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UnBoxed Festival Plan

For the UnBoxed Festival, I’m planning to showcase my work in the most immersive way possible. In class we’ve been encouraged to consider the five traditional senses - sight, hearing, touch, smell, and taste - along with the right brain senses - play, design, story, symphony and meaning. I want to apply as many of these 10 senses to my unboxing presentation as I can. Here’s how I plan to do that...

Sight - My project is inherently visual so guests will have the opportunity to view a mixed media display comprised of a light-up makeup mirror that will have lipstick text written on it. Right now I’m thinking the text will say “Makeup Creates Intimacy”. I will turn my box so the top will become the front. When the front is removed viewers will be able to look straight into the box from their eye level rather than from above (sketch above on the righthand page of the notebook in the bottom left corner). On either inside wall of the box I will display portraits from a recent intervention. I would like to slightly angle the portraits inward so that the mirror can reflect them. I’ll most likely be displaying the portraits on either outside wall of the box as well. I might print the final portraits to look like giant polaroids so I can write quotes from the people depicted in the photos who participated in my intervention. At the bottom of the “polaroids” on the white section I will use a custom font created by a good friend of mine with the handwriting of our very dear mutual friend who died five years ago.     

Hearing - Below the mirror I will place a portable speaker that will play audio from a video I’m in the process of creating. People who view my project will get to listen to the conversations I had with my boyfriend Justin as I did his makeup, and a stranger named Santonia as I did her makeup. 

Touch - I’m reluctant to demonstrate the process of my project in front of an audience since the work is about two people being alone together. I’d rather tell everyone about my project rather than doing one person’s makeup while everyone else observes. I’m confident that the message of my project will not have to be reliant on a live demonstration. Apart from the setup I’m planning to create in my box and the information I’ll be communicating verbally I would like viewers to have the opportunity to engage with makeup through touch. I’m going to consider reaching out to a makeup brand to ask if they can donate products.

Play - The playful aspect of the mirror is a nod to Olafur Eliasson and Antony Gormley, two artists (referenced in a previous post) whose art absorbs the consumer and automatically makes them become part of it. To take it a step further from the consumer observing their reflection in the mirror I would also like them to take a selfie and post it to either their Instagram feeds or stories tagging @emilielouizides and #MakeupCreatesIntimacy.

Design - The design inspiration comes from my interest in mixed media. I enjoy visiting exhibitions that feel more like an experience due to their multi-sensory nature, and when I’ve created my own art I’ve always incorporated as many materials as possible. I think this gives the viewer a lot of individual elements to carefully consider that also wind up looking great as a whole.  

Story - I came to this course as a very frustrated person, feeling that the makeup industry and makeup as a medium wasn’t given enough recognition. Throughout this year I’ve worked to discover and assign substance, credibility and meaning to makeup and demonstrate the power it has to serve as a change-making tool. This is the story I’ll be telling at the festival. 

Symphony - The spoken word aspect of my display will serve as the symphony part of the right brain senses.

Meaning - My project is all about meaning and I think this will be especially clear when people have the opportunity to look at the photos of people whose makeup I’ve done, hear their voices and stories, and learn about makeup in a new way by discovering what it can be, who it can be for, and how it can be used.  

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The Consumer as Art

Exhibitions are always one of my first points of research. Over the past few months I’ve been hyper-vigilant about considering and consuming exhibitions in ways that can potentially pertain to my project. After going to the Olafur Eliasson exhibition at the Tate Modern I wasn’t able to identify a direct link between Eliasson’s work and my own. However, a couple months have passed since then and a recent class lecture that referenced Antony Gormley’s ‘Blind Light’ helped me understand that both his work and Eliasson’s serve as relevant references in the way that the consumer becomes part of the art. My project is all about creating artwork on someone’s face and taking the exchange and experience to another level by showcasing the aspect of intimacy, as seen in my previous intervention.

Below is a video of Antony Gormley’s ‘Blind Light’ which shows the consumers literally becoming part of the art as they’re enveloped in fog.

Below are photos from my time at the Olafur Eliasson exhibition, beginning with the orange fog room he created. Each photo demonstrates how I became part of his art. 

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Makeup Creates Intimacy - Intervention

The original idea for this intervention revolved around showcasing four participants: myself, my boyfriend Justin, and two agency models - one man and one woman. I planned to do Justin’s makeup while he did mine (similarly to the way the DOT participants did each other’s makeup), and then do makeup on each agency model. The real aim of this intervention was to capture the connection that can be formed between two strangers and a couple when makeup artistry is involved so it didn’t really matter when the agency models that Laura (the photographer) and I cast fell through. 

Laura and I went back to the drawing board and made the decision to go with a street cast model, a woman named Santonia who Laura met a few months ago at a market. My concern was that Santonia might have felt uncomfortable about getting her makeup done by a stranger on camera but Laura thoroughly briefed her on the project. Santonia arrived at my flat with a very open mind.

In the end, I decided to only do Justin’s makeup and not have him do mine. I don’t think it would have made sense with Santonia’s video since she wasn’t doing my makeup, I was only doing hers. 

Evidence of my entire intervention can be found below.

Max - Filmmaker:

Doing Justin’s makeup:

Laura taking Justin’s photo:

Developed photo of Justin (not cropped or edited yet):

Doing Santonia’s makeup:

Laura taking Santonia’s photo:

Developed photo of Santonia (not cropped or edited yet):

Polaroids of Justin and Santonia:

Having the opportunity to sit with Justin and do his makeup allowed us to face each other, focus on each other, it allowed me to touch him and be creative, and as we spoke and I worked we realized how precious the time and activity really was. We both agreed that other couples could benefit from this exercise. It would force them to put their phones down and participate in an activity that’s actually engaging, as opposed to sitting together watching a movie. 

A screen shot of the raw footage from Justin’s part of the film:

Being able to meet Santonia for the first time, do her makeup and have a conversation with her proved the point I’ve been trying to make all year about makeup and the power it has to create intimacy; this will be clear when I have the final film ready but until then, I’ll mention a highly intimate detail from my conversation with Santonia. About 15 minutes into our conversation she told me that a week after giving birth to her eight month old daughter her sister who had epilepsy tragically passed away. I’m including a screen shot from the raw footage of the film. The image shows my face at the exact moment Santonia told me about her sister. It’s so powerful to me in the way that I’m right there with her. There was nowhere for me to go and nothing for me to do but accept her heartbreak, listen to her story and be there for her as a stranger, a makeup artist and a new friend.  

 I’ve learned that this project is about capturing the work I do on a regular basis as effectively as possible and then sharing that work with others so they can begin to learn that makeup doesn’t only have to be superficial. Through this intervention I really feel like I achieved this successfully and out of all of my interventions this is the one that makes me feel the most proud.  

What’s next?

Cecilia Mezzi, a former MA Applied Imagination student will be pitching my final film and photos to Dazed along with an interview with me about my career and journey on this course.

