Soumya Ramachandran Iyer

   My Screenshot [ Screenshot 2020-05-04 at 4.14.17 PM(2020), 2020)] 

All the design concepts by my peers were terrific. It was amazing to see such beautiful and innovative creations. Of all the ideas, I was most impressed with Lindsay Myhel’s final design concept of the fifty year old ‘Pearl’ from Florida. I am very fond of themes relating to ‘personal identity,’ and I think that Lindsay’s character Pearl demonstrates a very practical case revolving around insecurity and delusion. It would have been amazing to see how Lyndsay would have executed this concept practically in class. Nonetheless, I think her idea is compelling. It would have been so exciting to recreate the botched lips, dark under eyes, and wrinkles. What I loved is that she not only went beyond just explaining about Pear’s physical appearance but also went on to describe how her octaves are lowered. This was such a definite description of the nature of her character. I could see Lyndsay’s passion towards making the character. 

Today, social media has played a significant role in shaping what we see as ‘perfection,’ and plastic surgery has become more accessible than ever. The character Pearl, I believe, reflects the large segment of women having to live with insecurities due to self-esteem to a certain degree. As Steven (Solomon,2020) rightly pointed out, this character can fit into both a comedy, drama and even horror.  

Reference : Screenshot 2020-05-04 at 4.14.17 PM(2020) [Screenshot]. Available at: https://eu.bbcollab.com/collab/ui/session/playback (Accessed: 4 May 2020). 

Solomon, S.(2020) ‘Online Meeting Room – Developing a Character – recording_2 [Lecture].Better Lives: Developing a character.University of the Arts London.27 April. 

BLOG 3:    PROJECT OUTCOME  

The better lives unit has encouraged me to think beyond merely creating fashion images. It has brought so much awareness and has changed my perspective of fashion in many ways. This entire unit has been so helpful to me in terms of seeing the scope of fashion and how much of a difference it can make, be it positive or negative. I have learned so much about sustainability, diversity, and technologies that can be used to expand the scope of fashion. It was an excellent opportunity to learn about new materials and techniques, thanks to our tutor. Creating the bruise has been my favorite, although it was hard to maintain the right pressure on the brush.  I learned about better options of materials available for prosthetics such as sustainable gelatin.  

The inspiration for my final project comes from acid attack victims in my country (India). There is a massive number of cases reported each year about women being harassed and attacked by men with acid resulting in ghastly disfigurement of their faces and bodies. This is due to an extreme level of patriarchy within the community, and It is an extremely horrifying reality in rural India. These women are often shunned and shamed In society after that due to the way they look.  Yes, there is a general awareness of acid attack acts within the Indian community.  

However, the government is not acting on it enough.   

 Yet, there has been an exponential growth and understanding of its horrors after the film industry released movies based on it. This shows the power I have as an image maker to impact and make a difference in society about such issues. This kind of disfigurement ruins the victim’s identity to almost a level of unfixable.  Certain crimes are happening around us, but each of us has a role to play towards our community, and I believe we must contribute as much as we can no matter how little. Upon researching more about acid attack victims, I realized that it is something that happens all around the world. I would have loved to try using the technique of sculpting this trauma effect using clay to create the effect of acid burn, although I am not sure if that would have worked, I confident that I would have thoroughly enjoyed the process and learned about more techniques and materials  

It has been a challenging year due to the coronavirus pandemic, as I did not have a chance to execute my idea practically, but I would have tried my best to re-create this. It has been an enjoyable experience working prosthetics.  I tried to create a character in photoshop using a couple of images as a reference to emboss. 

Dpa picture-alliance. (2016) Kampala,Uganda. Available at: https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo-kampala-uganda-10th-mar-2016-silvier-nambirige-who-was-attacked-with-102745062.html (Accessed: 23 April 2020). 

The better lives unit has been of extreme value in terms of information and awareness. It has helped me explore and analyze the impacts of the fashion industry on society through so many perspectives in both good and bad light. Being students in UAL, we have portals of opportunities to express our point of view through our art and implement ideas through collaborations. There is so much diversity, and every individual brings a new way of expression.     

