Behind the mask: discovering a new identity (original) (raw)
Related papers
The Mask as the Throughway to the Beyond. A Philosophical Analysis of a Basic Way of Thinking
Ultimate Reality and Meaning, 1985
For most of us, the mask is basically a toy or an artefact that belongs to a museum. If the man in the street has not worn his mask at the last carnival festival, he will not forget to wear it for the holdup of a postal train, or to enter into a highly toxic zone like, for instance, the 'Place de l'Etoile' in Paris, or a contaminated nuclear centre (e.g. Three Mile Island). Aside from these particular circumstances, people in the 20th century live proudly without a mask, holding high their culture and civilization. Whether he/she works, sleeps, eats, celebrates or drags his/her friends into bars or churches, the normal man blinded with individual liberty, has thrown away all masks. The mask was employed by men on all continents from the beginning of history. It is a phenomenon of culture, cult, rite, religion and magic. It was used during initiations and during practices such as witchcraft and was manipulated by secret associations. A drawing at Tejat, France, dated from the paleolithic era shows hunting-masked-dancers (Behn, 1955, table 11). From the oldest times, ancient Greece has deployed all sorts of masks: the cult of Dionysius, classical theater, and later on the Roman and Renaissance theater. There is a strong possibility that the word 'Mask' comes from the arabic word mash,arah 'mockery, buffoonery, foolery,' which gave the Italian word 'maschera'. It was during the seventeenth and eigtheenth century that masks were used in the 'commedia dell arte'. Since then, the expression 'mask' is associated with the idea of frivolity, amusement, and also falsehood as a wrong or false face. Nowadays masks are left with carnivals or seasonal ceremonies for instance in South America, Switzerland, and other European countries. Central and western Africa have basically kept the living spontaneity of the mask in its cultural and animistic signification (
Philip Michael Ondaatje is a great anti-colonial contemporary writer whose novels are mainly preoccupied with the life of the oppressed and the colonized who are suffering from the loss of true self and identity. The present study was an attempt to read Michael Ondaatje's novels, In the Skin of a Lion and Anil's Ghost, under the light of W.E.B. Du Bois's and Frantz Fanon's theories of double consciousness. Double consciousness refers to the nature of the colonized individuals who look at their selves through the eyes of the other and to the ways they take on two different cultural identities at the same time. Therefore, the researcher will apply concept of double conscious to depict the ways the colonized feel out of place in colonized society, how they are behaved, how they resist this situation and why the colonized wear mask and why they try to remove it aftermath. I am talking of millions of men who have been skillfully injected with fear, inferiority complexes, trepidation, servility, despair, abasement. -Aime Cesaire, Discourse sur le Colonialisme
Studying the Role of Mask in Art and Culture
International Journal of Applied Arts Studies, 2022
Mask is one of the objects that date back to ancient times. Masks can have a magical or religious function. They may appear in "Tasharof" ritual or as makeup in a theatrical form or used to change a person's appearance in a ritual ceremony. The use of masks as a cover is seen in the native and old cultures of different countries. Considering the diversity and spread of masks all over the world, masks can be considered a cultural message that is mixed with local and regional art. In this article, it is concluded that mask in Iran represents the aspects of display and display, and in art, it represents an artistic tool by which the artist dissolves into another character.
In Geburt der Tragödie (The Birth of Tragedy) Nietzsche emphasises that "it is only as an aesthetic phenomenon that existence and the world are eternally justified." The fusion of existence and art, as suggested here, is predicated on a synthetic individuation of the Apollinisch and the Dionysisch that Nietzsche seems to tacitly contrast with an ethical-moral phenomenon. However, the prevailing social-conventional polarisation of values-especially of good and evil-are barely repealed in an aesthetic phenomenon. Nietzsche's later reflections in the middle phase of his philosophising point to the fact that aesthetics transcends the moral or ethical dichotomies. In my talk I try to show how Nietzsche seeks in his conception of the aesthetic phenomenon a certain substitute for the principium individuationis that he inherits from Schopenhauer, and how this motif unfolds in his later works into a basic idea of "mask" that "is constantly growing around every profound spirit". Mask as principium individuationis clearly attains the status of an aesthetic phenomenon in which-as Nietzsche puts it-the artist himself becomes a work of art. This requires an extended study of the use of masks in aesthetic contexts-both in the Occident as well as in the Orient-from medieval bacchanalian masquerades or Theyyam to the modern performing arts such as opera, theatre, Kathakali, etc.