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Mother and Daughter Makeup

I’ve been curious about the different partner pairings that can benefit from makeup artistry and the power it has to create intimacy. My main focus has been on adult pairings, either people who are very close with each other or complete strangers meeting for the first time, but I was interested in testing my method on a mother and her young child. I was inspired by the video I’m including below, created and published by The Skin Deep, a YouTube channel I referenced in a previous post and have been using as a reference for the majority of this research journey.

I asked my friend Jelaina if she would be willing to let her three year old daughter Lillietta do her makeup. I’ve observed how two adults are usually able to focus on a conversation when one person is doing the makeup and the other is having it done. It’s relaxing for the recipient and it helps the makeup artist to really zero in and concentrate. Toddlers don’t always have the longest attention span so I wondered if letting Lillietta play with makeup would improve her focus on the conversation portion of the bonding exercise. It’s hard to say if it did but the biggest takeaway from this intervention is that Jelaina took the time to introduce Lillie to something new, connect with her in a physical way, and allow her to be creative. 

Password: jelaina_lillie

The conversation may not have been as deep as I was hoping but I still consider this a successful intervention. 

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New Stakeholder Feedback

A few weeks ago I went to Ohio to visit my sister at her university, Kenyon College, and celebrate my birthday. I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to sit in on one of my sister’s anthropology classes and speak to her professor about my project. We had a long conversation about makeup and its effects from an anthropological perspective. After I arrived back in London I emailed the professor and asked him if he would sum up his thoughts on my project in writing. I received the following words from him earlier today:

“I very much enjoyed our conversations while you were here at Kenyon.  As they were spur-of-the-moment interactions spurred by your presence and remarks, I can't replicate what I said. All of that being said, I am impressed by your project, especially by the way it takes make-up seriously.  I think you're right in saying that most folks treat make-up as something superficial that doesn't touch the inner person. That, from my perspective, couldn't be further from the truth. In many ways our sense of self and feelings of worth come from our relations with others. We know ourselves through interacting with other people and part of the way we do that is through various forms of self-presentation. To imagine that the clothes we wear, the words we use, and the make-up we put on are unimportant misses the point that these are not just surface-level representations of self but are means by which we deeply understand who we are. As such, I can only imagine that the act of applying make-up is a profoundly intimate experience. When someone else works with you to choose and put on make-up you are, I'd think, letting them into your life in ways that [are] unusual for their intimacy. It interests me why men resist makeup. Assuming that there is no biologically based predisposition against makeup on the part of males, it must be a learned resistance to this kind of intimacy. I would guess that most men would see wearing make-up as expressions of effeminacy but is the fear really one of opening up the self to ministrations that make apparent aspects of that self that we (men) are afraid to show? As an aside, the old idea that women 'just' wear makeup to attract men seems like something men would come up with to soothe their egos and imagine that they are always the centers of female thought and attention.  

This brings me to one of your other points. As I understand it, you are suggesting that applying makeup can be a way of bringing more intimacy into our lives and of exploring intimacy from different angles. This sounds fascinating and I imagine that successfully pursuing this course requires a fair amount of contextualizing the makeup process through conversation before, during, and following the application of makeup. That one of your stakeholders said the process is awkward tells me you're on the right track. I'm convinced that the only times in which we are learning about ourselves and the world are when we realize that there are aspects of ourselves and the world that we don't understand and that this ignorance is troubling. Such awkwardness, to be made productive of new insights, must, I think, be contextualized by helping the person work through what is bothering them, why it's so troublesome, and what should be done about it. If you can, through working with make up, bring people to that point then you are truly doing the most powerful form of teaching and learning, which is to encourage folks to see more in themselves than they thought existed and to understand their relations to others in forms that are far richer than they imagined. Your work with makeup is an innovative and effective way to achieve this end in part, I suspect, because it's so surprising. What seems to many as a mundane task opens up whole universes of possibilities if done right. You are doing it right.”

Edward Schortman, Professor of Anthropology, Kenyon College

These words mean so much to me. They motivate me to continue with this work especially in the next couple days with the intervention I have planned. I’ll be pulling what I feel are the most profound parts of Ed’s statement and considering them as conversation topics when I meet the two models to do their makeup and sit down with Justin to do his. 

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Intervention Planning

For my next intervention I’ll be collaborating with photographer Laura Zeppelin and filmmaker Max Skach. Together we will create a short film and photo series that captures the intimacy created by two people engaging with makeup. Below I’m including the plans for the shoot.

Participants

This project revolves around strangers being able to discover intimacy and couples being able to rediscover intimacy. With that in mind my photographer Laura and I will be casting two agency models who I’ve never met. I’ll be doing each of their makeup individually -- Max will film us as we meet for the first time and as I do their makeup and get to know them. The makeup I create on each person will be inspired by my connection with them. Laura initially planned to street cast the models but I was concerned that people with no modeling experience might be reluctant to have their makeup done by a stranger and in that stranger’s home while being filmed. It was also important to me that the models be diverse and I felt like we would have a better chance of casting different genders and races if we went through an agency. These are the models we’re considering.

The other two participants will be myself and my boyfriend Justin. I feel strongly about using us as the couple in the film since our relationship has inspired quite a bit of this project. Justin is a creative as well (we met at work), he really understands what I do and sees the value in it and our relationship sits at the foundation of my main interest in romantic relationships. I’ll be putting makeup on the other two models while they only speak to me but when it’s Justin and my turn to partner up we’ll actually be doing each other’s makeup. This will serve as a little nod to my past intervention DOT, the makeup focused card game where players did each other’s makeup as they communicated.

Portrait Inspiration

I put a selection of Laura’s portraits together that capture the look I’m hoping to achieve with our shoot. Laura shoots on film which results in a very documentary-like quality which will coincide perfectly with Max’s film style since he predominantly shoots and produces documentaries.

Film Inspiration

I’ve given Max a list of ideas for the film but I’m very open to him being creative. This is what I’ve outlined so far.

·      Begin with beauty influencer type joke – showing off a makeup product with hand behind it to get the camera to focus, followed by me saying something along the lines of “no, this is not that kind of video”

·      Cut to quick montage of close up shots of me applying moisturizer to models’ faces, doing their makeup, my face as I like at them, models’ faces looking at me or with their eyes closed, emotions. Maybe include title in text over the montage? Working title could be “Makeup Creates Intimacy”)

·      Remaining time would be split between me answering the door and meeting people (very documentary style, not stagnant and…

·      Me having conversations with each person while doing their makeup (asking about things like their upbringing, families, what matters to them – things that ordinary strangers don’t typically ask right away)

·      Could end with everyone’s answer of what intimacy is to them and why they need it and how having their makeup done by me may have helped them achieve it (either organically through our conversation or in a more formal interview style q&a format)

·      Subtitles throughout for maximum accessibility?

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After we shoot the video and images I’ll be working closely with Max to go through all of the footage and select the strongest parts. It’s important to me that the conversations happen naturally but I curate them carefully enough in post production to serve as a solid visual representation of everything I’ve been communicating mostly verbally these past few months. 

