Introduction

During this Special Effects unit we will be focusing on a "Brave New World" and are aiming to interrogate and subvert conventional ideas of beauty as we see it today. In doing so, we will be looking at various examples of physical transformations; through not only art, films, music videos and images, but pushing one step further and having an anthropological approach- looking at different cultures perceptions on beauty, and what they do to achieve these ideals.
We will be looking at and drawing inspiration from different examples of "Body Architecture" through fashion, performance, architecture, the body, genetic manipulation, beauty expression, future human shapes and low tech prosthetic ways for human enhancement (e.g. Lucy and Bart).
I am very excited to start this project, especially looking at tribalism and body modification, and learning how to recreate these looks using special effects products. The only experience with prosthetics and special effects make up I have so far is cuts, bruising and reshaping noses which we did last year for our Claudia and Quentin characters, and I have played around with liquid latex at home and created cuts. I feel that this experience will be helpful in this unit, but we will really be pushing the boundaries and experimenting with so much more which I feel will really help me push forward and learn so much.
I am slightly nervous that the time frames for our units are getting shorter, but having said this I don't feel that it will be impossible, and if I am not pushing myself how can I expect to learn?