Antonin Mongin presented his work as part of the Domestication of technology talk series on 10 mai 2023 at ENS. His presentation was entilted "L’artisanat d’art du cheveu coupé: Le cheveux comme matière à création d'une recherche par la pratique du design textile" like his thesis. After a short oral presentation he invited students to examine and touch some of it's creations and answered questions.
Biography
Antonin Mongin holds a doctorate in design and describe himself as a textile researcher-designer-craftsman. He completed a SACRE thesis at ENSADLab in 2022.
Introduction to the art of working with hair
Antonin Mongin introduced his presentation with a historical perspective on the craft of cut hair art. This ancient romantic practice of creating sentimental objects flourished in the 19th century before disappearing. Its decline is thought to be due to the arrival of photography as a new memory practice, but also to the loss of made-to-measure work with the arrival of catalogs of hair objects. Two techniques stand out in cut-hair craftsmanship: braiding and collage (on glass, paper or wood) of powdered hair. The objects created are used to commemorate memories such as funeral scenes or scenes from life (fishing, weddings, communions...).
Research
State of the art
At the beginning of his research Antonin Mongin began to aggregate definitions of crafts and to draw up a state of the art. For him, there's a loss of value associated with cut hair, and most designers regard it as just another anonymous material. He cite The Color of Hair by Fabio Hendry and Martijn Rigters as an example of this practice and oposed it to Tangible Truth by Sybille Paulsen, which puts people at the heart of the creative process.
Problematic
How to revive and reinvent the art of working with hair? His hypothesis is to mark the stages of life, which means not releasing periodic collections. He's looking for an exchange with the person, a made-to-order service.
Design process
This transition took him from textile design expert to hairworking novice. Antonin Mongin worked on a multi-scale textilization of the hair, since different hair lengths imply a different way of working with it. In an inclusive approach, he wanted to be able to find a process for all hair types and lengths. Here are the techniques used :
- Silkscreen: printing: for leather or silk-like effects.
- Felting: by co-creating patterns with the client.
- Weaving: in a nylon warp, for example. You can also weave two types of hair from two friends...
- Hair knitting: (>40cm) within a nylon jersey structure.
He asked people at school and close friends and family to donate hair for science. As a result, he receives more and more hair donations. At home, everything is organized by hair type, cut date, length... Fashions, like tye and die, are reflected in the creations. It's a way of remembering a particular moment in your life.
Each project has a research question. The research is multi-disciplinary, so he calls on various experts from partner or friendly establishments. For example, he used a planetary ball mill to create a powder finer than tint base. Then he integrated it into a wire of another material.
Bibliography
- CHANLOT, Andrée, 1986. Les ouvrages en cheveux: leurs secrets. Paris: A. Chanlot : Diffusion, Editions de l’Amateur. ISBN 9782950112217.
- MONGIN, Antonin. L’Artisanat d’art du cheveu coupé : Le cheveu comme matière à création d’une recherche par la pratique du design textile. Online. Paris : Paris sciences et lettres, 2022. Available from: https://softmatters.ensadlab.fr/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/PV2022-MONGIN.pdf