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13 Things 2009

13 Things 2008


Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology

Search Brown

 

 

Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology & the Ancient World
Brown University
Box 1837 / 60 George Street
Providence, RI 02912
Telephone: (401) 863-3188
Fax: (401) 863-9423
[email protected]

What is a mask? A mask can be created by many methods involving many different mediums. It can be used as a tool in ritual, a prop in theater, a covering for the dead, or a house decoration. Variations of the mask occur all over the world and all throughout time. So, that brings us back to the question: what is a mask? What do masks have in common, so that the “thing” we observe can be definitively called a “mask”?

To help answer this question I will look at masks from a phenomenological standpoint. I am going to observe how it feels to wear a mask. Physically masks inhibit sight and movement, however, psychologically masks can free a person to behave in ways they would not do normally. I will explore both how different masks feel, in terms of physical relationships and how they affect a body moving through space. At the same time I will try to investigate the way in which the mask becomes a tool in which a person can change themselves to fulfill different criteria, like a ritual priest at a ceremony wearing a mask. Masks offer an opportunity that few “things” can. Masks conceal and deceive, but at the same time they exaggerate and distort the most recognizable, and indeed, most sensual parts of a human face. In one way a mask turns a person in a caricature of a person, or of themselves.

So, to understand this concept I will perform two case studies. For the first case study I will investigate the use of the mask in the theater. I will pay particular attention to Ancient Greek Theater, as well as some Commedia Del’ Arte. These are two theater forms that are entirely based on the utilization of masks to create and enhance characters. As for the phenomenology of this case study, I will get an actor’s insight into performing with masks. However, even more important for this case study is the phenomenon the audience experience while watching a masked performance. This especially applies to Ancient Greek Theater since the audience felt it necessary to have all the actors completely masked and covered.

In my second case study I will observe Halloween. Halloween provides ample opportunity to observe people using masks and costumes to alter themselves, and become something new for a night. I want to observe behavior and hopefully I will be able to get a first person account of what it is like to wear a mask on Halloween. Some other things I will touch on are masks as art, the ritual aspect of masks, and the life history of masks. I will try and understand why masks are used to decorate walls now, like any high class painting, while at the same time this “art” is being mass produced and distributed to the many. The use of masks in ritual ties in, and contributes, to both the theater and Halloween case study. Finally, the life history of masks will enable me to place my study of masks within a better time structure. It will explore both the lifeline of a single mask and the history of masks in general.

The main purpose of this project is to see how just a “thing”, just a material object, can play such an instrumental role in altering a human’s persona and identity. This is an attempt to perhaps cut down the separations between the human and the “thing” world. By trying to understand what a “mask” is I will focus on not what a mask is, but how a mask affects us. In addition, I have a few masks that I have collected from travels I have taken. I will use this opportunity to put them to good use and use them for