no, there's no method to my thumbnails anymore
Given that this project is technically over, there's probably no one reading this. (Not as if that's stopped me from ranting before, so.) In any case, if you are: thank you for your interest, and if you gave feedback, thank you for that, too. I'm really grateful for all of it. I truly do hope that you took something away from my work -- if not something physics-related, then maybe something to do with textiles or just a moment of levity.
Anyways, I figured I would reflect on a bit of my feedback. My own reflections are not always particularly positive, so this could be a nice change of pace. Who knows?
(Not going to respond to compliments because that would be kinda conceited. Furthermore, these responses only account for feedback from before 2021.06.24-1130)
music
You'd think I'd be better at this, given that I'm a music student, but I am absolute trash at balancing audio. (Maybe the flute exposure has killed my eardrums. Or it might be a consequence of years of experience in trying to talk to people while the 100-member band/orchestra warms up.) Irrespective of the reason why, this is a problem I've been having for years. I've been trying to do better -- hence the fact that I was extremely mature and used other people's music (!!!) for my soundtrack -- but I'm still pretty bad at it.
I did try to export a copy of the video with softer music. It sounded exactly the same to me, though, so I didn't upload it. (... yeah, maybe sitting next to picc players was not a good idea.) In hindsight, it also seems like How to Tango was excessively loud. I guess I was just distracted by the accidental knuckle cracking problem?
(Anyways -- thanks again for the feedback! It's really appreciated.)
production time
I'm going to assume that the question about how long this took applies just to the project feature video, since... well, I'd assume that no one wants to watch another hour of my blabbering.
To be completely honest, I'm not entirely sure how long filming and editing took. (I've deleted a lot of the original copies of footage -- at least from their original devices, which have their dates on them -- because of storage.) Judging based on the post dates for my different videos, I would assume that I picked up editing the project feature once I finished the experiment vlog. The experiment vlog was posted on June 13, and I exported the final project feature on June 18. That gives about five days for editing, which seems around about right, if a little on the long side. I'd assume that that's the case because of the fact that it could take a full day to export drafts. I was also sick, and therefore would just kind of wake up for an hour or two and edit while I did something else. (Video editing is a frustrating task, given that exporting can take hours and HitFilm crashed a lot, but it's pretty mindless for me. One of those super menial tasks that I'm probably pretty comfy with because as I said in the video proper... I'm a textile artist. That's where I thrive.)
As far as filming goes, the dates on the footage span years since some of the b-roll is recycled. I kind of vaguely credited those at the end, but it's a pretty minimal amount: just the sorts of things that I couldn't take now based on the fact that the world is currently an unmitigated disaster.
I started taking new footage around about May 21, and up until June 8, that was sort of 'vlog' footage -- just keeping the cameras rolling while I worked on prepping and watching the experiment. Not sure if that really counts as far as 'time spent on filming'.
Filming b-roll is something I often do as I go along. I used to be the type to write out super detailed screenplays for my video projects, but over the years, I've found that expectations so rarely line up with reality. Often, the shots that I plan out so meticulously don't end up working the way I want them to -- whether that's because I'm flying solo, or because I'm working with phone cameras, or for some other reason, it doesn't really matter. What matters is that it can be really difficult to imagine what you'll be capable of in terms of filming yourself -- and for me, I've come to realize that it's best to play it fast and loose. (Same actually goes for scripting, nowadays -- it's not quite the same reasons, but DECA has definitely taught me invaluable improv skills, and I've found that it makes my recordings a lot more... approachable? Human? Je ne sais quoi?)
For that reason, I don't think it's really 'accurate' to place a time on how long I spent on it. If you must know, though, b-roll probably took from about May 23 up until probably June 16. Much like the experimental footage, though, it's a lot of sparse, disparate bits of filming, not a dedicated chunk of photoshoot.
(It's vaguely possible that the last photoshoot I did for this project was literally at 5 in the morning on June 19. Which was technically after this project was supposed to be due.)
numerical values
I guess the problem here is that... yeah, I glossed over the numbers because I didn't really have numbers. The literature simply isn't really there. I can tell you that the number of plies increases tensile strength... but I can't tell you much more than that.
Sorry to disappoint here :((
(Trust me, though, I'm just as disappointed.)
experimental details
I got feedback asking for both more footage of the experiment and of the yarn preparation. (Which, mind you, I have literal hours of. Because it was probably 1+ hour for dyeing samples, probably 5 hours to spin the samples, and another 5+ hours to experiment.) I will say that I don't think showing the spinning process would help too much with comprehension. I might just be saying that because getting aesthetic drop spindling shots (especially in video) is damn near impossible.