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Mental Health & The Freelance Life - Event

A few nights ago I attended an event put on by The Authentic Project, a platform which offers all-around support to freelancers in order for them to thrive in their chosen professions. The Authentic Project teamed up with my classmate and friend Sophie Shearer and her new venture, Circle, a network that aims to inspire positive environmental and mental health change. The event was incredibly successful. I was able to relate to at least one thing from each panelist and after the event finished I spoke with Amy Kean, an author whose talk I’ll be moderating at our course’s festival, UnBoxed.

When I arrived at the Mental Health & The Freelance Life event I sat down in my seat and a woman in front of me turned around and asked me my name and what I did. I told her I was a makeup artist and she immediately started to laugh. I asked her why my job was funny and she said she just wasn’t expecting to hear me say that was what I did. I asked why and she said she didn’t know. I had come from a particularly frustrating day - so the event was well timed - and I wasn’t in the mood for a conversation with someone who didn’t see the merit in my job. Ordinarily I would have taken the exchange as an opportunity to help her view makeup artistry differently but I really wasn’t in the mood.

I turned to a woman sitting next to me, who seemed to be giving off a good vibe, and I introduced myself. She told me her name was Rea and that she was an actor. When I told her I was a makeup artist she closed her eyes, paused briefly and then looked at me and said, “you guys are the real artists.” It meant so much to me to hear this from a complete stranger after a challenging day and an unpleasant exchange just seconds before. I thanked her, told her a bit about my project and how it aims to showcase the link between makeup and intimacy, and I asked about her experience of makeup. I was interested to hear more from an actor’s perspective. We were so immersed in our conversation that I completely forgot to write down notes or ask if I could voice record so I reached out to Rea on Instagram and asked if she would be willing to share some written thoughts on our conversation. This is what she had to say:

“As an actress I have mainly worked with make-up artists on film projects. Screen jobs have particular pressures that can cause an actor to feel anxious or insecure. Often, you are meeting fellow performers for the first time, or haven't worked extensively with them in rehearsals etc. It can also feel exposing in a particular way - the camera picking up on the finer details of your face, body, voice and performance. Your performance is recorded, rather than being ephemeral and only for a live audience in the context of theatre. 

There is therefore a particular pressure and feeling of vulnerability (which can be harnessed into a powerful presence and creative performance of course). In this context, my exchanges with make-up artists have in cases, felt profound. They are often the people who you spend time with before shooting and throughout the day, in between takes. In my experience with make-up artists on set, the intimate nature of them applying touch to the face and hair, mainly requiring you to have your eyes closed, has put me at ease/inspired calm and groundedness, made me feel special/looked after, sensitized me so that I have a keener awareness of my own sensations and external stimuli (which is great preparation for a 'connected performance'). The intimacy of the process with make-up artists has in turn, made me more open on set, enabling me to put trust in others and take artistic risks, making for better performance outcomes. I have also found that the 'ritual' with make-up artists means that I then associate them as a beacon of support during a shoot, again, giving me confidence to realize my potential within the work itself. Make-up artists are therefore just that - artists - the best ones, which not only create the right 'look and feel' for the actor, but also unlock the creativity of the actor through the way in which they create an appropriate, supportive sense of intimacy, approach their work with a special attitude and grace. I think that the industry can underestimate the artistry and pivotal role that make-up artists play in this sense. Like any person on set/in the theatre space, their presence and approach has major potential to enrich or alternatively to derail the creative work and outcome. Their input is not purely aesthetic (although this aspect is of course crucial and often incredible), it is in some ways pastoral and preparatory in relation to the actors' performance.”  

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Why Intimacy is Important

A recent example of stakeholder feedback came in the form of a question: “Why is intimacy important?” Being so immersed in my project, it can be easy for me to forget that a question like this isn’t actually common sense. 

I took to Instagram and asked my followers, “What is your personal definition of intimacy?” 

These are the answers I received: 

1. “Being able to be comfortably vulnerable.”

2. “A place between people sacred enough to share the self.”

3. “Feeling safe enough to be fully myself with someone else.”

4. “Trust, understanding and physical touch (hug, hand-holding, etc)”

5. “To be close with someone, so close that there is no self doubt or being conscious of myself.”

6. “Being comfortable with the person opposite you and being able to independently carry on with your daily tasks without people getting involved.” (I assume this person is referring to coexisting while remaining independent) 

7. “Moments of pure connection - from openness and next level knowledge of each other.”

8. “When you can be fully yourself with someone.”

9. “A feeling of mutual trust, closeness, acceptance, trust, comfort, and ideally understanding between people.”

10. “Being around people I can fully trust.”

I followed up with a second question: “Do you feel like you have enough intimacy in your life?” 

13 participants (38%) said yes while 21 participants (62%) said no. The beauty of my project is that the 62% who don’t feel that they have enough intimacy in their lives have the opportunity to discover it through my project while the 38% who do experience enough intimacy will have the opportunity to rediscover it in a new way.

In an effort to continue my exploration on intimacy through Instagram I posted a photo that will stay up permanently with the following caption.

These are the answers I received:

1. “Because as we are constantly being demanded to rush, we leave behind intimacy and connection. These are important because they represent our best moments of leisure and our relationships. These are possibly the most important things in life, yet we need to find new ways to strengthen them because it feels like they’re slipping away, being replaced by perpetual busy-ness.”

2. “Intimacy allows me to re-center. It functions as a way in which to explore both myself and another person and transcend to a level of closeness we hadn’t yet explored. I love the various levels and stages of intimacy and how it can come in many forms in different relationships. I like how it mirrors love in this way and how it can operate as an unspoken language.”

3. “I think human touch is something we rely on without realising. Cyber connection cannot replace what a human touch can feel like. In all capacity of emotions, heat, smell, the grip of someone’s embrace. We are blocking that human to human intimacy by a wall we call a screen (the swipe left, swipe right culture) and I think in terms of sexual intimacy that wall (screen) is shutting down our senses, vibrations, sense of judgment, that eye to eye contact that signals information without words is why it’s important to have that human contact. There’s a photographer that got complete strangers to pose as couples/friends. It was a series to explore the connection humans form with others. His name is Richard Renaldi.”

I love that this person included such a relevant reference in their response. I looked into Richard Renaldi’s photo series ‘Touching Strangers’ and learned that his process involved approaching and asking complete strangers to physically interact while posing together for a portrait. Renaldi scouted the subjects for his photographs in towns and cities all over the United States. He would pair them up and invite them to pose together, intimately, in ways that people are usually taught to reserve for their close friends and loved ones. Aperture, a not-for-profit foundation that connects the photo community and its audiences notes that Renaldi “created spontaneous and fleeting relationships between strangers for the camera, often pushing his subjects beyond their comfort levels. These relationships may only last for the moment the shutter is released, but the resulting photographs are moving and provocative, and raise profound questions about the possibilities for positive human connection in a diverse society.”   

In wanting to delve further into intimacy and why it’s important I reached out to intimacy coach Wilrieke Sophia. I wanted to speak with a couples therapist or intimacy coach when it became clear that my project would revolve around intimacy so my tutor Sasha made the introduction. I asked Wilrieke specific questions and received the following answers:

How does your personal definition of intimacy compare to the standard definition?

