summing up the UK research

There were a lot of unexpected results from researching in this way. Some of the things that I find most interesting as I reflect back on that part of my work are the research threads that I sort of found along the way. I went with a plan, but as I worked and saw was taken in a lot of different directions and found things I never would have simply by looking and reading. The way things connected and lead me from place to place helped me develop a clearer understanding of how to even investigate women artists. I talked to one person, who lead me to something else, which lead me somewhere else completely new. Being in London, and being in the mindset to go anywhere helped too. At an exhibition at the RCA I found a grad student is is researching the exact same thing, but she framed her questions around the idea of a role model, which is an interesting approach in questioning women in design. She talked to many of the people I did, and produced books on the subject. That was another thing, women artists/designers looked at this issue from every possible lens, and used their own sort of passions to investigate women in the field. The Grad student who created stock project was clearly very typographically driven, so she used that method to explore women in design and then designed books with her findings as the content. Teal Triggs, who came to London and got swept up in the 80s punk scene, and who avidly collects fanzines uses ephemeral bits of pop culture and these gritty handmade books to research and comment on women in art and design. The avenues through which these questions can be explored is limitless, and can be understood and seen in almost any capacity. That show a the RCA was also the best showcase of women's art that I had seen while I was there. And yes, while there were more women doing textiles and animation and less doing architecture, automobiles and technologically driven design, the work they were doing was incredible. I don't think the discipline matters, the presence of talented women is surely strong in schools. Obviously, many women have different viewpoints and all answer the same questions differently, but they are using all sorts of interests and vehicles to explore women in art. I saw a lot of work that centers around women in strange ways. The Viktor and Rolf Fashion Shows, all of their work is for the women's body, and as theatrical as it was it was meant to comment of the fashion world, and in a way certainly comments on the image of women.It explores the personalities of women as well. Personally during the trip I really grew as an artist. Several women commented on a lack of confidence affecting women's statues in the field. This is something that I have personally struggled with, feeling confident in my ideas and the making of things and being able to work freely of self judgment. Also I really felt like I was living there as an artist or maker, and I was constantly in that frame of mind, and FINALLY understand the importance of that. I looked and experienced everything with these central questions and investigations in my head and that helped me really be extra observant, and I applied my research to everything I did, and that resulted in such a crazy, wide pool of answers to my questions. I think honestly the project could go on forever. But experiencing the city as a maker, and a researcher helped me absorb things and questions things and react to things.