Research:
- When I was first introduced to this project I immediately started thinking of ways actors and actresses used a “mask” to portray a certain character or role. I wanted to research some ways that the movie industry masked their characters without actually using a facial mask that covered their true face.
- I also began to think of different masks that I have seen people wear in my community during the Covid-19 Pandemic, specifically in grocery stores. I had noticed throughout the entire pandemic how different masks showed different feelings. Some felt more structured and uncomfortable on the face while others were more loose and form fitting. Some masks were soft on the skin while others were like boxes stuck on the face with little to no movement.
- Each mask seemed to start forming its own personality and those personalities began to structure themselves around each person’s own personality. For example the one on the right makes the person look more welcoming and friendly versus the mask above looks scary and serious.
- The purpose of this mask is to portray a narrative that correlates to a pandemic. My partner and I brainstormed some ideas that we had about the covid-19 pandemic and tried to create connections with one another’s feelings and thought processes that both of us were going through at that time. Below are our beginning brainstorming and ideating about possible narratives/feelings that we wanted to convey in our project.
- Once we narrowed in on a narrative, we began brainstorming ways to show the feelings and emotions that each mask would portray. In our narrative we had a hero mask and a citizen mask. I chose to do the citizen because I really gravitated toward the meaning behind the citizen’s role in the pandemic while it was also super relatable.
Exercise:
- An exercise that we did in class started with a piece of paper and our narrative. During each round we would make something out of paper that added onto the main piece that we started with. The pieces that we were adding on were made to represent a feeling or message that we wanted to convey within our own mask. Each round we would pass our masks back and forth to each other and each partner would add something to the mask, and then give it back to its owner so the process could go again. We did this about 5 times, each time adding more and more.
- In this mask I wanted to portray someone that was beat up by the criminals that were running the streets (in our narrative), while also showing that these citizens don’t have a voice in what happens to the town.
- I took another shot at this exercise but this time I wanted to make something more geometric. After measuring out each shape’s width, height, and angles, I pieced each shape together as I purposely added the tabs to make sure all of them fit together. This was just a rough draft to get an idea of how the paper would mold to my face.
- I needed to make an area for the eyes, nose and mouth as those were key areas that I wanted to focus on in my final product of this project.
- This was very eyeopening and somewhat challenging as I had to learn all the measurements for my actual face and how to sculpt the paper so it would lay the way I wanted it to. Although it didn’t come out as well as I wanted it to, I knew it wasn’t going to be exact as I was using plain paper that wasn’t sturdy enough to keep shape. Again, this was just to get an understanding of how the paper worked and brainstorm possibilities for my actual mask.
Iterations:
I did some quick sketches to start getting my ideas down about how I wanted to portray the emotions of a citizen. The emotions I wanted to convey the most were scared, sad, and tired. I also wanted to create something that showed distress on the citizen. Whether that meant showing some sort of injury or using the mask to show emotion through the eyes/mouth. The sketches on the left are rough ideas that I used to begin thinking about their function and what they actually showed to the viewer.
I shifted my focus to the idea of a citizen’s skin cracking. Almost as if that hard shell that they had put on while going through the pandemic was becoming too heavy, as it broke apart showing their soft, fragile skin underneath.
I also thought about ways to visually show how the voices of citizen’s were shut down during the pandemic. Due to the covid-19 pandemic being so politically driven in the United States, the majority of community members chose to keep their mouth shut when it came to conversations about the pandemic.
I experimented with different materials to decide how I wanted to portray these ideas. In the picture to the left, I tested crackle paint on a piece of paper. The cracks came out visible but not nearly as big as I wanted them to be. As you can see in the picture, it is hard to even see the cracks as they were very small and little cracks in rows. I also tried putting the paint on elastic and it had the same effect.
I also tested tying different types of rope such as yarn, twine and cloth, so that I could put that over the mouth area, but none of them really satisfied what I was looking for. I started to rethink my idea of putting a cover over the mouth.
Since our narrative was based on an old western town, I wanted to incorporate something from the bandana my partner was using for his mask. I began to focus my attention on the white diamond looking shape that is shown in the picture on the left.
I thought about ways I could manipulate the shape and use it as the geometrical pattern on my mask. I began to really like this idea and wanted to experiment with ways I could incorporate the shape.
I loved the idea of using the geometric shape from the bandana in my mask. Even though the person viewing the masks won’t necessarily know the shape is from the bandana, it is a cool connection that my partner and I have within our masks.
So I began thinking of ways I could structure the shapes around the face. I was very excited about forming the shapes on the face so that although most of the face would be covered by the mask, there would still be areas where the human side shines through.
