At this stage now my cop project has evolved and developed into an investigation into the mask and its relationship between music and art? Or the role and function of dancing masks within society? In my mind it seemed like a logical progression to go from dance to masks as i have always been drawing faces and i thought to make these characters come alive through performing within them would add a wonderful excitement to the faces i have drawn all my life. I am worried tho that i am not actually that interested in the historical accounts of all the different cultures masks, where they are beautiful i can't help but think of colonial collections and rich white people fetishising ‘primitive’ civilisation’s sacred artifacts. I have learnt about the black market of african artifacts and the unfair trades that take place, i dont want my project to become purely focused on masks. I don't look at a mask and think WOW.. what does really excite me is the animation of the mask through human performance and the awe inspiring visual spectacle that manifests in ceremonial ritual events. I am getting more lost the more i read. My initial desires in my practical work has been lost. I have made some masks but im not sure i am that proud of them, i liked the exhibit photos of them and i am excited by the footage i have taken of the masks being animated. I need to start to messing around with these films and manipulating them until i have some exciting bizzarre music videos or back projections?
At this stage my practical work is becoming further and further from the things that i am now researching. I am trying to look at comparative mythology and masquerades from around the world but there is such a vast amount of different masquerades out there it is seemingly impossible to draw many true cross evaluations. I think that human civilisations throughout history have been doing these complex formal rituals with masks costumes dance routines and rhythms. I want to find out why humans have done this, from an evolutionary perspective what is the point in all this extravagant aesthetic behaviours. It seems so theatrical and bizzarre i would like to understand the need for ritualized ceremonies in human survival. I want to try and learn a common theme amongst all these different but similar in essence ceremonies from across the world.
My feedback from the practical peer review has been very supportive of my drawings of dancers and recommend animating those; they suggest that my subject is too broad, which i agree with. The more i research the more i realise i am researching anthrolopology sociology evolutionary biology masquerades ancient history costume design tribal cultures religion and mythology music and dance etcetcetc its TOO MUCH ! I HAVE DONE IT AGAIN! I NEED TO NARROW IT DOWN!?!? I dont want to narrow into something that then removes the excitement of discovery, i feel like the project as a whole could easily be made boring if i those one small component to research in depth… BUT I NEED TO! Grrrrrrrrrr I dont like reading academic texts, its not something i gain any pleasure from. At all.
