Disguise
Why have I picked disguise? I have picked disguise because I wanted to explore facial expressions and how they can disguise someone. Disguise could mean many things like: literally hiding someones, or hiding how they feel, maybe even mixing and matching faces to hide the original person.
What I aim to doI aim to study how much a face can change just through expressions. Also to obscure faces. also looking at how people hide their emotions. And to see how your brain plays tricks on you. And to find and challenge areas of beauty on a human face.
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Definition for disguise |
Anelia Loubser
Looking at Loubser's latest project Alienation it is very interesting to see how an artist has picked a specific part of the human face and manipulated it to create something new and exiting for an audience of abstract art loving people to appreciate. Even though the pictures are in monochrome they are still attention grabbing. And because of this setting the wrinkles and eyes are specifically interesting to look at.
Pictures inspired by Loubser
How- firstly, I set up a black back drop and choose someone to be the subject (model). Then I asked her to make as many different facial expressions possible. Once I had enough photos I uploaded them onto iphoto. Then, so they would upload quicker I put them into photoshop so I could adjust the pixels size. I changed the pixels size from around 5500 pixels to 3000 pixels. I also rotated the pictures by 180 degrees and finally I cropped them to fit around the mouth.
inspired by Anelia Loubser I took pictures of the lower part of peoples faces and found that there is a similar amount of interest. with things like-teeth,noses and some wrinkles the pictures (for me) have a similar attention grabbing and inquisitive theme. However with my photos there isn't as much contrast as between tones and shades so maybe not as interesting as the original project by Loubser. Also around the mouth and nose area there aren't as many wrinkles as around the forehead area. I did not try to copy Loubser because I was inspired by her interesting photos.
After my Loubser Experimement I have decided to look at symmetry and a-symmetry. And challenge what it means to be truly beautiful
1st set of photos: Asymmetrical
2nd set of photos: Express
Using photo shop.
first final piece: symmetry
WHY?
Usually when looking for a "beautiful" face we naturally think symmetry is the key. What I have done here is use photos of people with a-symmetric faces and mirrored them using photoshop, to challenge this common perception of beauty.
Face Rotation & The Thatcher Illusion
second final piece
Evaluation
Firstly I imported the choosen image. Then i selected the circular marquee tool and selected the mouth. Secondly I selected the move tool and went on to: edit_transform_rotate 180. Then I did the eyes selected them with circular marquee tool. edit_transform_rotate 180_flip horizontal. Then i saved the final result and rotated in iphoto.
Unlike the Thatcher illusion I decided to keep the line around which features I had rotated to highlight which features to show the audience where I had rotated the eyes and mouth. And also to stop them getting distracted by who the subject was in the photo. I want people to look at the features and feel a scense of confusion. |
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What is the Thatcher illusion
"People with autism and schizophrenia have been shown to have a local bias in sensory processing and face recognition difficulties. A global or holistic processing strategy is known to be important when recognizing faces. Studies investigating face recognition in these populations are reviewed and show that holistic processing is employed despite lower overall performance in the tasks used. This implies that holistic processing is necessary but not sufficient for optimal face recognition and new avenues for research into face recognition based on network models of autism and schizophrenia are proposed." Tamara L. Watson
Looking at the full article (click here ->[for the]-> full article) about face recognition really inspired me to look at rotating the whole face and rotating only the eyes and mouth,because they are the main features when guessing how someone feels. So now i'm looking more at disguise of emotions and facial features rather than disguise of a human face completely.
* -rotationis is latin for rotation
-faciem is latin for face
-faciem is latin for face
Third final piece: Rotations
Using both explored elements (rotation and symmetry) I combined them to create a third final piece that links the two together in a new and interesting way.
Lorenzo Vitturi <-->Dalston anatomy @ The Photographers Gallery
Vitturi uses local materials from Dalston market and creates these amazing sculptures then photographs them. He also links these images to portraits and link the two with colour or shape.
The trip to the photographers gallery
This was the route through London we took. I documented this on my camera and an ipod from school. first we went to Kidbrooke station, then we waited for a train, then we got on a train to London charing cross, then we made our way to the photographers gallery. After we visited the gallery we had lunch in soho square,then after lunch we made our way to the south bank after the south bank,then I went home.
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After seeing Vitturi's gallery in the flesh I felt inspired to do 3-D display with my final pieces. This is what I have come up with.
Evaluation
I choose disguise because I was interested in the theme and how you can mould it to fit your ideas. I began my research by looking on tumblr and by chance fining work by Anelia Loubser and starting a pinterest board for disguise and looking at the schools pinterest. I liked the idea of doing a abstract portait either by croping or rotating. My research developed when I heard about the 'Thatcher illusion' where features of the face are rotated then the whole face is rotated. The outcome is very interesting. From this I think my best idea so far has been playing with symmetry and the 'Thatcher illusion' (Rotationis Symmetricalus) it definitely gave an different product.
I have gone through a process of choosing and improving but using the same equipment (and photoshop). My experiment with the 'thatcher illusion' went the best as I had developed it the most and played with other aspects. However my Loubser copy didn't go so well because it wasn't that interesting and I couldn't develop it
I have gone through a process of choosing and improving but using the same equipment (and photoshop). My experiment with the 'thatcher illusion' went the best as I had developed it the most and played with other aspects. However my Loubser copy didn't go so well because it wasn't that interesting and I couldn't develop it