- I liked how this small prototype looked and was excited where I could take it with my mask but it just didn’t seem like it was going to stay in tact on the actual mask. That’s when I realized I could use the same shape but do multiple of them, each cut into their own piece as it would be easier to attach each one to the mask and create the sharp feeling I wanted to show.
- It was also really important to me to emphasize the hard shell citizens had to put on (metaphorically speaking) during the pandemic. As it was during a time of hostility, division, and a constant state of anxiety as no one truly knew what was happening and what the future was going to hold.
Narrative/Concept:
An old lonesome western town is rippled with crime and corruption. The law enforcement is paid off by the bandits and they run the streets doing as they will. They steal, murder, and destroy what they please. The townspeople are under great pain and have no power to stop the destruction of their beloved home. They are broken, burnt out, abused and lonely.
The routine of everyday life shifts into survival mode with no end in sight. The anxiety of what tomorrow may bring weights on the shoulders of each citizen as they wonder if they are the next victim.
Until a masked hero rises from the locals! He starts to bring justice to the town. He is a light at the end of the tunnel as his presence begins to lend a hand to citizens, encouraging them to come out of their shells and resume their daily lives. Slowly but surely the hero gives a shimmer of hope for the citizens as they embark back into society.
This mask seeks to use an analogy of an old western town to communicate the feelings we went through at the start of the pandemic by using two “characters”. A “towns folk” who represents the feeling we went through at the first lock down and stay at home order and a “hero” who represents the moment in time where we started to reintegrate ourselves back into society. The town’s folk character is this tired, lonely, and hopeless person who is fearful of the unknown future. What will life begin to look like? This “hero” character is someone who is strong and confident but most importantly prepared for taking on the virus.
Production:
I started my production process with a paper mache of my face as I wanted to use it as the base of my mask. It was really important for me to have a mask that fit the form of my face because my design involved my own facial features.
In this process I first had to put vaseline on my entire face so the paper would not stick to my actual skin. Then I used pieces of newspaper dipped in a mixture of glue and water. My mom helped place the newspaper pieces on my face and did 3 layers of paper total. Then once it was mostly dry I took off the mask and let it finish drying for 24 hours.
While the paper mache finished drying, I tested how the shapes I chose to use as the pattern on the mask would fit on this practice face. I wanted to make sure the placements of the pieces were exactly how I wanted them before actually putting together the final mask.
I played around with different angles I could place the pieces in but ultimately I came to the conclusion that emphasizing the sharp point on each piece was the best way to show the emotion I wanted to convey.
I shaped the paper mache mask using my exact-o knife and scissors to fit around my eyes and mouth the way I wanted it.
I also decided to paint the mask gold as I wanted to attempt doing the wabi sabi method. I thought that having the gold shine through the white triangles would emphasis the beauty of humans within.
The pictures on the left show each side of the mask as I wanted the angle of the mask on my face to be a bold statement. The mask is meant to give a glimpse of what is underneath… which appropriately is my actual skin.
Before gluing all the pieces down to the mask, I held them up manually to the mask as I made decisions about how I wanted to place each individual piece. It felt like very tedious work but I knew that each piece had its own part in creating the story I wanted to tell.
I decided after placing all of the pieces on the mask using a hot glue gun that I didn’t like the way the gold behind the pieces was shining through. It seemed like it just didn’t make sense for it to be there as I was already emphasizing the human face by using my own face and features.
So I decided to spray paint the entire mask white as I loved the all-white look of the mask. It seemed to really convey this uniform feeling but at the same time was sharp and clean, which I think truly made the piece stronger as a whole.
I used a reused popsicle stick to poke into the bottom of the mask. I chose this method because it seemed like the perfect way to ‘put on an act’. Just like how they used to do for people in theatre, holding the mask up to their face was a way to hide themselves from the world but also make a statement as well.
Final Product
Video I presented to my class for critique https://youtu.be/nZCmbOSTw3o
Reflection:
This project was probably the most fun I’ve had in constructing a design. I really wanted to do something completely different than my normal approaches to design and I think I really pushed myself in thinking in new ways of construction. Even though I still stayed with using paper, I felt like my ideation process improved extremely as I really dived deep into ways I could show the emotions/feeling that I wanted. As I’ve learned in design, sometimes things don’t work out and you have to reroute in order to get the job done…my partner for this project ended up getting really sick within our last two production weeks and ultimately did not have a mask to present with me. This was challenging for myself because I was creating a mask that was supposed to work with another mask, without it I felt like the narrative was incomplete. So I decided to make a video that I could present to the class that was able to give them the full affect of what the story of our pandemic is and how the mask should be viewed. This ended up working really well and I’m super proud of the way I handled the setbacks.
Link to Portfolio Project: MaskUp