'For All Mankind'

 

A combination of my two favourite things, space travel and Brian Eno. I love everything associated with space travel, be it the spacesuit designs, the sleek colour palette of the rockets, or the endeavor of man the push ourselves to new boundaries. The documentary 'For All Mankind' shows the voyage of the first men on the Moon - shot using mainly their own recorded footage, it also uses their own words and diaries for the narration. The added bonus of a soundtrack by Brian Eno makes it a must see.

  
"We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too." John F. Kennedy September 12, 1962.

 

Creative Design Practices.

Astro Tribe.

For my final piece I attempted to combine elements from both traditional African clothing with that of spacesuits into a shoe that would be sold by the Japanese brand Hobo.

The main body of the shoe is made from rubber – I used this material because on various spacesuits rubber was very important to aide flexibility with whilst also been air-tight.

Using a car-matt I drew a foot shape out, then with my previously made template I traced on the sides.

 

The shoe was held together using elastic cord, which is a commonly used material by my chosen brand.

 

Down the sides of the shoe I added beading. The colours and the design of the beads were all drawn from my research of both the African tribes and the colours of the American spacesuits.

The beading was very time consuming and required a lot of concentration. I’ve never beaded before but by the end of it felt like I developed a knew skill that I will be able to use again in the future.

 

To provide more support to the shoe on the foot I sewed on a large strip of elastic, again a material used by my chosen brand.

Overall I’m fairly satisfied with my final outcome. I think the shoe represents something my chosen brand could possibly sell in the future. I also think the shoe displays my research into two very different cultural areas without being too dominated by either one.

Obviously there are a thousand things I would change or do differently if I had the opportunity to make the shoe again – but having never before made a shoe I think it’s not bad for a first time.

Duncan Copp.

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