Final Project Research Progress

In my continued progress, I've collected many images from sites that will be helpful in my continued collage explorations. As a classmate suggested. I'd also like to conduct a sort of community-based research aspect and take images of women and cut them based on features. From there I'd like to have some people from the community take the features and combine them into the "new idealized woman" to see how different the public's combined perception of beauty may be. From here I've been considering how I can conduct this in a COVID-friendly way so maybe a digital platform would be helpful as well. In my loose research of social media so far I've found a few users that take the perfect expectations to be beautiful and show themselves with imperfections celebrating that. Some of these influencers are Danae Mercer, Jessica Blair, and Ariell Anyssa who post images embracing all parts of themselves and not placing emphasis on an ideal body type. I'm also considering making an Instagram page for my final that promotes body positivity counteracting unrealistic images. I want my final to be hopeful for societal change rather than just pointing out negatives.

Another idea I had was to submit images to designers on Fiver (an online freelance site for designers) and ask different designers to photoshop certain images to make them the ideal standard of beauty. This would be a really interesting experiment and it would point out the moving dynamics of beauty standards; they are not stagnant. My overarching goal is to inspire change in the viewership of ideal images and for individuals to embrace imperfections as beyond unique and beautiful. I've also been collecting images for mood boards that I can continue to collage with.

This is a collage I did last week for another art history class but I wanted to include it as inspiration for looking into layering images in different ways. Collage is very pervasive in my life in many different ways so I also want to start exploring that autoethnography more.

PROGRESS 3/31

Today I worked on looking into different methods of collage and going through the different artifacts that I've collected through the years and what those may say about my experience with identity. I had the idea to use coffee filters as an autoethnographic element being that I drink coffee all the time and it is a defining factor of my day to day life. As I'm looking for artifacts like that I also think about my collection of clothing tags that I've saved for many years and how those may say something about the connection I have to self-expression through apparel as a way to do so. I also have collected things like rocks, bottle caps, and natural elements like leaves. This also speaks to my experience of looking to nature as an escape and refuge away from the anxiety that media exposure may have caused. Incorporating these personal materials into the collage would be important to demonstrate my story and a bit into my experience. I've even been looking into using old makeup as drawing implements and how those objects may be included in my art-making. I also have loved collecting old used things since I've been young which I picked up from my mom so I have a collection of odd items like hundreds of old matchbooks I picked up from an estate sale. For some reason I like items that already have a character of their own and that are used and worn, it makes me feel like taking these items into my life is something special, remembered, and carried on almost like a tradition. I'm really curious to explore these things further.

I like collecting old cameras and books that may not even work anymore but there's a sort of sentimentality that comes along with these pre-used items.

Matchbooks from all over from an estate sale in my neighborhood. When I used the matches I feel like I'm stepping back in time to the place that the book is from.

I've collected quite a few old photo slides from the antique mall on South College and I like looking at these moments that other people captured even if they aren't my own I still appreciate them.

5 SOURCES

Yamamiya, Yuko, Thomas F. Cash, Susan E. Melnyk, Heidi D. Posavac, Steven S. Posavac. Body Image: Women's exposure to thin-and-beautiful media images: body image effects of media-ideal internalization and impact-reduction interventions. Elsevier, 2005.

Perloff, Richard M. "Social Media Effects on Young Women's Body Image Concerns: Theoretical Perspectives and an Agenda for Research." Feminist Forum Review Article. May 2014: 363-365.

López-Guimerà, Gemma. Levine, Michael P. "Influence of Mass Media on Body Image and Eating Disordered Attitudes and Behaviors in Females: A Review of Effects and Processes," Media Psychology, 2010: 387-416.

Milkie, Melissa A. "Social Comparisons, Reflected Appraisals, and Mass Media: The Impact of Pervasive Beauty Images on Black and White Girls' Self-Concepts." Social Psychology Quarterly 62, 1999: 190-210.

Dittmar, Helga. Consumer Culture, Identity, and Well-Being: The Search for the 'Good Life' and the 'Body Perfect'. United Kingdom: Taylor & Francis, 2007.

El Jurdi, H. and Smith, S. "Mirror, mirror: national identity and the pursuit of beauty", Journal of Consumer Marketing, 2018: 40-50.