Do you think it's important for strangers to experience intimacy with one another? Why or why not?

Socially and scientifically speaking, why does touch create and intensify intimacy? If possible, can you please answer this from a sexual and non-sexual perspective?

How can intimacy positively affect other aspects of your life? (ie: sleep, happiness, productivity, etc)

I feel that collaborative creativity leads to intimacy. Do you agree with this? If so, can you site any specific examples or offer further insights into why this happens?

Wilrieke’s answer’s can be found in the following video. 

Password: Wilrieke

*DISCLAIMER* Pertaining to question 4, Wilrieke answered from her own perspective as an intimacy coach, not a scientist. She requested that her words be backed up with scientific research and then suggested that I listen to her TED Talk, which is full of relevant and factual evidence and will be coming out after this work is assessed.

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Makeup Creates Intimacy

It occurred to me that I’ve been making big statements about makeup and the power that I believe it has to be a change-making tool, but I haven’t been backing up my words in writing to explain why I feel this way. I’ll be using this post to communicate how I’ve seen makeup make a difference firsthand as a makeup artist and how I’ve observed makeup and other makeup artists making a meaningful difference in pop culture.

I had a recent experience with a model who I initially misjudged. I was doing her makeup for a photo shoot that took place over a couple days so we spent a good bit of concentrated time together. When we first met she didn’t say a very genuine hello, she spent the drive to the shoot location lying down in the backseat asleep while the rest of the crew was making conversation, and at the crew dinner after we had wrapped on the first day of shooting she made what I thought was a really homophobic comment. In an effort to try to get to know her better I asked her about the country she’s from, a place I had only heard of. She told me a bit about the weather, the terrain, she described the natives as very free people who like to skinny dip in the summer and go for walks through the woods. The next day, making conversation with the entire crew, she shared a story of an ex-girlfriend. I was surprised to learn she was gay after she had made a comment the night before that felt very anti-gay but it began to make sense. With this new information in mind, I asked her what it was like to grow up gay in her country as I applied moisturizer to her face. At first she paused but it wasn’t long before she closed her eyes, enjoying the face massage, and launched into stories of her parents not being together anymore, not approving of her sexual orientation, her mother blaming herself for it. I believe her opening up came from us being alone together, me breaking the touch barrier, and her having the option to close her eyes and not look at me while still engaging in a conversation much deeper than one she would have had with an ordinary stranger. 

The below example is a video of drag queen Ms. Cracker getting Queer Eye’s Antoni Porowski into full drag makeup. Watch from 3:36 to 6:25 to hear an example of a conversation between a makeup artist and model that naturally tends to arise due to the close proximity, touch, and amount of time the entire process takes. The conversation Antoni and Ms. Cracker have shares some similarities with the one I had with the model I initially misjudged.   

The following statement comes from an actor named Amelia whose makeup I did for a music video shoot:

“I loved working with Emilie. She was so welcoming and immediately made me feel comfortable, physically and conversationally and free to speak about whatever I wanted. At first I didn’t want to talk so much about myself so it was really refreshing hearing about her life and this really opened me up and made me feel happy and even more comfortable and happy to get chatting. I felt we became very close and more as friends really quickly due to how welcoming and open she was. I love having my make up done and with Emilie it is even more special, she was very gentle and it didn’t feel odd at all, more like family, it felt that comfortable. Our conversation was a lot more interesting and engaged than with a normal stranger. It was not just small talk as we usually have with strangers but I felt we found common ground very quickly and spoke about passions and things which excite us or challenge us which is a more detailed and engaged convo than usual. Make up and intimacy definitely go hand in hand, I usually look forward to make up due to this factor. When I have my make up done I usually relax and feel more at home and it is definitely one of the most important factors of my process to be ready to work. I am usually slightly nervous on the job and the level of talking and talking intimately about real things that goes on in the make up chair really helps me to relax, feel comfortable in my own skin and gain perspective. I loved Emilie and I working together in the make up chair, thank you!”

The video below was created and published by YouTuber and influencer, Tana Mongeau. In the video, Tana takes her viewers through the days leading up to her wedding, a fascinating event that went viral due to people not knowing whether it was a joke or something real. One of the most serious and down to earth moments in the video happens when she’s sitting in the makeup chair surrounded by her glam team. She speaks so highly of the people who work under pressure to get her ready for one of the internet’s biggest events of the year -- and I can understand why. I’ve had the pleasure of working with a handful of musicians and celebrities this year whose schedules are packed with tours, interviews, and photo shoots. The constant interaction their forced to engage in with dozens of people each day amidst the intense busyness can become quite artificial and impersonal. Makeup artists are the only constant presence in a high profile person’s life. We’re the first person they see at five in the morning in their hotel room, we ride in the car with them from place to place and we’re there for touch ups when they’re being interviewed by a stranger. We can feel when they’re getting tired, when they need something other than a touch up like a coffee or a hug, and we’re the last person they see before going to bed in the evening when we help them take their makeup off.

To hear Tana’s words about her glam team watch from 40:03 to 40:43

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Future Intervention Research

Change has continued to occur in the past week. I felt like my question wasn’t accurately reflecting my work so I began to brainstorm new questions and a title. The research question I arrived at and am feeling really confident about taking through the duration of this work is the following: How can makeup be used as a method to discover and rediscover intimacy? 

I believe the shift from communication and understanding occurred as I began to reflect more on the glaringly intimate nature of my work as a makeup artist and as I started to bring my hobbies into my research. One of my favorite things to do on my own is listen to psychotherapist Esther Perel’s podcast ‘Where Should We Begin?’ where she records a one time couples counseling session with herself and a couple facing some kind of challenge. I’ve used the podcast to learn about health in my own relationships, particularly my romantic relationship, and this has inspired me to link intimacy, specifically romantic intimacy to my makeup work. I have reached out to Esther about my project and I’m hoping to hear back soon.    

For my next intervention I will be carrying out a video and photo shoot with my friend and image maker, Aidan Zamiri. Aidan has shot music videos for Kate Nash and Gracey, he’s followed Victoria Beckham around shooting her documentary and he’s created moving image adverts for Nike. Aidan will film me as I do makeup on people I’ve never met so the viewer can really see the intimacy in action. After I finish he will take a portrait of each person wearing makeup inspired by our conversation. I initially planned to invite people I already know to have their makeup done but as this work pertains to me I want to keep the encounter authentic to what I do at work with a model I’ve just met. In addition to the makeup I do on strangers I would also like to invite couples to do makeup on each other. As a result this will demonstrate two types of intimacy.

 References For My Next Intervention

Eight years ago my best friend and I performed a live art piece where he recited a monologue from Christopher Durang’s Baby In The Bathwater while I painted different colors on a shirt I made for him to wear. Our individual art forms informed each other and garnered so much audience attention that our work made it into the local newspaper (I’m working on finding the article to add to this). Ever since this experience I’ve always made the effort to include various mediums in the work I’ve created, whether that’s been by combining music with moving image or using found objects as makeup. Apart from using makeup for my work as a makeup artist I also really enjoy collaging, drawing, painting and learning about post production editing that focuses on sound design and moving image. Below I’ll be including references that support my own work from many years ago and the work I’m planning to carry out. The common theme is that the work either combines two mediums, two concepts or a medium and a concept.

