SS: I decided to write it on a shirt just because I’d been [sitting in front of Abercromie & Fitch at the mall] when I got the idea. I ended up writing the shirt in my dorm lounge. I remember that it took a long time. People saw me and they would stop and be like, “What are you doing writing on a shirt!” (laughs) And I would tell them and some were like, “It’s such a weird class,” and some people were like, “I really wanna take that class.” So—a lot of mixed reactions.
JS: And did the people who walked by, did you know them?
SS: Yeah. Cause they live on my floor.
JS: And what, typically, would you say if somebody came by and said, “What are you doing?”
SS: Um, usually, I said—most of the time I was in a hurry cause it was annoying to write all this down. I said I was doing it for a class and then they always thought it was for an art class. And I said no, it’s my [fyc] class and most of them had [fyc] and they were like, “Well, I’m not doing anything like that!” So then I would have to explain what we were asked to do.
JS: If you were bothered by people stopping to ask questions, why did you go to the lounge to write on the shirt?
SS: It was bigger and cause I had a bigger table out there and I could stretch out on a t-shirt board and in my room I would have to sit on the couch and I didn’t have a table or anything.
JS: Um, from start to finish, about how long did it take? Do you recall?
SS: It took seven hours. I spent four on it the first night and three the next night.
JS: When you went into Abercrombie to buy the shirt, what were you looking for. I mean, did you have a sense of color or style or I wanna get a discount shirt—I mean, what were you looking for?
SS: I wanted kinda to get a discount shirt but then most of them were short-sleeved and I didn’t know if my paper was going to be too long (laughs) to put on a short-sleeved shirt so I decided I better go with the long-sleeved shirt. And then I decided orange just because when I think of that store I always think of orange and navy blue and dark green, so I decided to go with orange.
JS: And were there different styles of orange in long sleeve that you were debating between?
SS: No. There was just that orange one. They had a navy blue but the writing wouldn’t show up.
JS: Do you remember how long the typewritten version was? I mean, was size a factor too? Cause it’s interesting that you’re trying translate text on a page to text on a shirt.
SS: Yeah. I bought the size I could wear in case I decided I wanted to wear it.
JS: Did you say anything to the people in the shop about what you were doing?
SS: No.
JS: Can you show me this scene where you had to like lay it out? Like how you started, how you figured—cause it just seems so symmetrical that—
SS: I think I started. I think I just started here [points to left side front collar]. Yeah. And then I just wrote around. I know I did all the front first and then I wrote like this and then I think I did the back and then when I ran out of room on the back, I started with the sleeves. But when I got to the sleeves I didn’t want one to have a lot and the other to have none so I just wrote a sentence on either side. So you have to read it like this. [i.e., seeve to sleeve]
JS: Um, do you remember what kind of marker or what kind of marker you used?
SS: It was a Sharpie and I think I went through two.
JS: Did you have to put something in-between here so it didn’t bleed through?
SS: Yeah. Um, my roommate, she was an art major, and she has these like t-shirt boards cause she paints on shirts all the time so I used one of those. And it stretches it out so it’s easier to write on.
JS: Okay. Um, were you happy with the overall look of it? Like the balance and the symmetry or—
SS: Yeah. I wanted it to be, like, symmetrical cause I thought about just randomly writing it all over the shirt but then I decided it would look more structured and go along with “conformity” [the word she had researched] if I wrote it straight and, um, then when I looked at it I didn’t know if I should cut these sleeves off and just make it look like it was supposed to be a short-sleeved shirt or just leave them so I decided to just leave them because then the edges would be ragged and it wouldn’t look as conformist, I guess.
JS: Were there places where you, you know, made mistakes?
SS: Um. I remember like, there was always something I could fix. There might be spelling mistakes that I never caught.
JS: I imagine that writing on a different kind of surface can be frustrating. So one of the questions is did you have any practice material? And did you do any—when you looked at the actual typed text and you looked at this did you do any kind of mental blocking? You made the decision of whether or not to write it randomly or fairly linearly but did you do any other kind o blocking guess-timations?
SS: I remember when I got the first page of text transcribed on the shirt, I just looked to make sure it was all going to fit on there. And then, after I had the first page, I decided it would all fit.
JS: Um, did you have any back up plan? Cause this seems like such a huge risk—working with the medium. Did you have back-up plans in case it didn’t fit or you were writing too big or did you just think it would work?
SS: I just hoped that it would.
JS: Did you think about wearing it?
SS: I wore it once.
JS: Oh! You did? To my class?
SS: No, not your class. Ah, I wore it one day—actually, I don’t know if it was a weekend or a class day—I just remembering having it on in the dorm and in the cafeteria. And I don’t think a lot of people noticed it was written on. I think a lot of people just though it’s like the way the shirt came.
JS: Okay. Say for instance I did a class were it was required to write with Sharpies on a shirt. What advice would you give to people?
SS: Um, just to make sure they don’t write too big. . or too small. (laughs) And, um, just, I guess the size is a big deal cause if you run out of room, well, there’s not much you can do.
JS: Have you done anything else that is, um, not necessarily writing on shirts but that would make use of different materials?
SS: Mmm. No. I mean, I wrote on a pair of shoes once but that wasn’t like a paper that was for school. I just wrote on my shoes and wore them. It was in high school. I had these red boots and whenever I found a quote or something that I liked, I would just write it on the shoes.
JS: And they were shoes you wore?
SS: Yeah.
JS: And would you write on them when they were on your feet or off?
SS: Yeah. Like, if I was in class and I read something I liked, I would just write it on the shoe.
JS: Did other people do that?
SS: No. (laughs) I don’t think so. I don’t know why I did it. I always wore them. I wore them a lot. And so whenever I’d read something I liked and I wanted to write it down, I would just write it on these shoes and then whenever I wanted to use it somewhere else, I would just get out those shoes.
