BodyTyping by Laura Alvarado

Laura Alvarado's collection 'My Affair' has evolved from a project titled BodyTyping, she goes on to explain her work as,

"a series of works in which the relationship between jewellery and the body is reinterpreted as the body is not only the wearer but it becomes an active part of its creation and its form.  The shape of the body serves as a mould and affects the final form obtained from the scan, creating a new piece every time. Each person is different and every impression is unique."

In 'My Affair" the concept for Alvarado's jewellery silhouettes is taken from the book “My Love Affair with Jewelry” by Liz Taylor. The jewellery is drawn and used as stencils on the naked skin, they are then scanned and digitalized with the help of a 3d scanner and printed using Rapid-prototyping Technologies.  Filming the process has brought the performative process of body decoration to the fore, allowing the observer to participate in the ritualistic practice of body decoration.   However it would be far too simplistic to label her work under 'performance', far better would be to ascribe it as 'body art', as defined by Amelia Jones in 'Body Art, Performing the Subject' where she explains how we should consider this form of work,

body art ... - in its opening up of the interpretive relation and its active solicitation of spectatorial desire - provides the possibility for radical engagements that can transform the way we think about meaning and subjectivity (both the artist's and our own).

Jones emphasises this point further by referring to Ira Licht, who argued in 1975,

"the relationship between artist, subject and public" - encourages us to rethink the very methods by which we fabricate histories of art and to rethink the ways in which we understand meaning to take place.

Alvarado is a designer who is part of a new understanding of the ways in which body art can radicalise our understanding of postmodernism as a method of visual production, while also revising how meaning and value are determined in relation to works of art and design.  Her work is important because she is performing the gradual shift that has been occurring since the middle of the last century, by articulating our experience of ourselves.

My Affair from Laura Alvarado on Vimeo.

DIY ethic

YouTube is a strange and wonderful place to see how lovers of face and body decoration use cosmetics in the privacy of their own home.  The explosion of products and the encouragement of make up companies to 'be yourself' has provided an individualistic perspective, where anything is possible.

Things you can try online.

As if the privacy of your home wasn't enough, see these videos below of some Japanese software which graphically applies make-up to your face or provides you with suggestions of new hairstyles through a webcam. As contemporary versions of Max Factor's "Beauty Micrometer" where the desire was to look as 'natural' as possible, they disregard the physical flaws of the face and suggest that in our postmodern culture as long as you have enough make-up/hair extensions, flaws can never be a problem. 

Why look in the mirror when you can use one of these?

Lucy Mcrae's metallic skin

Metallic Skin from Lucy McRae on Vimeo.

In the “Rojo Nova Work in Progress” exhibition at the Sao Paolo Museum of Image and Sound,  McRae is currently showcasing her unique perspective on the body.  In a statement, the museum stated that “her provocative and often grotesquely beautiful imagery suggests a new breed; a future human archetype existing in an alternate world.”  It is here that the point of the work of Macrae and other artists and designers featured on this blog becomes evident, it is possible that these creative images of various human archetypes can further our understanding of clusters of tendencies and possibilities for future growth and development, particular as the models visual stories are developed, their strengths and weaknesses studied.

The body as a design question

While it is clear that the human body is capable of adapting to so many impositions placed on it, it is interesting to see the body as a design question rather than as a problem.  As seen in Dezeen magazine,  Marcia Nolt has constructed a series of portraits that illustrate how the human body is capable of adapting itself to the design of products, including a hole in the lips for smokers and an extended shoulder for holding the phone.  The series is called Corpus 2.0 and shows a a variety of versions of the human body, influenced by factors like developments in technology, but also fashion phenomena, ways of living and products.  Other proposals seen here include a ridge in the nose developed for wearing glasses, ears moulded to accommodate earphones, a thumb with an extra joint for sending SMS messages more efficiently and a foot adapted to create the same posture as wearing high heels.  

The Imperfectionist Returns

So it's been a while, and although I may have been absent, hopefully I have not been forgotten.  In fitting tribute to my return I thought it would be appropriate to post the work of designer Sophie Duran, found in De Zeen magazine.  Duran has created a series of facial jewellery, including these lips which can be inflated with a hand pump.  The series is called The Imperfectionist, and includes a blue moustache with spectacle frames with a handle, as a homage to the vagaries of style the wearer can wind the false eyelashes up and down.  For those who find it difficult to commit permanently to a style (like myself) this is the perfect solution.