Maisie Henderson

For my final blog post I will be reflecting on Sofia Lira’s first blog post, in which she reflects on a better lives lecture and how it influenced her thinking. She decided to study the lecture on power, delivered by Julia Crew. She begins her reflection by explaining that attending the lectures has allowed her to interact with the better lives themes, expanding her knowledge and thinking surrounding fashion and the influence of the themes: diversity, sustainability and social responsibility. She goes on to interact with the themes further, explaining how each relate to fashion and the ever-changing fashion industry.

Exploring the lecture, she focuses on the idea that power within the fashion industry isn’t as evenly distributed as people may perceive, explaining that topics such as human rights and sustainability have become a leading contributor in the issues surrounding power within the fashion industry. She also explains how diversity is a contributor to the problems surrounding power, posing the question of whether power is balanced within the industry, or if the fashion item itself represents different forms of power and identity, therefore representing diversity. She then goes on to justify her argument by presenting examples of items of clothing that represent power and identity, for example military clothing and the formal dress, showing power conveyed through a recognised theme or symbol.

I think the use of power and her ability to communicate its direct link to the better lives themes: diversity, sustainability and social responsibility is substantial. She is fulfilling the brief of reflecting on the lecture, incorporating how it has influenced her thinking, and therefore successfully demonstrating how she has interacted with the teaching by taking forward the ideas into her reflection. She has not only shown the impact of attending one lecture, but even talks about how attending a series of lectures adapted and impacted her thinking around the fashion industry.

Lira finishes her blog post by suggesting that power within the fashion industry can be used for positive outcomes, explaining that if power is gained by the correct people it can be used to introduce consumers to more sustainable fashion, changing the way the fashion industry currently stands. She further demonstrates her understanding of the better lives themes by explaining in further detail that this change is the social responsibility of those deemed icons, who have the most accessible platform that will allow them to successfully communicate these new sustainable concepts, and have the most significant influence over the consumer market.

Overall I believe that Lira’s blog post fulfilled her brief entirely, explaining the ways in which she attended the lectures and how they drastically influenced her thinking, linking to each of the better lives themes and intertwining them with the main theme of power explored in the lecture. My only note to improve would be to perhaps talk about the future, and how the lecture series have influenced her way of working and way of thinking towards her future projects as a young person entering the fashion world.

The better lives themes: diversity, social responsibility and sustainability were the core of the project, with my specific brief being to create a character that developed and showed a story based around the better lives themes. The recommended adaptations were to look at evolution as a form of diversity, ecological balance for sustainability and personal identity for social responsibility, creating characters around those topics as we established makeup and prosthetic techniques, learning professional standard finishes of the makeup. I intended to create a piece exploring diversity, forming a character around evolution. I began researching Rick Baker’s work on the Planet of the Apes, studying the ways in which he used prosthetics in order to transform actors into apes.

I began to like the idea of creating a character that shows the evolution and adaption of diversity through a series of photographs, perhaps to be used in a campaign. As I began developing and exploring my idea more thoroughly, I had to move back to the North East of England because of COVID19, generating issues surrounding my project. Due to my location, I no longer had access to the resources required to develop and finish this project. I have had to adjust my project in order to allow for the better lives brief to be fulfilled: using my creative thinking to allow myself to interact with the project, completing research on techniques and using the online resources provided by my lecturers to complete my briefs. I also have been reflecting on techniques taught in workshops, practising these skills in order to further my personal development in the project. As I have been completing the work around my blog posts, I have been reflecting further on the better lives themes linking them to the lectures I attended, the work I completed in the workshops and my project. For example, the work I completed during the distortion of the face workshop closely relates to the representation lecture delivered by Teleica Kirkalnd that I reflected on in my first blog post. The techniques I learnt and makeup I completed could be used to show the social responsibility we have to represent the whole of the general public as we enter the creative world, by ensuring we incorporate all types of people in our work, these being all ages, all genders, all disabilities and all ethnicities, whilst also guaranteeing we represent them not only fully but correctly and, therefore, allowing for the celebration of diversity. I plan to continue to allow myself to reflect on the better lives themes, taking them forward with me into my general practise and ensuring I always consider them throughout the creative process of developing a project. Furthermore, I recognise my own responsibility as a young person only just entering the creative industry to allow and encourage my learning to shift from it’s current academic context to one of applied practise, always making an effort to carry what I have been taught throughout this specific project with me in all of my future work.

