control&gaslighting

Category: Footwear

Last summer, I visited Brighton in the UK and had the chance to explore the Royal Pavilion. After learning about its owner, King George IV, I became fascinated by the stories of how monarchs throughout history were manipulated or controlled by those around them. Although George IV was not heavily influenced by others in his reign—his life was more marked by a forced marriage arranged by his father—my research into other figures revealed numerous examples of rulers who were mere puppets in the hands of others. One example is Grand Prince Yeongning from Korea, who was once heir to the throne but became obsessed with women and entertainment, eventually leading to his exile in the countryside. Another is China's last emperor, Puyi, who was manipulated by powerful figures such as Yuan Shikai, Zhang Xun, and the Japanese government. They used him as a tool for territorial expansion and as a puppet to fulfill their own ambitions. Drawing inspiration from these three historical figures, I imagined them as marionettes—controlled, ridiculed, and stripped of their freedom. During the design process, I found a visual and symbolic connection between the strings of a puppet and the threads of a spider’s web. I recalled a scene from Spider-Man 2, where Spider-Man shoots a web to save his falling girlfriend—it felt like an extension of his hand, desperately reaching out. A spider’s web is a trap: once prey flies in, it’s entangled and eventually devoured. In this metaphor, the spider represents the manipulative forces—the corrupt officials—while the prey is the king, slowly losing his autonomy until he is ultimately consumed. The concept of combining marionette strings with the entangling nature of a spider’s web became the core of my final design. 我在去年夏天去了英國布萊頓也參訪了當地的英皇閣，在知道這建築物主人喬治四世的故事之後，我就對以前國王或君王被身邊的人干政的故事感到著迷，雖然喬治四世是被父親逼婚較少被干政，但我查了其他資料發現有很多其他例子 像韓國的讓寧大君身為世子過度著迷於女色及娛樂，導致被流放到鄉村地區 還有中國的末代皇帝溥儀，被袁世凱、張勳、及日本政府等人操控，把他當作擴張土地的工具，操控他來滿足自己的慾望 結合以上這三位歷史人物的故事，我覺得他們給我的形象是被操控的提線玩偶，具有任人操控、被人玩笑、無自由的特性 還有在設計的過程中我注意到提線玩偶的"線"很像是蜘蛛網的絲，我之前看過蜘蛛人2就女朋友的畫面，電影中蜘蛛人抽出蜘蛛絲去救正在墜落中的女朋友，那個畫面彷彿像是蜘蛛人伸手去救女朋友一樣 蜘蛛網的特性是只要獵物飛入它的陷阱就會被吃掉，這是他們捕捉獵物的方式，在這裡蜘蛛就是奸臣而獵物就是國王，他被捕捉之後自主意識會消失然後最終被吞滅 結合提線玩偶及蜘蛛網的特性就是我最終設計的重點