Trypophobia is an aversion to the sight of irregular patterns or clusters of small holes or bumps where exposure to these triggers will leave you feeling disgust and excessive fear. Fear is the normal response to danger, while phobias are characterised by excessive, unconscious, and persistent fear that constantly triggers anxiety.
“Visual discomfort” was described by Wilkins as an umbrella term describing a spectrum of adverse events triggered by visual stimuli, such as striped pictures, cluster images, repetitive patterns, and even text lines. It is common in individuals suffering from migraine and epilepsy, but it has been mostly studied from the point of view of visual perception rather than the underlying cognitive mechanisms of a phobic phenomenon.
My Semester 2 project title was 'Biomimicry' Biomimicry is comprised of designs inspired by nature; the study of nature, inspiring designs, to solve human problems. When biomimicry is applied to the fashion industry, inspiration goes beyond the look of the clothing. This is where i explored Trypophobia and the depths of the phobia and feelings associated with the fear.
As there is no cure for Trypophobia, there are ways to minimize the effects of the exposure to these triggers. From a creative perspective i find that looking at objects and artwork which is beautiful and expressive, it takes away any fear and worry that i am feeling; in the same way this is the idea behind my collection and research. i explored ways of introducing the holes and textures into the clothing that would make it almost intreguing and beautiful, where the viewer can look at the clothing and be questioned by the beauty of the textures rather than fear.
A lot of hard work and thought went into the research, design and production of the clothing, using very fine lycra fabric and burning the textures into the fibres using a hand held heat press and disperse dye. in the photoshoot for the garments it was also vital to capture the movement of the fabric and emotion in the models face and body language. the final lookbook and video can be found in 'portfolio' in the menu.
