ high-end bespoke car interiors” so I decided to set myself the constraint of working exclusively in machine/hand embroidery during this project. I wanted to ensure I maintained a level of attention to detail within my work as well keeping elemen...

The videos above demonstrate the ways in which various samples react to weight, the first pulls away from the wall, the second comes loose from its hold, the third stretches and therefor cannot help you progress up the wall and the last also comes away from the wall. I also want to experiment with different materials for the wall, maybe using stretchy fabric so that as well as the holds being unsupportive, the actual wall will do the same. I think after looking at these videos, the main weak point is where the object is attached to the wall, so different ways in which i could attach my holds could be something interesting to play around with.

The feelings I want to try and visualise are that of fear of falling/feeling unsafe when rock climbing as well as feeling heavy when trying to work your way up the wall. In terms of sampling, I have begun by looking at emulating the different shapes of the holds, and playing with materials, thinking about wether i want them to have the same grippy feeling of the holds or to be unsupportive and use slippy materials. I began testing using leather, cotton and hessian. Three different textured materials. These samples, although were useful in terms of seeing how the shapes can be constructed, and how different materials react to being held, they're not helping me in my aim to emulate the feeling i want to achieve. I decided to move away from these samples and started working in delicate, airy breakable materials such as clay and sponge. The idea to use these materials came from the feeling that the holds won't support your weight and that you would just fall off...

Toshiko Macadam - The maker of a hand knitted playroom  ‘Knitted Wonder Space’ " I am interested in how form is created through tension and the force of gravity including the weight of the material itself and textile structures." 400 Felt Balls - installation by Rowland & Chinami Ricketts Jim Hodges

Beginning to look at the shapes and colours present on the walls, using collage and drawing to replicate these qualities. I also began thinking about the movements your body has to make in order to follow the route up to the top of the wall. I took videos of my friend climbing and used a different pen/pencil to track where the feet and hands travelled to get up the wall. I visually really like how these drawings look but without intention, they look a bit too literally like legs and arms. After beginning to draw from my research, i have found that i am less interested in just replicating what already exists on the climbing walls but instead looking at tracking movements and feelings. i have also started to sample and draw in a more 3D fashion as i feel it is more relevant due to the textures of the walls and holds. This drawing above for example used paper, pipe cleaners and yarn that is very loosely tied into the holes, beginning to think about the idea of a non-functi...

When beginning to think about my self initialed brief, i wanted to look at something that i was really visually excited by. I happened to go rock climbing when thinking about this project and found myself really interested in the walls and the different colours and shapes of the holds nailed into the walls. This started off as just visual inspiration, but when i went back the following week i started thinking about the feeling of climbing, the heaviness of your body as you try and workout a route to take you up to the top. I also realised i was scared to be more than a metre up the wall out of fear of falling. I think overall, the feeling of fear is the most prominent over any other when climbing, So i plan to look into different ways that i could try and replicate this sensation.