For a performative object, I’ve been thinking about a mask with changeable structure. I’ve been thinking a lot about my work with the Rogue Artists recently, and the Bell article on puppets and masks in the 20th century got me thinking about one of my favorite articles from ages ago that detailed the way humans perceive unconscious signals in our faces. It was brought up in the context of digital animation, and the challenges in modeling the human face when there are dozens of muscles in there changing the shape and the opacity of the skin. My favorite anecdote is that, because of the way our skin stretches when we’re happy, when someone says “you’re glowing!” you actually are glowing – or, rather, your skin is opaque and reflects more light when you’re happy. How wonderful is that?

But to the task at hand: I’ve been thinking about a mask with a silicon skin on top of it that can be manipulated by motors beneath it to change the shape of the mask. The goal would be to convey readable and changeable emotions while working with an abstract and grotesque mask. It’s not uncommon to see puppets with eyebrows to convey emotion, and I’m thinking of something similar in the mask, but a bit less obvious, as the shape of the brow itself would appear to be changing. The key pieces would be above and below each eye, and several around the mouth. Once I had established shapes for each of them that would move in an understandable way, they could be combined into “macros” which would adjust the entire face of the mask into an expression which could be controlled by the performer.

Masks are usually equalizing and archetypical, so the notion of reconfiguring one in front of an audience is actually more akin to puppetry than mask design. Effectively, the performer would be manipulating a puppet worn on his face, rather than held distant from his body.