Love Is Art

Love Is Art is a kit created by South-African born artist, Jeremy Brown. The kit comes complete with everything a couple needs to create a painting while being intimate with each other. Brown has been making paintings during intimacy for over a decade, inspired by the 1960's French artist Yves Klein and various performance art pieces by Andy Warhol. Ramy told me about Love Is Art during the feedback portion of his and Cvetana’s workshop. I chose to include it in my research because of how it combines painting, the body as its own tool, and romantic intimacy as a concept. 

Lady Liquid Love

After learning about Lady Liquid Love from my tutor Sasha I knew I wanted to use it to inform my research. Lady Liquid Love, an experience created by Jessica Parker invites female-identifying people to explore touch an intimacy as they’re covered in warm olive oil. The experience stresses consent as participants are allowed to touch each other. There is no final, tangible piece of art created through Lady Liquid Love but I consider the experience to be an art form in itself; almost a performance that can only be viewed by those participating. When I learned about this I immediately thought about putting moisturizer on people’s faces when I do their makeup which always automatically puts us into a focused and intimate place. 

Keith Haring Exhibition, Tate Liverpool

One piece from the Keith Haring exhibition that I found particularly striking was a video documentation of him painting the floor at the School of Visual Arts as a man sat on a stool reciting excerpts from ‘Environments’ 1979, ‘Painting Myself into a Corner’ 1979, and ‘A Circle Play’ 1979 (screen shots from the video above). According to the Performance Painting plaque at the exhibition, “Haring described his approach as ‘body involvement’ painting, requiring a repertoire of dance-like movements. At the same time, the use of video enabled Haring to record and visualize himself as a performative subject. For him, its effects were psychological, providing ‘a whole other concept of self and ego, and an objective way of looking at and being comfortable with yourself’”. 

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Project Update

Since I last posted, my Modual team and I continued to fundraise for DOT. We received donations from over 50 people, some of whom sent me direct messages with their encouragement and well wishes. Ultimately, we didn’t reach our final goal and I’ve done a lot of reflecting since. 

I’m motivated by how quickly DOT came together and inspired by how much the card game affected the people who played at our launch event. However, I’ve come to realize that I don’t want this entire body of work to take shape in the form of a game. As much as I want people to engage with makeup in ways they haven’t before and have their perceptions change as a result I’m inclined to be the one that controls the narrative. 

I want to combine my goals of creating art-based beauty and demonstrating the foundation (pun very intended) of substance and credibility that lies beneath makeup. The question cards that the DOT team and I created to inspire players to get to know each other on a deeper level and encourage them to experiment with creative makeup application provided an example of how makeup and meaning can go hand in hand but it took the creativity away from me, the creator of this whole concept.    

In the notes below I navigate my way through this continually evolving process.

In the notes above I break down my research question as it currently stands: How can makeup improve communication and understanding?

I then delve into three main categories (makeup, communication and understanding) and create corresponding sub categories from there (makeup: art, expression, perceptions), (communication: psychology, relationships), (understanding: one’s self/identity, the other/empathy).

Some of the notes above focus on theory and history and how it might be a good idea to incorporate more of it into my research. At the beginning of this research process I touched briefly on Arab men 30 years ago and how it wasn’t only acceptable for them to wear dark eyeliner, but also celebrated and viewed as masculine. I’ve spoken about Japanese men today who are considered more successful if they have an elaborate skincare routine and if they wear makeup that makes their already flawless skin look that much better. I do want to revisit tribes, particularly ones that have emphasized tattoos and face painting, and I’m curious to venture back further in time to the baroque and rococo periods to see how makeup was used then. While the main focus of this project hasn’t been on historical makeup trends I know they’re important to reference but I want the more academic subjects to revolve around human behavior, habit, and perceptions. I want to apply those topics to makeup and vice versa.

In the notes above I also begin to play with new ideas for my research question. This was inspired by my tutors suggesting that I preface my question with a title. The main thing I’ve learned about myself as a creative this year is that I care very much about receiving credit and gaining recognition for the work I’ve done. By doing this work I feel that I’m the only person in my industry treating this art form in this particular way so the working title for my research question might be something along the lines of “The Makeup Artist with a Master’s Degree”. For the question itself I’m thinking that I want to begin to play around with something that has to do with subconscious changes in perceptions. My interventions so far have focused so much on conversation and connection and relationships that my participants minds haven’t even been on the makeup they’ve been using on themselves, each other, and other surfaces. This has really been my goal all along, to have makeup be a non-issue, something that isn’t controversial, something that you just reach for.

Workshop with Cvetana and Ramy

After participating in Ramy and Cvetana’s workshop the new ideas for my project really began to take shape. The simple activity they provided encouraged our class to fill in basic blanks about our project. When all of the blanks were put together into a single sentence a full story, or at least a full pitch, came together. The part that stood out to me the most was the ‘unlike’ blank. Unlike most cosmetics companies and campaigns that work to assign meaning to makeup in ways that focus more on confidence and empowerment, my project leans more toward communication and understanding. Cvetana commented on how by doing this I am integrating the personal into the interpersonal and creating a ripple effect. This made me reconsider my audience. It finally feels necessary to be specific about who they are. If I want to get people involved with makeup who haven’t really engaged with it before while simultaneously controlling the narrative in order to keep this more about art and less about a card game that can easily turn silly then I feel strongly about staying involved in the entire process rather than handing it over once it’s gotten to a certain point. Makeup can still affect wider audiences through the mediums of film and photography.

For my next intervention I will be collaborating with filmmaker Aidan Zamiri on a portrait and docu-series. I’m planning to invite people I know to have a conversation with me and as we talk I’ll be doing their makeup. The makeup will be inspired by the new things I learn about the participants which will showcase the link between makeup and communication that I encounter every time I go to work. Aidan will film the process and take a portrait of each person after I’ve finished their makeup. My goal is to pitch this as a series to different media outlets. That way I’ll be able to control the narrative and share it with many people creating the desired ripple effect.

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Modual: Kickstarter Launch Event!

On Thursday, myself and one other member of my team headed up to Glasgow to join our six other team members for the Modual: Kickstarter launch event. I was excited to present our final product which we had created in only a week but I never could have expected the response and how valuable it would be to my research. After our group played our campaign film for a big room full of people we took turns explaining the different elements of our project and then we invited guests to visit our booth and play our card game, DOT. 

Fred Deakin, the creator of Modual.

I care so deeply about makeup and the power I believe it has to bring people together and improve communication and understanding. I’ve been working so hard to defend makeup and prove that it holds credibility and substance but on the launch night I got the chance to step back and watch other people prove that for me. It was truly moving and so incredibly inspiring. 

