louisa-townsend-fmp-hair

[louisa-townsend-fmp-hair]

[louisa-townsend-fmp-hair]

The state has been under totalitarian rule for 10 years.

Everybody’s heads are shaved.

Their hair is harvested and sold to other nations.

It is the state’s biggest income.

They are given just one type of clothing; a calico tunic.

The system has been wiped clean, artefacts from the world before have been destroyed.

Most have lost their memories of the previous world. 

A few still remember.

They use their clothing to express their rebellion.

They reflect their hair in the way they dress.

[louisa-townsend-fmp-hair]

A New Narrative

Mark suggested that I may find it valuable to rework a story that already exists rather than trying to completely invent a new one I think this is the best way for me to move forward with a story to develop my characters and designs

[louisa-townsend-fmp-hair]

A Rethink

I think I've been desperately trying to draw more ideas in order to create a story but I've realised that just wasn't working.

Ellie recommended I look over all of the work I've don't, all the material testing, silhouettes and character designs I've made in order to pick out the most useful resources.

I think I've felt that I needed to use ALL of the information I have gathered otherwise it was a waste, but that has got me stuck in a loop of trying to recycle the same limited idea. I have also realised that I have been valuing 2nd hand, written research over the personal conversation I've had and my own attitudes towards my hair as I feel that is more concrete research but really when discussing a topic that is as personal as hair I think personal experience is the best place to look.

I’ve been struggling to analyse my research on the blog as you can only f=view a few sheets at a time, so this morning I have been looking over my work as a collective to decide on which parts I find most exciting and which parts were interesting and useful to explore but won't directly be reflected in my final designs.

file:///Users/lulutownsend/Downloads/WHERE%20IM%20AT%20NOW.m4a

[louisa-townsend-fmp-hair]

A Change of Direction

After my tutorial with Ellie I have been trying to really distill what the assumptions are that we have attributed to hair, based on a history of heteronormative and patriarchal societies. 

From this process I have realised that I don’t think there is enough of a concrete idea there to base an entire story on it.

Here I tried to define the characters I could make from the ‘assumptions’ but I’ve realised that that idea just isn't solid enough.

I think I'm trying too hard to voice a revolutionary, intellectual and political message through this story idea but I do not really have a message to voice. I think I need to revisit my body of work and think of another theme for a story.

[louisa-townsend-fmp-hair]

Who’s narrative are we following

Interestingly the narrative we seem to have adopted around hair isn't the voice of ancient history but of men publishing their ideas in the 1950s.

I think it could be interesting to bring the aesthetic of 1950s masculinity and femininity into my designs. In my tutorial last week Ellie mentioned the idea of FUTURE RETRO and creating an abstract world which reflects society from specific pints in history. This is something I want to develop as I think it will really help to inform the world building of my project.

[louisa-townsend-fmp-hair]

A world with no hair

I took inspiration from my sister’s few ‘habitual hairstyles’ throughout the years. It went through phases but at each point you would only ever see her hair in that style. It became a source comfort for her and almost like an extension of her body.

What would a world look like where we are each given one ‘hairstyle’ at birth but it is a part of our skull?

[louisa-townsend-fmp-hair]

Turning to my childhood brain for inspiration

[louisa-townsend-fmp-hair]

MEDIUM: Theatre

AUDIENCE: I want to play with the preconceptions the modern viewer has around hair, and how were grown to judge others’ gender and sexuality through the appearance of their hair

STORY:

CHARACTERS:

I’ve been playing with the idea of setting my production in a world where nobody has hair. I’m interested in how the importance we place on hair might translate in a world in which it no longer exists. 

[louisa-townsend-fmp-hair]

My Model. My Muse.  My Lead

I want to use my sister as my model and performer for my costume. She was the inspiration behind this this topic, she has a very clear attitude towards hair which I think will be interesting to play with as I create the costume and being as I'm currently in quarantine with her, she’s pretty much available for drapes, fittings and performances whenever I need her.

Right now I'm pretty stuck with the story part of the costume design process. I know I want to play with the preconceptions we have around people’s sexuality, sexual behaviour and gender expression based on the hair on our heads but I am really struggling to create a whole story from that. I remember I found drawing some ideas of interesting characters first to be super useful in the ‘BODY DISTORTIONS’ project so I’m going to use my sister as the basis to create some possible characters to help inspire a story.

[louisa-townsend-fmp-hair]

Summary of my project

The focus of my research for the past few weeks has been on hair and gender; I'm particularly interested in the assumptions we make about people based on their hair and how we use it to judge their gender identity, sexuality and sexual expression.

