Dramatic Contexts
By Kate Garrett
Project Brief Breakdown.
Task 1: Changing Faces - Ageing in Plasterline
As I am going to sculpt myself aged between 60 and 70 I want to make it as realistic as possible by using others perceptions and compare them to mine. I dont want to just see why i age but I want to think and understand the sociological reasons as to why we view ourselves in specific ways. 'But do we, as Burns asks,"see ourselves as others see us"? The psychological evidence suggests that self-perception is likely to be distorted.'(Morawetz, 2001, p 154) Becasue of this I am going to ask other to descirbe how I appear to them, from this I hope I will get a better understanding of how I actually appear rather than what I think I look like.
Why is it,
This is a question that has been on everyones mind at some point or another and allows us to question how well we actually know ourselves, what is true and what is missconception rooted from judements of others. I believe from understanding how I actually look appose to what I think I do I will be able to sculpt a more accurate anatomical and asthetically truthfull older self.
An actor radically transformed into an alien, demon, or historical figure will have a unique intrest in mirrors. It will be normal for him to fail to recognize himself, just as he will anticipate that others will not reconize him. (Morawetz, 2001, p 156)
'Our ways of being treated depend on how our bodies are seen and judged by others. Thus, it seems natural to have a significant preoccupation with the body's well-being and apperance. Only persons with uncommon spiritual beliefs are likey to abstract themselves from such concerns. How well do we know our appearance? Most of us have no trouble keeping in mind objective facts: our height, weight, hair color and distibution, skin color, distinguishing marks such as scars and moles. But can we summon up a mental image of ourselves in the way that we can picture our friends? '(Morawetz, 2001, p154)
Actors sometimes claim that they get used to their new faces. Makeup technicians, costume persons, directors, and other actors persist in speaking to them as their familiar selves, ignoring the transformation. In this sense looking altogether different is just an ordinary part of the workday of otherwise normal continuities and expectaions...If they are in makeup all day every day for the duration of their role, theymay never meet their fellow actors wearing their real faces. In such cases, others may by default treat them as having the characteristics (age, attractiveness, disablilties) of their character. (Morawetz, 2001, p 156)
This example demonstrates how a person can get used to and almost believe that their transformation to the extend that they will not recognise there natural face as theirs. However ,
Above demonstartes how the people involved in your transformation are more likey to treate you as yourself whereas co-actors are more likey to treate you as your chraracter as you rarely spend prolonger time with them outside of your transformation.
How make-up changes perceptions.
This is an extreme example of how both make-up, others perceptions and judgement can affect your own view on yourself and others in which overtime you consider to be the truth and in time you consider to be normal is your role makeup rather than your natural asthetics.