If you’ve read all the way through the Modual: Kickstarter posts and you would like to donate to DOT please follow this link: http://bit.do/dotkickstarter 

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Modual: Kickstarter (Days 6, 7 and 8)

The second week of Modual began in full force. By the end of day 5 on Friday our group was very burnt out and our communication was suffering, which is ironic since we were all working on developing a product that would improve communication. I think the biggest challenge had to do with planning and conversing over technology rather than in person. Some of the core details of our project wound up being misunderstood and we unfortunately went in to the weekend on different pages. Some members of our group wanted to focus the project solely on exploring the intimacy of doing makeup while others wanted to make it more about trying to break the stigma of what makeup is, who it can be for, and how it can be used. I felt strongly about keeping both elements so that they could inform each other. Breaking the stigmas of makeup by using it in different ways would naturally improve intimacy and communication in the same way that putting an emphasis on intimacy and communication would lead to breaking the stigmas of makeup. 

Day 6

After our entire group met over a video chat on Monday morning and talked everything out we arrived at a common outcome. We also made some pretty big changes. At the very beginning, our project was briefly called Spectrum to signify the spectrum of colors, skin tones, genders, and personalities that could all be included. We quickly realized that the name could potentially be confused with the autism spectrum so we automatically changed the it to The Tool Kit to signify the box that would come full of ‘tools’ to help people express themselves and better understand each other through the use of makeup. But then we took a much more realistic look at things. It was Monday morning and we would be launching our project and Kickstarter campaign on Wednesday evening. Creating a box with built-in storage and canvases, four decks of meaningful question cards for four different groups of people, a deck of makeup look cards, and the makeup itself would have been a huge undertaking. Thinking about the most unique element of the whole idea -- the understanding piece of applying makeup -- and keeping in mind that we wanted to highlight fun and expression just as much as intimacy and communication, we settled on turning the idea into an interactive card game that could be played with makeup. We named the card game DOT. If we’re able to fully fund DOT through Kickstarter we plan to eventually do a collaboration with a makeup brand so we can include makeup products in the final packaging. We put the following presentation together for Heather Corcoran, the CEO of Kickstarter Europe.

____________________

DOT

DOT is a super-fun, interactive card game that helps couples, friends, families and individuals who want to better express themselves and understand each other by playing with makeup.

This product will give people the opportunity to engage with makeup in a substantive way that emphasizes creativity, expression and communication. In the process of getting to know each other better, participants’ perceptions of what makeup is, who it can be for, and how it can be used will naturally change. 

Players will receive a pack of DOT Cards with meaningful prompts and questions that will encourage them to get to know each other better while putting makeup on each other. Example questions and prompts are below.

- When do you have the most fun with the other player? Illustrate this on their body in an abstract or realistic way.

- Draw something that makes you stronger when you are feeling weak - both players participate.

- If you could go back to when you first met the other player, what is the one thing you would tell yourself about them? Introduce a new color as you answer.

The inspiration to turn the project into a card game came from tarot cards. Tarot is a meaningful and tactile way to better understand others and one’s self.

In order to make the game feel gender-neutral, relatable, and personal we drew inspiration from the image below and decided to create our own handwritten font and original illustrations for the cards.   

This is what we came up with.

We also designed a box for the cards.

And we thought ahead to what our nondescript packaging and branding might look like if we were to create our own makeup products in the future.

The above image that we created was inspired by Crayola Beauty (pictured below), a makeup line that was designed to look like a box of crayons. In order to attract a bigger audience and engage more participants it’s necessary that words like ‘makeup’ and packaging that doesn’t necessarily look like it would be for makeup be implemented. Months of conversations with straight men, a key part of the audience for this project, have led me to realize that using a word like ‘makeup’ will raise eyebrows or just create a total loss of interest in the project as a whole.

To conclude, we put together a mood board of simple, nondescript packaging for our card box and potential future makeup products and artistic, non-traditional makeup looks.  

Feedback from Heather Corcoran, CEO of Kickstarter Europe:

All in all, Heather really liked the idea for the project and she gave us a lot of valuable feedback. She said the concept was fantastic, that she believed it had a lot of potential and that it could serve as a good communication tool. She was impressed by the amount of personality we achieved through designing the cards and said the more personality we could add, the better. One way Heather suggested we do this was by actually playing the game. She made an interesting point and told us that a lot of people don’t actually engage and play with the products they’re creating which turns into a missed opportunity for providing visually compelling imagery that can contribute to a strong Kickstarter campaign. As for the makeup and a potential brand collaboration she suggested that we shouldn’t go too far into thinking about that and just provide some basic makeup at the launch event.

Day 7

DOT continued to evolve! I wrote up an explanation and instruction card to include in the deck.

We also printed out the cards in a standard playing card size and we bought simple pound shop makeup that looked more like crayons and we added our own branding to it!

We then had another critique with a Modual staff member called Gareth who really liked our idea and thought the whole concept was really whimsical; he especially liked the illustrations on the cards.. He suggested that we consider creating expansion card packs as a Kickstarter reward for backers who would donate a significant amount. At the end he asked us to consider not including makeup in the final product and encourage players to use their own makeup instead. He made a comment about how “everyone has makeup” as he was critiquing the game which I was compelled to fight him on. The whole idea for this project came long before I participated in Modual when I was researching straight men and their relationship -- or lack thereof -- with makeup. The majority of straight men don’t own makeup and they are meant to be key players in this game since DOT has been designed to be played by every kind of person. When I explained this to Gareth he really understood and changed his mind. 

Day 8

On Wednesday, day 8 it was time to finalize everything ahead of the trip up to Glasgow on Thursday for the launch event.

We printed and cut the cards.

Made a box for them.

Designed a poster for the launch event.

Made a film for our Kickstarter campaign.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Dot (@the.dot.uk) on Sep 2, 2019 at 5:00am PDT

And launched a the full Kickstarter campaign!

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Modual: Kickstarter (Days 4 and 5)

The morning of Modual day 4 began with presentations of each group’s mood board. I was the only member of my group in London while the other three were in Glasgow so we presented over Fuze, a virtual meeting room. My group and I explained the vision for the project -- since the concept was still fairly new to my group members I took the lead on outlining the specifics. I made sure to pay close attention to the men in the room as I was presenting since this topic has proven to be somewhat eyebrow raising to that demographic. Earlier in the year when this project was more about men and makeup, whenever I would speak to straight men about my intentions they usually seemed uncomfortable or at best, skeptical. I would share this with tutors, classmates and friends who all pointed out that the word ‘makeup’ was probably what was throwing them. A key part of Thursday’s presentation outlined the intention to change the terminology and rename makeup so that a larger group of people will become comfortable with the idea of using it, whether that’s on their faces, bodies, or entirely different canvases. 

After every group across London and Glasgow presented their mood boards (I think there were 16 or 17 in total) everyone was given three stickers. We were instructed to put our stickers on the mood boards of the project ideas that interested us the most. I chose my own project, a fellow Applied Imagination student’s project on making the circular economy more creative, and a project that would involve putting plastic into a vending machine and having it come out as a piece of art. The guidelines were that each mood board would have to receive enough interest between London and Glasgow to continue as a full-fledged project that would go ahead for the rest of the workshop. Ultimately, my project garnered enough attention and interest to become one of the final seven. 

