(12/03) Collage edit development.

I keep returning to faces in the representation of Dementia. They are the first thing we recall when we think of a person, it is what we use to identify and read an individual. It is our most base way of communicating our emotions and state of being. It’s the first form we use when we are born to communicate with those around us. Similarly it is how we identify emotions in others, specifically in the eyes, its how we connect. Take that away and you lose some of the human connection. And on a base level not being able to find a face disturbs us as we can no longer imbue it with humanity, and so we are mistrusting. Such as in movies with bad cgi. We may not be able to tell how we know it is not real, but on a base level we just know, because of factors we do not take in consciously. Our care for them seems vain and yet it does not determine ultimately how much we care for the individual only that that face belongs to them.

I wanted to see how far I could push the face and for it still to be readable that way. Inspired by my research into the tv show 'Westward' in which they make robots look human, and thus try to find where the humanity lies. Similarly people may have an adverse response to people in masks or heavy prosthetics as it take away the ability to properly emote naturally, and thus on a base level they are distrusting of it.