For the record, going into the physics behind the process of spinning was actually also a consideration I had initially. I dropped that because I didn't really feel like I could talk much about it, and also because I wouldn't be able to really mess around with variables. (If you're curious, though, one really obvious application would be something like the momentum of a drop spindle. The heavier the drop spindle, the greater the momentum. This is why there's a whorl on it, rather than just being the shaft. Another application -- for a spinning wheel, which I unfortunately don't own -- might be the ratios of wheels in a pulley system. The friction in a system of drive bands. The conversion of chemical energy into torsion. The tension applied while spinning. I could go on.)
This is gonna sound like a bit of self-promoting cop-out, but... for more details on the experiment, check out the project diaries or experiment vlog !!
I did spend a little while trying to figure out how much of my experiment I wanted to show. Given that my video, as it stands, is literally 9:59:29, and the time limit is 10:00:00... well. It's good to know, though, that people would appreciate seeing a bit more of the experiment itself. Cutting the intro/outro and some of the soap-box-ing (that's not a word, I don't think...) would probably leave enough room for at least a little bit more chatter about the experiment.
(Again, super appreciative of the feedback! I get extremely defensive, I know, but it truly is really helpful.)
personal experiences
I'm an on-again-off-again seamstress, and I'm honestly not really sure when I first started.
As far as general textile arts go, though, I've been knitting since I was 7, so I have been making clothes for just under a decade! (Which is kind of crazy, even to me.)
diagrams
... yeah, I really have no excuse for my lack of diagrams. I mean, other than laziness.
(And also the fact that having diagrams would mean figuring out more style details. It's always easier to maintain consistent branding when you can stick to the b-roll.)
I also blame the fact that I'm not entirely sure diagrams would have helped any of the explanations here. But I will bear in mind for future reference that diagrams are good and cool.
(Dear Future Jasmine: Aesthetics are great and all. Maybe comprehension is a bit more important, though.)
tortoises
No. Tortuosity has nothing to do with tortoises.
(Or torture. I'm kind of in an argument with someone over whether my project titling is clickbait, though, so please support me in saying it's not. It's not my fault some scientist called it tortuosity.)
I'm 99% sure I made a snarky comment about that somewhere on this blog, actually, but I can't find it.
fibre strength
The question of how different fibres' strengths compare is a really good one, and one I wish I had time to cover in the video! Alas, I had to give it up fairly early on, given that I wouldn't be able to get my hands on materials -- both because sourcing would be difficult, and because it'd be expensive. (And also because I really, really don't have the tools to measure things like microns. I can barely measure the weight of a bucket.)
The strength of individual fibres is really quite unique to the situation. It can't always be generalized as 'synthetic is stronger than natural', or vice versa. The yarn that I spun for this project was made from Peruvian wool, which is coarse and has a fairly long staple. This makes it fairly strong for a protein fibre, though not so much as something like silk or mohair. Another fibre I've worked with before is polyester, in fiberfill. This has a much lower tensile strength, since the staple length is shorter, and the fibres are finer.
(For the record, the question was specifically natural vs. polyester, but I'm answering natural vs. synthetic because I know a lot of people generalize poly as the same thing as synthetic.)
However, I would say that synthetic has greater potential for strength than natural fibres do. This is why for hard-wearing garments like socks, synthetic fibres like nylon are added to the blend. Do bear in mind that this does not make synthetic inherently better -- I did say that nylon is added, not that it's ideal to make the whole thing out of nylon. Natural fibres like wool will help with breathability, which is important to actually make a functional garment.
(In the video, I mentioned the importance of durability over aesthetics -- and while I stand by that, it's still important to note that function is still vital. I think this applies especially to ply structure -- most of the appeal of a single-ply yarn is really just aesthetic. It'll help drape a bit, but not enough that I would say it's structurally important. Anyways. I digress.)
The search for how to make the strongest fibre is an ongoing one -- and I guess that corroborates the idea that synthetic has more potential, simply because we have the opportunity to fudge around with the synthetics. For example, we can have monofilament synthetic fibres, but that's not really possible with natural fibres (because hair does not naturally grow forever, and even if it could, it'd be pretty dang unethical).
(Also, just food for thought: if humans biologically engineer 'natural' fibres -- for example, Merino was cross-bred specifically bred for its wool -- are they still natural fibres? Or are they part-synthetic?)
final thoughts
I'm weirdly grateful for the fact that this was all online; that I don't know the people who gave me feedback; that they don't know me. (Or maybe they do. Part of the anonymity thing is that I don't know.) For all that I take great pride in my work, for all that I know that I'm extraordinarily messy and imperfect, I'm also ridiculously defensive and good at coming up with excuses. So. Thank you to everyone for everything.
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