I’m now part of a team of eight students, two of us are in London and six are in Glasgow. It’s extremely reassuring once again to see that people believe in my project idea to the point that they’ll dedicate a week of their time to making it stronger and eventually launch it on Kickstarter. 

For the rest of Thursday my project group and I communicated over Appear In, another virtual meeting room. Here we are:

We went through the Six Thinking Hats exercise as it pertained to this project. The Six Thinking hats is a technique I actually tried earlier in the year in a separate workshop with former MA Applied Imagination students Cvetana and Jean Jacques. The system was designed by Edward de Bono and describes a tool for group discussion and individual thinking involving six colored hats. We focused on four of the six hats. 

The Yellow Hat - this hat symbolizes brightness and optimism. Under this hat you explore the positives and probe for value and benefit.

The Black Hat - this hat is judgment, the devil’s advocate or why something may not work. Spot the difficulties and dangers; where things might go wrong. Probably the most powerful and useful of the hats but a danger if overused. 

The Green Hat - this hat focuses on creativity; the possibilities, alternatives and new ideas. It’s an opportunity to express new concepts and new perspectives.

The Red Hat - this hat signifies feelings, hunches and intuition. When using this hat you can express emotions and feelings and share fears, likes, dislikes, loves and hates.

Day 5

On Friday our group really began to brainstorm for our project and come up with new ideas. On Monday we’ll be presenting the updated concept to Heather Corcoran, the CEO of Kickstarter Europe. Here’s our current project proposal...

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The Tool Kit

Simply Apply

The Tool Kit was born out of a desire to assign credibility and substance to makeup, a medium that is generally viewed as something strictly superficial. We believe that makeup has the power to improve communication and understanding between couples, families, friends, and one’s self. During the course of participating in various creative and communicative activities, those in close relationships will form even deeper bonds while creating expressive artwork. Through this process we hope that the perceptions of what makeup is, who it’s for and how it can be used will change for the better.

Tool Kit complete with built-in storage and canvases

Using a Silhouette Machine, we will create a pattern designed for recycled cardboard which will be printed out on Tinkercad. The pattern will be turned into a tool kit with built-in storage. The tool kit and smaller storage boxes within can be kept together or taken apart to be used as canvases for makeup.

Final box ideas:

A Mirror

The multipurpose mirror can be used by participants who choose to engage with The Tool Kit on their own; creating a makeup look on the face or body while looking in a mirror establishes a relationship, collaboration, and communication with one’s self. The mirror can alternatively function as a canvas for those on their own or in pairings who would prefer to create with the makeup on a 2D surface rather than on their own face or body. Once complete, the artist can choose to view their creation (or declaration inspired by a question card) as a piece of art on its own or take it a step further by looking in the mirror and including their reflection in their art piece. (See “I’m a man and...” experiment example -- https://emilielouizides-csm.tumblr.com/post/186188996702/im-a-man-and )

Meaningful Question Cards

Four decks of cards with meaningful questions will be included in The Tool Kit, one for couples, one for friends, one for families, and one for a solo participant. The questions are designed to be asked while participants are applying the makeup to themselves, each other, the canvases from the box, or the mirror. As questions are asked the makeup will develop, which will ultimately result in a final conversation and makeup look. The questions will also be deeper than what we generally ask the people who are closest to us, whether that’s because we’re afraid or just too busy to stop to have a meaningful conversation. The questions are inspired by videos from The Skin Deep. Here are some examples...

Questions for couples:

Questions for friends:

Questions for families:

Questions for a solo participant could be along the lines of the following.

1. What are my best traits and how can I use them to succeed?

2. What am I afraid of in the near future?

3. When did I last feel proud of myself?

4. What matters more to me, love or career?

5. What is my favorite memory from this year?

6. Who is the first person I would call right now and what would I say to them?

7. What fills me with true, genuine happiness?

8. How am I honestly, really doing right now?

9. When am I hardest on myself?

10. What needs to happen in order for me to feel accomplished?

Makeup Look Cards 

The makeup cards will provide inspiration for makeup looks that participants can create on themselves and each other.

The Makeup

The tool kit will include a range of versatile makeup, face paints and brushes. The packaging and branding will be eco-friendly and gender-neutral and product names will not refer to makeup specifically. For example, what we know as a lipstick will be named something like “Big Red Stick” and the product won’t have to only be used on the lips. It can also be applied to the cheeks, eyes, body and 2D canvases. 

See Crayola Beauty below for an example of makeup that isn’t packaged or used in a traditional way.

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Mood Boarding an Idea

*Read previous post for context*

After having three Modual students choose my idea on makeup improving communication and understanding as their favorite we became a group of four and started discussing the concept in depth. My group members naturally had questions about my idea since it’s brand new to them. I explained that I think makeup has the power to be more than a superficial medium and that I believe it has the potential to serve as a force for good. Over the course of this year I’ve been working hard to prove that makeup holds credibility and substance. Today I collaborated with three people I just met who are completely receptive to and excited by the idea. Below are conversations we had, brands and organizations we shared that are relevant to this topic, and photos and videos that we’ve made into a mood board.  

The photo that was shared by Paulina at the very beginning of this discussion is from a brand called Biocol Labs. Founded in 1977 Biocol Labs’ mission is to make chemicals redundant through nature and science. They call themselves the post-chemical pharmacy, creating health essentials for modern men and women. What I love about most about Biocol Labs is their packaging. The words they use don’t label their products in the way society might -- tissues are instead called ‘something for achoos’. I’ve talked a lot this year about how many people, mainly straight men, are resistant to wearing makeup because ‘makeup’ is something that only women should wear. A change in language and terminology might help people relax into the idea of makeup, making it something that doesn’t have to be a big deal which ironically could give it the power and opportunity to do something bigger. 

My group member Adam shared a video made by a friend of his who demonstrates feminizing makeup for transgender and non-binary people who don’t have access to or don’t want facial feminization surgery. The idea of someone using makeup to express their identity is not a new concept but in the context of this project I’m beginning to realize that makeup also allows people to understand and communicate with themselves, which is the whole crux of this project.

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Modual: Kickstarter (Days 1, 2 and 3)

On Monday I started Modual, UAL’s digital collaborative workshop in partnership with Kickstarter. When I read back in June that the workshop would be comprised of collaborating to create innovative projects for positive change I immediately thought about how MA Applied Imagination aims to achieve this exact thing so I applied straight away. Once I was accepted I intended to approach the experience and participate in a way that would inform my master’s project. I’m only three days in to the workshop and it’s already been chock full. 

Day 1

The workshop began with a lecture from Fred Deakin, the leader of Modual. Fred is a creative in many aspects; he makes music, art, and he teaches. Below are some books mentioned by Fred that will be relevant to my research and practice as it moves into more of an entrepreneurial place and added to my reading list.

The day continued with a series of speed-round exercises that we did in pairs. The exercises resembled things I’ve already done on my MA course this year so they felt familiar and useful.

