Mask Up: Process | Gage Kime

Concept Statement

It’s hard to understand what is factual when it comes to what we have been told about Covid-19 during the pandemic. Information being thrown at the public about the pandemic and the virus are riddled with lies, which distort the minds of the public and cause the lies to spread and make the public lie to one another. This project focuses on three stake holders in the pandemic; the government/media, those who have to lie to others to hide their true beliefs, and those whose minds are distorted and corrupted by believing everything they hear through the government and media. The mask for the government/media resembles a polygraph test that detects lies, to show those pushing misinformation regarding the covid-19 pandemic. The mask of the liar depicts a shield-like material that tells lies to others around them acting as a shield to protect their own beliefs and opinions surrounding the disease and the pandemic. Finally, the mask for those who consume and believe all information, resembles a worried robotic like face to show that it is overwhelmed by everything learned as they consume the lies being fed to them through medias.

Research

The group started by making an origami balloon to get our heads in the right-thinking space

Our first group exercise was to draw our heads and the profiles. We found an interesting dynamic and that two of our profiles were facing away from the other group member. This helped us come up with some ideas

After having trouble coming up with a solid idea one of the other group members and I used this prompt for our own exercise to brainstorm.

Here is the outcome of the brainstorming exercise

Here were some brainstorming drawings of masks that we were considering before we found our concept. The bottom right was our original concept with different masks for different social classes and they would all layer together

Iterations

For our first iteration with this exercise, we started with this other concept and wanted them all to be able to be used as individual masks for based on affordability

The plan was to be able to have them all together and the highest class could afford all three and would wear it as if they were showing off

After the written exercise we did, we came up with the idea of changing our concept to the lies that go on during the pandemic. This was my idea for my mask to act as a lie detector and pull wires behind acting as a polygraph and leaving scribbles, which then changed to ripping paper, and instead of real wires I would use yarn

I then began making iterations of how I wanted to create the head piece and how I should get the wired mask around my face to work, as well as the connectors for the temple and how I wanted the wires to leave the head piece

This was the first iteration of the head piece before making the switch to the drawings I made. I started cutting out strings for the mask, but it wasn’t going well

This is the iteration for the censors that would attach to the fingers and have the wires (yarn) coming off of them. I wanted to keep it simple similar to the real thing.

I then decided to change the mask so that it would be a printout of wires on a piece of paper to give the illusion, and create an actual mask with that print

Here is final and third iteration of the mask. I used my Nik’s (my group member) mask design so that it would be a more geometric and neat design, as well as help to tie them together.

Here you can somewhat see the new design of the head piece, but more clearly you can see the ‘wires’ that will come down and hold the ‘censor’ up to the temples. I used pipe cleaners so that I could give it the effect that they were attached to my head and dangling wires. It uses the hexagon shape since in each mask we iterated a hexagon into them to help connect them

I experimented with a couple ways of making a hexagonal prism but having a flat top

I decide on this form to make it the cleanest and connected and added tabs

This was the final iteration; I left the tops open so you could see into the censors which read “LIES”

This was y test to see how the yarn would work to rip the paper away to reveal the words underneath

For the head piece I printed out a texture that looked like an elastic fabric to cut from. I then cut the front band section and added elastic through holes so that i would seem as if it had real elasticity

Before I had planned on having the bottom head strap wrap around the face mask, but I wanted to show the wires more and I cut slits in the sides of the mask and fed the straps through and bent them back to lock

Here is a view of the head strap as well as how I attached the yarn so that it looked as if the ‘wires’ were connected to censors within the head piece

I then found quotes about the pandemic from media that were all lies and ended every sentence with “LIES” and increased the font. I kept the font normal so that it read like an email

I then added the chest piece with the same textured material paper to look like the real chest censor on a polygraph test.

I then added the sheet of paper over the papers of lies and glued the yarn from the head piece to the piece of paper that I had cut to start the ripping. Along with the finger censors and wires attached, which I did not have attached to show some contrast, and because they would fall off my fingers if they were attached

Production

The project ended up working well as a performance and I was very happy that the one shot I had for the ripping from walking away turned out perfect. I believe that I did a good job at showing the concept the group came up with of lying during the pandemic and representing the lies told by the government and media. I learned how to work within a group and work around a difficult group mate to work with figuring out how to incorporate others’ ideas that are separate from the others and find ways to tie the altogether. I struggled with coming up with a solid concept for a while with my group since there were so many ideas, making it hard to select a good one and expand on it. I believe that my part of the project good, but I wish that I had more time to work on and it decided on the idea sooner so that i could get more materials to be able to make the mask to look more like an actual product.

Link to video including other group members masks

Link to Portfolio

Mask Up