JS: So you’ve had a sense of what it’s like to write on fabric with marker or with pens. Any other clothes-writing experience?
SS: No.
JS: And did the people who walked by, did you know them?
SS: Yeah. Cause they live on my floor.
JS: And what, typically, would you say if somebody came by and said, “What are you doing?”
SS: Um, usually, I said—most of the time I was in a hurry cause it was annoying to write all this down. I said I was doing it for a class and then they always thought it was for an art class. And I said no, it’s my [fyc] class and most of them had [fyc] and they were like, “Well, I’m not doing anything like that!” So then I would have to explain what we were asked to do.
JS: If you were bothered by people stopping to ask questions, why did you go to the lounge to write on the shirt?
SS: It was bigger and cause I had a bigger table out there and I could stretch out on a t-shirt board and in my room I would have to sit on the couch and I didn’t have a table or anything.
JS: Um, from start to finish, about how long did it take? Do you recall?
SS: It took seven hours. I spent four on it the first night and three the next night.
JS: When you went into Abercrombie to buy the shirt, what were you looking for. I mean, did you have a sense of color or style or I wanna get a discount shirt—I mean, what were you looking for?
SS: I wanted kinda to get a discount shirt but then most of them were short-sleeved and I didn’t know if my paper was going to be too long (laughs) to put on a short-sleeved shirt so I decided I better go with the long-sleeved shirt. And then I decided orange just because when I think of that store I always think of orange and navy blue and dark green, so I decided to go with orange.
JS: And were there different styles of orange in long sleeve that you were debating between?
SS: No. There was just that orange one. They had a navy blue but the writing wouldn’t show up.
JS: Do you remember how long the typewritten version was? I mean, was size a factor too? Cause it’s interesting that you’re trying translate text on a page to text on a shirt.
SS: Yeah. I bought the size I could wear in case I decided I wanted to wear it.
JS: Did you say anything to the people in the shop about what you were doing?
SS: No.
JS: Can you show me this scene where you had to like lay it out? Like how you started, how you figured—cause it just seems so symmetrical that—
SS: I think I started. I think I just started here [points to left side front collar]. Yeah. And then I just wrote around. I know I did all the front first and then I wrote like this and then I think I did the back and then when I ran out of room on the back, I started with the sleeves. But when I got to the sleeves I didn’t want one to have a lot and the other to have none so I just wrote a sentence on either side. So you have to read it like this. [i.e., seeve to sleeve]
JS: Um, do you remember what kind of marker or what kind of marker you used?
SS: It was a Sharpie and I think I went through two.
JS: Did you have to put something in-between here so it didn’t bleed through?
SS: Yeah. Um, my roommate, she was an art major, and she has these like t-shirt boards cause she paints on shirts all the time so I used one of those. And it stretches it out so it’s easier to write on.
JS: Okay. Um, were you happy with the overall look of it? Like the balance and the symmetry or—
SS: Yeah. I wanted it to be, like, symmetrical cause I thought about just randomly writing it all over the shirt but then I decided it would look more structured and go along with “conformity” [the word she had researched] if I wrote it straight and, um, then when I looked at it I didn’t know if I should cut these sleeves off and just make it look like it was supposed to be a short-sleeved shirt or just leave them so I decided to just leave them because then the edges would be ragged and it wouldn’t look as conformist, I guess.
JS: Were there places where you, you know, made mistakes?
SS: Um. I remember like, there was always something I could fix. There might be spelling mistakes that I never caught.
JS: I imagine that writing on a different kind of surface can be frustrating. So one of the questions is did you have any practice material? And did you do any—when you looked at the actual typed text and you looked at this did you do any kind of mental blocking? You made the decision of whether or not to write it randomly or fairly linearly but did you do any other kind o blocking guess-timations?
SS: I remember when I got the first page of text transcribed on the shirt, I just looked to make sure it was all going to fit on there. And then, after I had the first page, I decided it would all fit.
JS: Um, did you have any back up plan? Cause this seems like such a huge risk—working with the medium. Did you have back-up plans in case it didn’t fit or you were writing too big or did you just think it would work?
SS: I just hoped that it would.
JS: Did you think about wearing it?
SS: I wore it once.
JS: Oh! You did? To my class?
SS: No, not your class. Ah, I wore it one day—actually, I don’t know if it was a weekend or a class day—I just remembering having it on in the dorm and in the cafeteria. And I don’t think a lot of people noticed it was written on. I think a lot of people just though it’s like the way the shirt came.
JS: Okay. Say for instance I did a class were it was required to write with Sharpies on a shirt. What advice would you give to people?
SS: Um, just to make sure they don’t write too big. . or too small. (laughs) And, um, just, I guess the size is a big deal cause if you run out of room, well, there’s not much you can do.
JS: Have you done anything else that is, um, not necessarily writing on shirts but that would make use of different materials?
SS: Mmm. No. I mean, I wrote on a pair of shoes once but that wasn’t like a paper that was for school. I just wrote on my shoes and wore them. It was in high school. I had these red boots and whenever I found a quote or something that I liked, I would just write it on the shoes.
JS: And they were shoes you wore?
SS: Yeah.
JS: And would you write on them when they were on your feet or off?
SS: Yeah. Like, if I was in class and I read something I liked, I would just write it on the shoe.
JS: Did other people do that?
SS: No. (laughs) I don’t think so. I don’t know why I did it. I always wore them. I wore them a lot. And so whenever I’d read something I liked and I wanted to write it down, I would just write it on these shoes and then whenever I wanted to use it somewhere else, I would just get out those shoes.
JS: So you’ve had a sense of what it’s like to write on fabric with marker or with pens. Any other clothes-writing experience?
SS: No.
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