Blog Post Three – project outcome reflection.

Throughout the Better Lives scheme of work, I fell I have developed personally expanding my knowledge around the key focussed themes of diversity, sustainability and social responsibility. For my Better Lives project, I explored the relationships between the use of Masks and Politics. To initiate the project, we were set the task of researching into different types of masks, materials they were made from and their uses to then apply this to a political message of our choice. After applying all my research into my design process, I chose to focus on Animal Rights Activism as I envisioned an intimidating mask design which would be used in the anima rights activist marches. The Animal Rights Activism felt the best topic for me to base this project on, as it is an issue all over the world and links greatly to the themes of the Better Lives scheme of work. Many people have conflicting views on the topic, and it can be greatly related to culture and the different ways of the world; however, the Animal Rights Activists set out to put a complete end to speciesism, acting upon what they feel is their social responsibility within society. This choice of topic really opened my eyes to the consequences of speciesism and consumption of animals and how it responds to our planet. In todays modern world engulfed by technology and the superficial, it becomes easy to forget about the effects we as humans have on the world and the detrimental impacts we are creating. The use of animals is far to normalised in many industries; from consumption in restaurants, sales in supermarkets, sales in hunting and using animals as a trophy and also in the fashion world with the desire of fur, leather, wool and other animal sourced materials. This all is resulting in an unsustainable way of life, a life we are destroying.

Within our mask making task, I chose to focus on the pig; this is because I knew it would work well from a design point of view being worn on a human face. I decided to take this idea further, creating a humanised sculpted version of the pig; the intent behind this is to create a mystifying impact on the viewers, creating a feeling of intimidation, as it will make the viewer see themselves as a human perspective of what animals go through. I intended for the mask to evoke a feeling of guilt and fear in response to the Better Lives themes.
The deeper thought that went into this design process is something I will be continuing throughout my creative career, with the self-reslization that your work can be used to represent a wider scale of themes and have an effect on different individuals, not just its direct intent. Furthermore, the research that went into construction and different more sustainable materials that could be used for construction will always be a conscious thought throughout future designs.

Our final task of the unit was to present our ideas, from initial research, design and construction. Following this, we saw each persons presentation digitally and were able to hear their feedback and interpretation of the brief. The broadness of the task was apparent here, as we all had diverse ideas which were all great and representative of the Better Lives themes. I personally found this part of the scheme of work very useful and important, as it gave us an individual insight to how others approached the themes and broadened our knowledge hearing other peoples ideas and research before their designing.

I feel the better lives project has payed a great part in my understanding of the world around me from a sustainable, creative approach. The themes explored are vital to the Fashion and Performance industry and our generation will be the one to shape the future in response to these themes moving forward.