5 Most Important Finds

[louisa-townsend-fmp-hair]

Hair in Costume

UNRESTRAINED SEXUALITY. I took inspiration from my ‘MANIFESTO’ project in December in which I created a garment out of a smocked textile. I remember at the time thinking it looked rather vaginal so thought it could be a fun thing to bring into this project to reflect the idea of unrestrained sexuality.

This was also inspired by the wigs created by Mecca Christophe in the ‘HAIROTICA’ series

RESTRICTED SEXUALITY.

WIRY HAIR. I’ve found the description of hair as ‘wiry’ to be synonymous with old age. This body cage, made of wire would alter the silhouette of the actor to replicate the stature of an old body. 

[louisa-townsend-fmp-hair]

Hair Today

I’ve been interested in the craze that has swept the nation during quarantine of people shaving their heads at home. Whilst the trend has mostly been seen in men I am interested in the stories of the women who have also decided to shave their heads. The greatest similarity I have found between each person’s anecdote is that they chose this time of self isolation because they were scared they might regret it and at least, at this time, very few people will see it. I find this idea of REGRET to be much bigger amongst women shaving their heads as I think we've been brought up to believe our hair is a valuable possession of and is one we must hold on to to be deemed beautiful. I think women have a lot of FEAR around the idea of losing our hair and choosing to do so induces the same effect.

[louisa-townsend-fmp-hair]

Hair Online

Miranda Sawyer: A personal history of blonde ambition 

https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/commentators/miranda-sawyer-a-personal-history-of-blonde-ambition-120419.html

Late Night Woman's Hour: Hair

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/b09fzt89

Notes Toward a Theory of Hair: Novelist Siri Hustvedt reflects on the cultural meaning of coiffure

https://newrepublic.com/article/122893/notes-toward-theory-hair

[louisa-townsend-fmp-hair]

Hair in Literature

I skimmed through a couple of novels on my bookshelf (mostly from the twentieth century) to find written descriptions of hair. I tried to reflect these descriptions through different illustrations, drapes, found materials and photographs. With these I also started to look at how descriptions of hair are used to influence the readers’ view of each character, to begin considering how I may be able to play with the way an audience may view the characters I create.

The Great Gatsby- F. Scott Fitzgerald (1925)

The House of Mirth- Edith Wharton (1905)

East of Eden- John Steinbeck (1952)

Wuthering Heights- Emily Brontë (1847)

Tess of the D’Urbervilles- Thomas Hardy (1891)

[louisa-townsend-fmp-hair]

Peer Assessment 25/03/20

Rashmi, Nicole and I held a pin up on Zoom in which we discussed our FMP subjects and suggested areas of research and ideas to consider. Some ideas they suggested to me were:

- Analysing how other people respond, act and generally behave differently towards others based on their hair. I think this could be a really interesting approach to the topic of hair as is not only shows how individuals chose to express their identity through their hair but how that decision in treated and the injustices placed on certain hair textures and cuts.

- Salons that specialise in empowering children through their hair. Afro hair has long been discriminated against and can be a point of great misunderstanding in transracial families. This article ( https://www.femestella.com/salon-how-to-do-black-childrens-hair/ ) describes a company that specialise in teaching white parents how to style and care for their children’s afro-textured hair.

- The past tradition of shaving widows heads in India. Women were often punished for their husband’s death and this is a common form of punishment that was used. This is a topic I am interested to explore further.

- Temples in which people offer their hair either as religious sacrifice or as an offering to the temple. This type of offering is unique as it is both a possession and a part of the human body that is being given up; for this reason this act of offering holds great symbolism. This article ( https://www.amusingplanet.com/2017/11/the-hairy-secret-behind-indian-temples.html) discusses this practice but from an immoral standpoint in which sometimes the hair offered is sold to companies making wigs and extensions but gives the providers nothing in return. This is a topic I want to investigate further as a believe there is quite a large practice of exploitation behind the wig and hair extension industry. This is another article discussing this topic: https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2012/oct/28/hair-extension-global-trade-secrets

- The tradition of judges wearing wigs in court dates from the 1700s; I would be interested to further understand why this tradition formed and how it is still relevant in todays world.

I am interested in looking at each of these topics further as I decide on the subject of focus for my FMP project about hair.

[louisa-townsend-fmp-hair]

Hair in Conversation

Interview with my mum

I interviewed my mum on her hair throughout her life; this mostly focused on the comfort she has found in having pretty much the same hairstyle through most of her life, how ageing has affected how she views her hair and her reluctance to let her hair show her age, the few hair trends of the C19th she participated in, and finally how childhood bullying had impacted her relationship with her natural colour throughout her life.