Working on the better lives project and watching the better lives lectures has made me understand the responsibility I have when creating or collaborating on a project to ensure it is ethnically responsible whilst also being the best work I can produce. I need to be active in my decisions to guarantee my projects are diverse projects, being aware of my personal social responsibility, taking that forward into my decisions at work. Sustainability is also a growing issue, with workplaces expecting to be presented with the most sustainable ways of working.

The film, television and theatre industry have always been predominantly white and male industries, only being challenged within the last five years, with movements like Me Too, and projects dedicated to challenging diversity and the lack of it, for example the award-winning film Moonlight. I am very aware of the social responsibility I have as a woman to work on projects that support other women, striving to work on projects that are made up of equal sexes, creating permanent space for women within the creative industry. In my area and specialism, it is expected to be a male dominated area, with the history of 3D effects being heavily led by men, however, I think it is becoming a more equally accessible industry, with my entire class apart from one being female. I also feel a social responsibility to make sure the projects that I work on are racially diverse, pushing the industry to be more representative of it’s audience, rather than monoculturist, using one type of ideal person aimed at a certain demographic.

Sustainability is quickly becoming a more recognised issue, with dramatic changes happening to the film and fashion industry. In particular, the fashion industry is being ‘called out’ for the damaging impact it has on the environment being a non-sustainable trade. Fast fashion is dominating the world now, with the expectation to buy an entirely new wardrobe each season. However, brands that facilitate fast fashion and contribute to the problem are being made to justify their decisions, and their choice to ignore their social responsibility to the planet. For my area, the industry uses lots of single use chemicals or products, that can be detrimental to the environment. These methods are being adapted as best they can to be as sustainable as they can within my university. We are bringing these new sustainable ways of creating forward with us into our future work and projects.

Working on the better lives project has made me more aware of my social responsibility as a young person entering the industry, taking what I learn forward into all the projects I work on in the future. I would love to work on projects championed by other women, supporting people of minority groups. I also hope to continue with my practise in the most sustainable way possible, developing new ways and methods of creating, reducing the amount of waste.

I recently watched Telecia Kirkland deliver a better lives lecture and I was introduced to the idea of representation. I’ve always been interested in this topic, specifically representation in the media. She began by introducing the idea of monoculturist marketing, suggesting that advertisers use one type of person aimed at a certain demographic to sell products. She indicated that Western history is monoculturist because of capitalism, meaning we’ve become used to only seeing one type of ideal person in mainstream media. This is an idea I’ve never been introduced to before. The concept of using one ethnicity, one body type, one ideal type of person to sell products and set the ideal standard for the individual person may mean that people who are mis-represented in the media also see themselves as undesirable and creating an issue that brands and advertisers should be more aware of. Learning this theory and idea has influenced the way I interact with advertisements and media, being more critical and aware of underlying hidden messages that are passed onto the viewer subconsciously. Using what I have learned from the lecture, taking it forward into the work I will do in the future, I will be more aware of media mis-representation and the dramatic impact it has on the viewer. This is because it leads people who do not fit into the ideal category to feel undesirable and dislike aspects of what makes them who they are, therefore I will be working to make sure there is no media mis-representation in any of my future projects.

Kirkland then went on to introduce more ideas like Eurocentric culture, the idea of focusing on European culture or history to the exclusion of a wider view of the world, therefore implicitly regarding European culture as preeminent. Consequently, making non-Europeans align themselves to European ideals, leading to treatments like skin bleaching. Also the idea of model minority – the suggestion that people belonging to groups of colour, who then gain significant power signals: wealth, popularity and fame – sees consumers try to remove themselves from the stereotypical mis-representation of a person of colour, seen in media, aligning themselves to Eurocentric culture. I have taken this idea forward, reflecting more on examples of this within the media, discovering that lots of black rappers gain wealth and believe this elevates their social class and status, aligning to Eurocentric culture, and example being P-Diddy Millionaires Lunch.

The lecture ended by exploring cultural appropriation and cultural appreciation. The definition of cultural appropriation is “the use of one’s culture’s symbols, artefacts, genres, rituals, or technologies by members of another culture- regardless of intent, ethics, function or outcome” (Rogers, 2006). Cultural appropriation is something I have been aware of, and have seen many examples of, examples being Louis Vuitton and Marc Jacobs. Kirkland paired the idea of cultural appropriation with outrage marketing, when brands use racially sensitive topics to stir controversy drawing attention to themselves. Taking this forward into my work, I will try to ensure that my projects come from a place of cultural appreciation, guaranteeing it is a conversation that is respectful, coming from a place of understanding instead of personal gain.