Shoe Probe #1 Launched

On Sunday the 8th of May we held our first shoe fabricating session.

The workshop took place as a part of our exhibition ‘New Movement’ at MOP project space, which will be up until the 22nd of May. The workshop is ongoing also, with sessions scheduled for Saturday the 14th, Sunday the 15th of next week and then the weekend following.

With this show we wanted to conduct a kind of ignorant investigation, where we would set ourselves a blunt, simpleminded question – what is currently moving? – and then try to answer it.

Before we began we outlined a few parameters in order to condition the way we went about generating answers and to make sure that this conceptual rabbit-chase actually went somewhere: our method would be empirical, that is rooted in experience and observation; that we would try to put aside prior knowledge, experience, and opinion in order to begin from the very bottom of the subject; and, finally, that we would be working towards creating legible outcomes; images, text, video, sound, sight and other media that communicated not only the process, but it’s outcomes and consequences also.

We imagined these workshops as a live-test and conduit for the goals of the exhibition. We had a strong sense that shoes were both practically and symbolically important to movement. In the workshop we would invite people to do something we could not teach and which we ourselves could not do – design and fabricate shoes. We hoped that by participating, people (ourselves included) would not only learn about conceiving and putting together a familiar object, but would also think about the whole situation of the shoe: what is required of it, the myriad of forms it takes, how it is produced, why it is produced in that manner, and finally how it might be otherwise.

One idea we had was to make the shoe workshop mobile by putting it on a bus. This thought was based on the observation that industry is mobile, so while a certain area of a city may be known for the way it collects and harbours industry, the actual manner of production draws in huge flows of movement. This may be anything from the transportation of the raw materials of a product, through to the daily commute of the factories workforce, all the way up until the final moment when the knick-knack or doo-hickey is sent out into the world, either to sit on the shelf of a supermarket, or as a component in a larger, more complex manufacturing process.

By sticking the workshop on a bus we want to parallel this kinetic initiative while also moving the activity out of an enclosed space and circulating it through other relevant spaces such as a shopping mall (where shoe-usage can be observed and analysed and new shoe-plans formulated), and recycling centre (where the materials necessary for a design can be acquired in an inventive and resourceful manner).

What isn't a shoe? Ostensibly this table seems to fit the criteria of not-a-shoe. However, in the heady business of naive shoe construction, even a clumsy piece of furniture can be mistaken for a pair of shoes.

The table is broken down and then built back up into a pair of raised wooden sandles.

These are the the high-shoes. As you can see, the wearer keeps on their existing pair of shoes. This raises the question of whether the high-shoe is a modification, or amendment to an existing pair of shoes?

Here we see how the high-shoe is an exploration and expansion upon the functionality of a typical shoe. The maker has mixed two new initiatives into their design. The first is height, this pair of shoes is very tall. The second is storage, the void inside each shoe is a potential storage space. Here we see the maker demonstrate this storage potential.

The high-shoes are tested for their walkability. In the first shoe probe we discovered that walkability is central to the coherence and usefulness of the shoe.

The construction of these shoes involves an inner foam core molded to the wearer's feet. The shoe's outer-shell is composed from a pair of scarves, which are wrapped and then tied around the foot.

The cloth-shoes are taken out for a walk. They travel with an eye-catching flash. Their flowing, colour bitten form introduces a languid, soft quality to shoe construction.

This pair of shoes has been fabricated from blocks of styrofoam and seems to reference geometry.

Here we see a pair of shoes being tested at speed. A pair of shoes can help protect the soft, fleshy feet from hostile surfaces. Shoes are enablers.

If you would like to participate in one of the future shoe workshops please send an email to us@bababinternational.com so that we can register you involvement.

The details of the workshop are as follows:

14/5/2011: 12pm - 6pm
15/5/2011: 12pm - 6pm

21/5/2011: 12pm - 6pm
22/5/2011: 12pm - 6pm

At MOP Project Space:

2/39 Abercrombie St
Chippendale
Sydney, NSW 2008
Australia