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Blog Post #3

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PROJECT OUTCOMES AND PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT

This is the third and final part in my series of blog posts for the Better Lives unit, in this one I will be focusing on the outcome of my project, which was Makeup Breakdown, and what I think I have learned from it. This was my first choice as my project because I wanted to see if I could learn anything new from the practices of the Make-up for Fashion course, as opposed to what I’ve learned so far on Hair, Makeup and Prosthetics for Performance. The result was honestly disappointing, I expected a little more, but I can’t form a full opinion considering we didn’t get to continue the lessons as they were planned, due to the sudden need for remote teaching. The current situation of the world and the order to “shelter in place”, definitely threw a spanner in the works for our project, considering it relied heavily on the university’s supply of products for students who maybe didn’t have access to any at home. For this reason, it was decided that we would create our final designs from non-conventional materials that we had in our homes. Even though I am a makeup student, and therefore own a lot of makeup, I decided to play along with the instructions and I actually got quite excited by one of the looks I created during our first remote lesson, in which we were instructed to create a look using the briefs we’d discussed in class of: imperfection and the fashion mistake.

The problems with this, for me, were that I live in a very, very small place with my boyfriend, so we are forced to only keep what is absolutely necessary and that we were also not given much notice as to what we were supposed to be doing. We were instructed to create two looks in two hours from nothing, which caused me to panic considerably. I ended up printing off some flowers to cut up and stick on my face because I couldn’t think of anything else to do at the time.

Seeing all of my peer’s final designs made me realize how much of a cop-out my work was, and how it wasn’t really in line with the Better Lives themes, as it had had the potential to be. By using the objects in our home, that would have otherwise gone to waste, to create art, we should’ve been representing social responsibility and sustainability. Instead of recycling, I created something new to go to waste because I panicked. My desire to prove myself as an aspiring makeup artist clouded my judgement and I overlooked the point of the exercise. I could have done a lot more if I had been able to keep the project themes in mind.

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Blog Post #2

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This is part two of my blog portfolio for the Better Lives unit: as a student on the Hair, Make-up and Prosthetics for Performance course, I admit that I struggled to find much relation between the object of my study and the contents of most of the lectures. They were surely interesting and thought provoking, but, when faced with the question: “how will the information given during these lectures alter your own fashion practice?”, I am unsure about how to answer as I  would not consider hair and make-up artistry to be “fashion practice”, especially not for performance.

After re-reading my notes on the lectures and trying to make some sort of connection with them, I considered the main points, for example, inclusion and diversity. In my case, I will be working with performers that I don’t get to choose. It’s not my job to cast inclusively, so the best I can do is know how to deal with all different skin tones and hair types, to make whoever I work on feel comfortable and welcome in my chair.

The other point that I relate to, on a personal, as well as business-related level, is the aspect of sustainability in my practice. In Nina Stevenson’s lecture, she was speaking more about sustainability in our current world, where we’re facing a climate emergency that the majority of the big institutions aren’t taking seriously. Before I started studying at LCF, I was one of those people that believed “me changing my actions won’t do anything to stop the climate crisis, so there is no point. Change won’t happen unless the world’s leading corporations decide to change, as they are the ones doing the most damage anyway”. In a way, I do still believe this, but I’ve also come to realise that if I don’t make a change, then what’s even the point? If I don’t even try then what does that say about me? Am I not willing to make changes to my own life, so at least I can say that I did my part?

In my personal life, that has meant, for example, me becoming a vegetarian: something I have always known I wanted to do, but I was put off by my family, who are all still devoted meat-eaters, who are still struggling to accommodate my choice. The next step for me will be becoming fully plant-based.

In my practice, however it will be a bit more of a struggle. Since day one, our lecturer, Steven Solomon, has taught us that the number one rule of make-up artistry is to know how to carry out the proper health and safety practices. A lot of this depends on having disposables in your kit to prevent cross-contamination between clients. Then there’s the question of the makeup itself and trying to source it from ethical and sustainable brands. For now, all we can do is take responsibility and become the change, by doing our best to cut down on unnecessary disposables, especially those that are one-use plastics or make-up wipes.

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  1. Sofia Hilali: BLOG FOUR : PEER REVIEW, GEORGIA ENGLISH BLOG POST 3 https://1920betterlivessmc.myblog.arts.ac.uk/2020/04/19/blog-post-2-6/ For this last blog, I thought It was a…

Blog Post #1

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BLOG POST 1:

This is the first part of my blog portfolio for the Better Lives unit, in which I will be discussing how one particular lecture from the beginning of the term has shaped my thinking. Sustainability, Diversity and Social Responsibility: the building blocks on which the lectures we listened to are based, made for a very informative and substantial discourse which provided me with a lot to consider. The one that most struck a chord with me and made me realise certain things that I hadn’t thought about before was Lorraine Gammon’s lecture on empathy. As she said, most art projects come from a place of empathy because art is a way to try and make someone understand the way you feel. Art is a natural human way of communication that bypasses the inconsistencies of language, making it accessible to everyone capable of empathy. I believe that the vast majority, if not all, human beings are capable of empathy, but in this day an age it’s not as big a part of society as it should be, considering how big a part it plays in our psyche. This made me think about a study that I found out about a while ago, which led me to a fairly wide-spread article from 2011 on the possibility that rats were presenting empathetic behaviours, by freeing fellow cage mates that were restrained in plexiglass tubes.


(Discover Magazine: 2011, https://www.discovermagazine.com/planet-earth/empathic-rats-spring-each-other-from-jail#.WrlLh5PwY1g)

 Even just considering the possibility of some sort of biological reasoning for the development of empathy, why is it that it that we have somehow lost our way and in a lot of ways we repress it? As Lorraine explains in the lecture, the main cause is most likely the cycle of consumerism and capitalism that our society finds itself stuck in. I believe that ultimately this development comes from place of good that has become misguided, as we lost track of the initial goal of improving our quality of life. I also believe there’s a possibility that our current society’s lack of empathy may stem from trying to avoid being disappointed or hurt. Offering an empathetic response provides a connection which leaves us open to either good or bad responses, this is why a lot of people, who consider themselves “good”, will still ignore someone on the street asking for money; because of how our brains have been conditioned towards greed, we ignore the natural empathetic reaction, which would be to help them by sharing our money. Empathy can be good for us, as it can help us make connections with others, but it also brings us pain when we think that we can’t possibly share all of our money with people who need it because we do actually need at least some of it to. That being said, when circling back to the Better Lives themes, it’s easy to notice how our behaviour doesn’t reflect them, which I think is the reason for this whole exercise.

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