Final Major Project Proposal - UAL Layout

Taiyo Onorato - Marzahn

Perfectionism

These are some short pieces on perfectionism, which were forwarded to me by a friend, who sourced them from a counsellor. They focus on the psychological side of perfectionism, how to identify yourself as a perfectionist.

This led me to look at people who undergo surgery to achieve 'perfection' in their appearance. It's a really common thing with celebrities, which I think influences people to follow a similar route to try and change their appearance, unrealistically. A lot of the time, the surgery is unnecessary too, below is an example of it, Megan Fox who didn't look bad beforehand, had surgery anyway, creating a bad influence for young girls particularly. 

Although the change in Megan Fox can't be seen a lot in that picture, some change themselves to look almost inhumane because the surgery is that drastic.

As well as surgery, advertisements featuring celebrities are also unrealistic, mainly because of the amount of makeup plastered on them, and how much they are edited and manipulated. They are made to look 'perfect', which gives an unrealistic view on how people look, mainly women. This is a good example, Beyonce on the cover of Vogue is made to look absolutely flawless

When without makeup and editing, her skin isn't as smooth and bright, her eyes have have bags and darkness and her face doesn't look as skinny. 

They wouldn't be able to put the real photos of Beyonce on the cover, because she doesn't look 'perfect' enough, so it wouldn't sell products, whereas this unrealistic version of beauty that is portrayed will sell, because people aspire to look that unrealistically good. 

This led me to think about how I can link my work in with this, shooting photographs in the style of Vogue and other popular magazines, but with real people, without the editing to look like the real Vogue. I might create a series of front page spreads with 'real' women, maybe even with a couple of articles to go alongside expressing views against plastic surgery. 

Final Major Project - Beauty

I spoke with my tutor about how to focus more closely on a specific area within my project, and mentioned that I'd been thinking of working around beauty. This led us to look at how beauty has changed through the years, with people like Marilyn Monroe compared to modern idols who are a lot younger and skinnier. We also spoke about recreating famous or popular photographs but with 'real' people, instead of models made up and photoshopped.

I think I might do something like this, it would be a good starting point for my final pieces. Although, I would really like to use some of my previous work for my final pieces, including the portraits and body shots produced earlier.

It's a topic I'd like to follow up for my final piece, mainly because it's something a lot of people have strong opinions on. As well as that, it's something that is a part of every day life, and something that can have a massive impact on people regularly. A lot of my research will probably be opinion based, I think that's stronger work that something taken from a magazine, books or the internet.

Perspective

M. C. Escher was a graphic artist who worked in the early 20th century, working with mathematically inspired woodcuts, lithographs, and mezzotints. One of his more famous pieces is the Escherian Stairwell, which is a stairwell that appears to be ever ascending. I thought it'd be appropriate to look at following my work on scale and perspective with the jewellery pieces. 
Personally, I really like the staircase, and the sketch of the hands I have included, because it really plays with the mind, and makes you think a lot more deeply about the pieces. Although little of my work is based on perspective, the concept of capturing the viewers attention is something I really want to achieve with my work.

The game series Fallout features 'Vault Boy', somewhat of a mascot for the game. The game is based in a postwar setting, where a lot of the land is polluted with radiation poisoning following nuclear attacks and disasters. A common misconception is that Vault Boy is giving a thumbs up to the player. Really, Vault Boy is a reference to previous wars in real life, in which people would measure if they were in the radiation zone of a nuke by holding there thumb up to the explosion, if there thumb was smaller than the explosion they would be in the radiation zone.

I thought this was something interesting to look at, although it is not art based, it's the subtle use of perspective and real facts in the game that I found interesting. 

Media Influence

"Media influences are bad. Young girls are looking up to celebrities showing ways of keeping their size zero figure perfect. In my eyes, young girls should be looking up to healthy looking sizes and seeing that it's okay to be bugger. Marilyn Monroe was the perfect role model, and now stars such as Niki Minaj, Hayley Williams and Cheryl Cole are looked up to and idolised. Also, all the models that are photoshopped to have 'perfect' skin and a 20 inch waist is being seen as the way to look and anyone that is size ten and plus are seen as fat"

"Of course everyone like how the media displays people, mainly blokes because it sows an unreal factor of life, something you don't see in reality. It makes aspirations but can also be harmful to people who believe they should look how the media says"

"Not a fan of the media, simply because their view always seem narrow. Appearance should be affected by advertisements of models, because as far as I can see, it influences depression in girls, who's reasons are 'I wanted to look like them'"

"The media are everything and they feed us their perception of everything. It's like people can't think for themselves anymore. All the media are bothered about is making more sales, having the most customers and therefor having the most extreme and different stories. Media in magazines shows us what's in fashion or make up tips, if they don't follow them they'll be judged"

Anorexia Interview

How did you know you were anorexic?
I didn't, I was having panic attacks so I started to see a counselor who did some tests on me, and I scored the lowest score he'd seen in a few years.

How did you react/feel?
I thought he was being over dramatic, I didn't believe him. I felt bad for my mum because I felt like I'd upset her. I didn't want to gain any weight

How have you dealt with it since?
It was really hard being forced into eating with people watching me. Seeing a counselor has helped me loads

What were you doing to feed your addiction?
Coming to college and not eating all day, the going home and making excuses to avoid eating. I'd go to bed and sleep, then when I woke up i'd have something like soup and eat bits of it, then go back to bed and repeat it.