I chose to go ahead with Developing a character- Transformation and identity as my subject for this unit as I have a fascination with prosthetics and the idea of having the ability to create a new character through makeup. It was out of my comfort zone as I come from a photography background, and I have zero experience with prosthetics. However, as I began working on it, I began to enjoy exploring with prosthetic makeup. I have been introduced to a wide range of ways to create illusions and effects such as bruises, distortion, and theatrical makeup. The lectures involved an in-depth explanation of framing the face through creating exaggerated shadows, highlights and lines, and techniques to create a bruise through understanding skin undertones and using the right colors. Our tutor was extremely patient, encouraging, and demonstrated the process to us step by step. Practically, I could not manage to get much of a grasp and do as well as I thought I could, but theory wise, I have learned a lot.    

 Being an image-maker, I believe that it is essential to possess some amount of basic knowledge about makeup, styling as it gives you a broader range of ideas and ways to communicate with your team. I find it very inspiring to see films that instill prosthetics to create a change in the way our society views individuals suffering from various accidents, events such as acid attack survivors, severe burn injuries, or natural skin conditions that sometimes make people unintentionally discriminate. There is a tremendous power to influence and convey a message through images, and movies and I wish to use the knowledge that I have acquired into my professional practice through collaborating with makeup artists who also share a similar interest. There are multiple ways to incorporate prosthetics in a fashion editorial. Surrealism has always captivated me, and I think it would be convenient for me to embody prosthetics with now even a better sense of familiarity to explore further. I have always encouraged my team to feel comfortable with exploring and trying something ‘out-of-the-box’ and have previously used prosthetics in my editorials. But this came from almost zero experience or insight on my part. This unit has given me the understanding and encouragement to dive into the subject, so I can have a broader spectrum of ideas to discuss with my makeup artist.  

Throughout this unit, I have always had something exciting and interesting to learn, and I look forward to my future work to imbibe not just what I have learned in my main topic which is developing a character, but also everything that I have learned throughout the briefing sessions. Our responsibility goes beyond just creating fabulous images. There is always something that we can give back to society through our art.

 The comprehensive information about artificial intelligence was an eye-opener. The potential attainable by these technologies can overpower most human abilities completely. The degree of ability of the discussed in the lecture, about the present and emerging technologies impacting the fashion industry was very radical. Concepts such as the capability of tracking the supply chain of clothes and making an intelligent decision of adapting smarter textiles that go beyond just fashion, as discussed in Laura bury’s lecture on inclusion, promote a much healthier approach of modification and sustainability of materials. As I was watching the lecture on inclusion, I realize the immeasurable advantages of the utility of smart mirrors. This was of distinct interest to me as I firmly foresee how it will benefit the permanent, temporary, and situationally disabled in terms of minimum or no necessity to engage in physically trying every piece of garment. Technologies like these can support visualization for them. Artificial intelligence, in several ways, can be instrumental for them, such as assisted styling. With the evolution of ‘Generative designs,’ I believe they can be of great advantage in potentially generating and forecasting more ways to create sustainable, ecocentric, and creative designs.   

I believe that there needs to be more empathy and awareness within society to support and fund innovative practices to cater to a broader range of designs and choices for the physically challenged and who struggle with mobility. This emotion again strongly needs to stem from teaching and implementing a better mindset, and this is what Lorraine Gamman’s lecture on empathy focused on, with examples of programs such as Roots of empathy, Go to Jail, The parents circle-families Forum (PCFF), and simple yet effective solutions like substituting detention with meditation among children to encourage and build a more empathetic habitat. Such experiences are necessary to inculcate in a child’s upbringing to establish a more sensitive nature and empathetic response. This largely co-relates to aiming to create better awareness and sensitivity among individuals within society in the long run. There is a necessity to have a much more conscious awareness and sensitivity among the designer community to respect various ethnicities and cultures regarding cultural appropriation, as their ‘embracing’ has crossed lines.    

I think that it is time that a much more intelligent approach to the production and design of the materials used in the fashion industry is initiated. There were beautiful examples discussed, such as Pauline van Dongen- solar shirt and other adaptive clothing. Being a fashion photographer, I am always aiming to produce images that communicate a particular story to my audience, and I believe it is extremely crucial to maintain a high degree of sensitivity and consciousness while creating. The fashion industry has an immense influence on not just the youth, but the direction of culture and values it reflects on society. Being the new wave of artists within the fashion industry, we possess the ability to become a driving force of positive change from within and create a much more efficient framework of values, inclusion, cultural appreciation, and responsibility towards society and the environment.