Leah Fletcher

Overall, I am really happy with the outcome of my project; I am especially proud of the wig and prosthetic pieces that I had made, and I am proud of my trailer as I believe it demonstrates my message clearly.
For this project, I decided to challenge myself to make a wig from scratch. Even before I had decided on the Wicked Problem that I wanted to explore; I had already decided that I wanted to create a wig. This all stems from the fact that I struggled a lot in my Wig Making lessons and I knew that the only way for me to improve was to practice, and I wanted to push myself because I knew I could do it – I just needed practice. After I had created the wig, I had a great sense of achievement and I felt as if the possibilities were endless. I had no idea how I wanted to style the wig as I had tried but failed to devise a plan. Therefore, I had no choice but to experiment as I went along.
I found planning very difficult as I was unfamiliar with the process of making a trailer and so did not know what to expect. One aspect that I was particularly unfamiliar with was Video Editing. Now that I had access to Adobe Premier Pro, I decided to take advantage of it and use it to create my trailer; it was not easy as I found it complex to use at first and had to resort to many YouTube Tutorials in order to grasp the basics. However, I am happy with how my trailer turned out in the end and I feel more confident in my editing abilities and want to explore them further.
After seeing my peer’s trailers, I have been confronted with a huge diversity of issues that consume the world and they all have communicated these issues in their trailers with an apparent sense of urgency. I think it can be overwhelming to try and tackle all these issues at once and should instead, try to tackle issues that affect us in a more direct way. For myself, despite my practice not being part of the makeup industry, I know that the Makeup Industry is also very destructive regarding plastic pollution and harming the environment; and so, the Better Lives themes within the unit have made me realise that I can take social responsibility to do my part within the makeup industry (as already mentioned in my previous blog post).
Ultimately, the Better Lives Unit themes have taught me that it starts with taking social responsibility to make small changes within our own lives in order to make the world a better place. For now, I am going to support makeup brands that strive to be more sustainable and ethical, and hopefully in the future, I will be able to create my own environmentally friendly makeup brand.

After spending time researching ‘The Wicked Problem’, which in my case was the Fast Fashion Industry polluting the Ocean with Microplastics, it has made me more aware of the power that we possess as a consumer; and as a consumer, I can choose not to support Fast Fashion brands. Imagine how big of a financial impact we could have on these businesses if we accepted social responsibility to stop supporting Fast Fashion brands. Since beginning my Better Lives project, I have already decided to no longer buy from Fast Fashion brands as I now know how they are destroying our oceans and do not want to support this.
The Better Lives Unit has also made me more conscious of how I am part of the problem, particularly as I do Special Effects Makeup. In my practice, particularly with creating Prosthetics, there is a lot of wasted product – which would inevitably end up in the ocean, adding to the pollution. The Better Lives themes have made me change my perspective on how I see myself working in the future, to the extent that I want to create Prosthetics that are biodegradable (or at the very least, Prosthetics pieces that can be recycled). I have also become more concerned with the ethics of makeup brands (with regards to their use of plastic packaging) and I know that this will change how I work in the future, as I will be more selective with what products that I choose to use.
Unfortunately, for this project I did not have access to more eco-friendly materials to make my Prosthetics, therefore I had to use other materials which were more harmful to the environment. I think the fact that I was conscious of this, is a direct result of how the Better Lives unit has changed my perspective on sustainability within my practice. However, it also made me aware of the lack of diversity of sustainable materials that are available for creating Prosthetic pieces.

I found the lecture on Emerging Technologies in Fashion by Nick Almond to be the most intriguing of all the lectures as there is a general consensus that Artificial Intelligence (AI) could pose a threat to many industries. I hope to become a professional makeup artist and to specialise in Prosthetic Makeup (AKA Special Effects Makeup). However, I believe that the Special Effects Makeup Industry is under a particular threat from AI as AI is becoming increasingly ingrained into Computer Generated Imagery (CGI). In addition to this, CGI is more cost and time effective in comparison to Special Effects Makeup.

Despite this, after watching the Lecture, I am more hopeful about the future of Special Effects Makeup. Almond discussed that the downfall of The Eastman Kodak Company, which was due to the company not anticipating the Digital Camera which was invented by Steve Sasson (who was employed by Kodak at the time). This has changed my perspective on emerging technologies and the impact that they could have on the makeup industry; instead of fearing AI, I want to explore the ways that I can use it to my advantage within this industry.

I can now identify areas within the makeup industry that have the potential to be improved by emerging technologies. Such areas can be made more apparent by exploring the Better Lives themes: diversity, social responsibility and sustainability.

Diversity:

It has only been more recently that the lack of diversity and inclusivity within the makeup industry has been a topic of current interest. Especially with the rise of brands such as Fenty Beauty, who are known for their inclusivity as they cater for a wide range of skin tones. However, as someone of colour and someone who frequently uses makeup for differing skin tones, I still feel as though more can be done with regards to inclusivity as not enough brands have such a wide range of skin tones.

Social Responsibility:

The makeup industry is undoubtedly one of the most damaging to the environment. One issue that I am particularly concerned about, is the amount of plastic that is used in this industry. I decided to research the Great Pacific Garbage Patch and I was horrified to find out how much plastic had been disposed of in the ocean and how that has negatively impacted both Marine and Human Ecosystems.

Sustainability:

The makeup industry is quite an unsustainable industry due to the amount of materials that are non reusable and that quickly get disposed of. This is a serious issue, as these materials are disposed of in a way that is harmful to the environment. I hope that emerging technologies can be used to create materials that are more sustainable.

I feel very strongly about the making the Makeup Industry less harmful to the environment and I hope this unit will allow me more insight into how emerging technologies can be used to achieve this.