International Conference MASKS AND METAMORPHOSIS (Helsinki 3th-4th of October 2014)
Masks are present almost everywhere in the world. They could conceal an identity, in order to show another one. In traditional societies, masks reveal and make tangible what is normally invisible: the world of deities, heroes, ancestors, shape-shifters, tricksters and monsters. The Ancient Greek theatre was masked, mythological and considered an integral part of the frenzy festival of the God Dionysos. In carnivals the masks give people a change to break social norms for few days and assume transgressive identities. Mask are still used today in stage theatre: while some companies are following traditional patterns (the Italian “Commedia dell'Arte”) others are performing in surprising and innovative ways, looking into the past with a contemporary sensibility. This multidisciplinary conference joins up scholars of folk beliefs, cultural anthropologists, art experts, actors and directors who will analyse Masks and Metamorphosis in Native North American, Finno-Ugric, North Italian and Asian traditions, and in contemporary Finnish theatre.
MASK: Dialogue between an inside and an outside perspective of costume
Studies in costume & performance, 2018
This visual essay introduces an independent collaborative artistic research project between costume designers Charlotte Østergaard and Jeppe Worning utilizing mask as costume to examine one's relationship to the MASK from two perspectives: inside and outside. The research process starts with artistic practice: beginning by interacting with the objects/materials of study, we engage in a critical dialogue with the experiences we invoke. How can we as costume designers have an awareness of the costume from within and at the same time keep a gaze from the outside? Starting from the inside, we must dare to act as performers wearing the object of study, feeling it from the inside. As a wearer, the feeling of the material on the body may be a personal experience; it is also critical to incorporate a second perspective-perceiving the MASK from the outside. This project provoked a critical dialogue between the sensorial feeling (inside) and the visual expression (outside) of the mask. The dialogue between these two perspectives challenges us to become 'active observers' to our artistic expression. KEYWORDS costume design method mask sensory qualities aesthetic qualities movement artistic research inside outside CHARLOTTE ØSTERGAARD Independent Costume, Textile and Fashion Designer MASK: Dialogue between an inside and an outside perspective of costume VISUAL ESSAY
Elusive Masks: A Semiotic Approach of Contemporary Acts of Masking
Lexia. Revista di Semiotica, 2021
Elusive masks made by artists, designers, and creative citizens are more and more worn during urban protests in order to elude facial recognition software used for mass surveillance programs. The present article discusses some of the semiotic functioning of elusive masks, starting from a exploration of the concept of 'mask' and its ritualistic collective functions maintained in contemporaneity. This will allow to analysed some cases studies according to the first Peircean trichotomy, that of the sign in itself, with the aim of understanding how masks respond to facial recognition systems in urban contexts. The correlation between the natural and the artificial face is also considered, paying particular attention to the transformations originated by these masks, as an expression of resistance tactics against such computational surveillance tactics.
MASK: Dialogue between an inside and an outside perspective of costume
Studies in Costume & Performance, 2018
This visual essay introduces an independent collaborative artistic research project between costume designers Charlotte Østergaard and Jeppe Worning utilizing mask as costume to examine one’s relationship to the MASK from two perspectives: inside and outside. The research process starts with artistic practice: beginning by interacting with the objects/materials of study, we engage in a critical dialogue with the experiences we invoke. How can we as costume designers have an awareness of the costume from within and at the same time keep a gaze from the outside? Starting from the inside, we must dare to act as performers wearing the object of study, feeling it from the inside. As a wearer, the feeling of the material on the body may be a personal experience; it is also critical to incorporate a second perspective – perceiving the MASK from the outside. This project provoked a critical dialogue between the sensorial feeling (inside) and the visual expression (outside) of the mask. The dialogue between these two perspectives challenges us to become ‘active observers’ to our artistic expression.
Intgernational Journal of Indian Psychology, 2023
We all wear a mask over our real selves. We were not born with the mask but as we grow, society starts building a mask over our persona by guiding us to make us accept societal norms and standards. We become artificial because we want to please others and seek their acceptance. We speak and act not the way our inner self guides us but as others want us to. In this process, we move away from our real selves. We forget the fact that "You were not born on earth to please anyone; you have to live life to express yourself, not to impress someone. Don't pretend to be someone you're not, and never lose yourself in search of other people's acceptance and approval."-Roy T. Bennett In this paper we would explore how gradually we become unreal, what is the mask-the persona, why the persona develops to hide the real self, the benefits and disadvantages of the mask, and shall also look at the flip side of it i.e., the benefits of not having the mask-advantages of being your true self and how to move towards becoming your real self.