The first exercise focused on structural energy (which is clear and precise) vs generative energy (which is more free flowing). In pairs we took turns speaking about our work processes. While one partner spoke for two minutes the other partner listened. The idea behind this exercise was to get a different interpretation on how we all go about doing our work in order to step away from our own bias of ourselves so once the two minutes were up the partner who had been listening repeated back what the speaking partner had said from their point of view. Before hearing my partner repeat my work process back to me I worried that I worked a bit too generatively. I explained that I research from every possible source rather than only a few, that I don’t give myself hard deadlines and that while I keep a to-do list it often changes. My partner pointed out that my process is actually very balanced because while I work generatively by bringing in new ideas and concepts throughout the majority of my process I’m also working structurally in the ways that I eliminate whatever isn’t working. This exercise really got me out of my own head and helped me to feel reassured. 

In the second exercise we paired up with a new partner and discussed all of the things we have a broad understanding of (hobbies, interests, etc) and our specific area of deep knowledge. I told my partner that I know a bit about psychology, interior design, that I like to make collages and cook and that I occasionally like to draw. My deep knowledge lies in makeup artistry, makeup products themselves, and makeup as an industry. I explained my MA project a bit and told my partner about how I want to use makeup to help people understand each other and improve their communication. My partner thought that pairing makeup and psychology seemed like a no-brainer. It was extremely validating to hear this from a complete stranger who I had only spoken to for two minutes and it definitely gave me a boost of confidence in my work.

The third and my most favorite exercise began with the following question: What would you do to make the world a better place if you knew you couldn’t fail? Developing my research question throughout the course of this year gave me a very clear answer to work with from the start. I told another new partner that I want to change people’s perceptions of makeup -- what it is, how it can be used, who it can be for -- and teach people to use it to improve communication and understanding. I wrote my answer down on a post-it note which was put on the wall with answers from five other students who are also looking to disrupt systems that have been put in place by society. This continued into the second day. 

The day concluded with a presentation from Heather Corcoran, the CEO of Kickstarter Europe. By the end of this workshop each student will likely put their project up on Kickstarter. I’ve known about Kickstarter for years but I never quite realized that the company puts a real emphasis on backing specifically creative projects. With Kickstarter, a creator has the opportunity to reduce barriers, take risks, and build a community. Crowdfunding for my project wasn’t something that ever crossed my mind -- probably because I get so daunted my the money aspect of bringing a project to life that I disregard that part altogether -- but after learning about the user-friendly process and the achievability of a goal like mine I’m excited by my new inclination to move my project forward through Kickstarter. 

Day 2

This workshop is happening between students at UAL and Glasgow School of Art. Since the cohort is split between two cities the workshop took place virtually yesterday and today to give everyone a chance to collaborate. The group of students I was put into on day 1 joined forces with a group of students in Glasgow who have ideas along the same lines as ours. Through softwares Slack and Fuze we communicated over video meetings and chat rooms to brainstorm new ideas -- anything we could think of to better the world.   

Day 3

Today continued with brainstorming more ideas. In the end my group came up with over 100. It was at that point that I was really starting to feel skeptical about the workshop as a whole. I worried that my idea that I’m working so hard to move forward was getting lost in the mix of so many others and I definitely didn’t feel any better when it came time for everyone in our group to vote for their favorite ideas. We were each given five votes and I was certain that my idea wouldn’t receive any from anyone but me. It’s hard to feel confident about a makeup-related idea when I’m part of a group of people that includes sound designers, interior designers, and photographers. Makeup just doesn’t seem as credible as any of those other disciplines; just the other day I was in the CSM library looking for books on the history of tribal makeup but the only makeup books the library had were on stage makeup. But to my surprise, out of the 100+ ideas that my group had come up with, my idea to use makeup to improve communication and understanding received the most votes. This restored my confidence completely and I enthusiastically moved on to the next step of the process.

Three of the other 100+ ideas made it into a top four. From there our 12 group members chose their favorite ideas of the four and we broke into smaller sub-groups. I’m now in a group of four students and together we talked about my idea and mood boarded it out. It felt so good to bring people into something I’ve been thinking about for months and doing very much on my own. My next post is completely dedicated to the process my group and I went through.

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A Future Intervention

I’ve been thinking a lot about how I want to bring different ideas for this project together. When I met with Cecilia Mezzi she believed the uniqueness of the work I’m doing would garner a lot of press attention. She offered to help me with press as soon as my ideas were a bit further off the ground. Since then, I’ve been approached by Richard Baffoe, Co-Founder of The Single Boss, who invited me to write an article on the unconventional work I’m doing with makeup for his company’s new magazine. The article isn’t published yet but writing it gave me the confidence to really start brainstorming for my next step. Once I’ve planned it I’ll invite Cecilia to share the information with her journalist contacts in order to spread the word about my project and get it off the ground. 

I imagine an intervention taking shape in the form of an event. By collaborating with MasterPeace, “a luxury drop-in art experience for adults who want to learn to paint mindfully and express themselves creatively”, I would like to invite couples, families, and friends to participate in a day or evening of painting with makeup on canvases or on each other's faces with the intention to improve their communication and better understand each other. I imagine this event being held on the roof of my flat (photo below).

I’ve already reached out to a friend of mine who recently became the marketing director for MasterPeace. She loved the concept and passed the idea along to the MasterPeace founders so I’m hopeful that this can happen!

For advice on how to make an event like this come together and function well I’ve reached out to Charlie Craggs, author and founder of Nail Transphobia, “an organization that exists to educate people on trans issues and make new allies, while also delivering glamorous manicures”, as said by British Vogue. 

Charlie attended London College of Fashion (where I did my BA in Hair and Makeup for Fashion) and she worked for the college’s magazine, Pigeons and Peacocks. The first makeup work of mine that was ever published was done so by Charlie. I’ve always admired her work ethic, ingenuity and commitment to taking something as seemingly superficial as nail polish and using it to raise awareness, educate, and affect positive change. Charlie and Nail Transphobia inspire me so much and I’m looking forward to learning directly from her. 

In order to capture the event I have in mind I’ll need a filmmaker on board so I’ve reached out to my friend Aidan who is an incredible director. He participated in my project in the very early stages when he spoke to me about what it’s like to be a man (with a girlfriend) who wears a full face of makeup everyday. Since Aidan’s work is so brilliant and makeup directly affects his life I think he’s the perfect person to continue including in this project. 

For my next step I plan to reach out to makeup artist Bea Sweet who I’ve had the pleasure of learning from and assisting. Bea’s approach to makeup is extremely artistic. 

Bea has gained a lot of recognition and has a solid following so I’m thinking she would be a good person to ask about brands that might be willing to donate makeup for this event.

Finally, an event won’t be anything without participants so I’ve taken to Instagram to find out if people would be interested in getting creative with makeup with the intention to become closer with the people they’re already closest to; this includes romantic partners, family members and friends -- all gender pairings are welcome. 96% of the 23 people who voted in my Instagram poll are interested in being a part of something like this.

14 out of the 22 interested voters are London-based. I plan to invite them to the event and ask them to bring a +1 to do makeup with or on. I have a separate activity for the rest of the interested voters who are based in other parts of the world. I’ll talk about that in a future post!