MIRROR IMAGE
ONES ALTER EGO OR HIGHER SELF
BEAUTY IDEALS
IN MODERN CULTURE
THE PERFECT FACE:
Two different pictures show how men and women both perceive female beauty. They were both asked to build up the perfect face using features from some of the most beautiful women in the world.
Men: Blonde hair, full lips, strong cheekbones and a petite nose with fine eyebrows.
Women: Raven hair, a stronger nose and forehead profile, strong brows and narrower bone structure.
This demonstrates the differences in preference for men and women when it comes to the female face.
DNews. (2013). Men and women have VERY different ideas about beauty. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MNiaecA_2Es (Accessed: 2 April 2015).
ORIGINAL IDEAL
We tend to hide our physical imperfections from others and yet we simultaneously believe that vanity is a negative trait. This psychological disparity makes it difficult to know what we would change about ourselves if no one were looking. By using common neuroscience techniques, artist Scott Chasserot was able to bypass this cognitive processing and attain an image showing how we would prefer to look before conscious thought got in the way.
PROCESS
Chasserot, S. (2015). originalideal. Available at: http://originalideal.com/ (Accessed: 1 April 2015).
All images: Chasserot, S. (2015). originalideal. Available at: http://originalideal.com/ (Accessed: 1 April 2015).
Natural Ideal Self
Natural Ideal Self
Natural
Ideal Self
Steps:
-The subject is photographed in the studio, expressionless and with all temporary features such as jewellery; clothing and hair either minimised or removed. The aim is to isolate the permanent facial features.
-Dozens of versions of the original portrait are produced, each one a new but recognisable face. These versions involve manipulations, which adhere to the scientific cannons of beauty or go against them.
-The subject is connected to a brain scanner and watches a slideshow of versions of their own face for the first time. In this way, the immediate emotional reactions can be recorded accurately. The following data analysis allows us to establish which image they prefer without having to ask them verbally.
-The final result is a series of diptychs, showing the original portrait along side the preconscious ideal of each subject. With this process we could obtain an accurate visual representation of the distance between the persons reality and their ideal self.
Above Male: stronger cheekbones, wider set eyes, wider jaw, upturned nose.
Older Female: Vibrant eyes, fuller lips, longer neck and her clavicle to shoulder area is more slender and elongated.
Child: Longer and fuller lips, taller forehead, smaller nose, slimmer shoulders and larger- wider eyes.
Chasserot, S. (2015). originalideal. Available at: http://originalideal.com/ (Accessed: 1 April 2015).
This research shows each persons preference of self in the most unadorned, simplest form. The photos were modified into fifty different versions of the original and shown to the individual one by one, while monitoring their brain activity using an EEG brain scanner. Data collected from the brain scanner revealed the photo that generated the strongest positive reaction.
SCIENTIFICALLY BEAUTIFUL:
Florence Colgate has a perfectly symmetrical face, with large eyes, full lips and high cheekbones. Qualities which many women are prepared to pay a lot of money for through cosmetic surgery. She entered a competition which was about natural beauty and her face is considered near perfect according to science.
Researchers who have studied attractiveness have said that on a perfect face the distance between pupils is 46% of the width of the face from ear to ear and Florence is 44%. The distance between the eyes and mouth should be a third of the length of the face and Florence’s is 32.8%.
IBTimesTV. (2012). Schoolgirl has the most scientifically beautiful face. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rKhlFic_A5A (Accessed: 1 April 2015).
A picture of Florence will soon be on display in all Superdrug stores throughout Britain, this shows how current high street brands promote a generic beauty to sell their products based on the ‘ideal beauty’ mask.
Meissner, G. (2014) Facial Analysis and the Beauty Mask. [online]. Available from: http://www.goldennumber.net/beauty/. [Accessed 29 March 2015]
2009 UNIVERSITY STUDY ON ATTRACTIVENESS:
Florence Colgate, Britain’s “Most Perfect Face” of 2012
Modern cultural developments often state that beauty is in the eye of the beholder and that beauty varies by race, culture or era. However, evidence shows that our perception of exterior beauty is programmed into our being and closeness to ‘The Golden Ratio’ appears to proportionally reflect a beautiful face.
THE BEAUTY MASK
Dr. Marquardt performed cross-cultural surveys on beauty and found that all groups had the same perceptions of facial beauty. He also analyzed the human face from ancient times to the modern day. Through his research, he discovered that beauty is not only related to phi, but can be defined for both genders and for all races, cultures and eras with the beauty mask which he developed and patented.
Below: Meissner, G. (2014) Facial Analysis and the Beauty Mask. [online]. Available from: http://www.goldennumber.net/beauty/. [Accessed 29 March 2015]
Interestingly, symmetry in the face does not necessarily equate to beauty. Many, if not most, faces that are perceived as beautiful are usually not even close to being perfect in symmetry of the left and right sides. Perfect symmetry tends to result in a face that appears unnatural, animated or robot-like. (Meissner, G. 2014)
MBA is dedicated to proactively researching human visual aesthetics, including its biological and mathematical bases, and to utilizing the results of that research to develop and provide information and technology with which to analyze and positively modify (i.e. improve) human visual attractiveness. (Marquardt, S. 2014)
THE HUMAN FACE EP 3: BEAUTY
WITH JOHN CLEESE, MBA IN THE MEDIA
THE HUMAN FACE. Episode 3. (2001). BBC. 7 March. [Television]
-Dr stephen R. Marquardt- oral and maxillofacial surgeon:
-Job is to make faces make faces more attractive ever from deformed from accidents or from birth
-What attractiveness is? He went out and asked people that worked within the beauty industry. Nobody knew? They all just have different opinions
-Everybody in the world with about 99 percent ranked the photographs in the same order on the above video.
Notes Taken:
What is beauty and is it in the eye of the beholder? Henry at 21, studying and at 42 had facial cancer.
Beautiful people get the top jobs, beauty is in the eyes of the beholder. The fashion industry is unanimous, sarah ducas is the head of the storm model agency. She believes that the idea of beauty is fast flowing and constantly changing. The face- magazine- You cannot have a weak jaw and having wide eyes is a good quality
Universal factors:
Baby's are seen to be attractive- plump cheeks, rosebud lips and large eyes. Helpless nurture me look, good looking babys often stay good looking. Youth and health for mating behaviour- clear smooth skin and full lips. Lips get thinner with age and a full lip is seen as youthful, healthy and beautiful- Dr. David Buss
Youthful features advertise sex and sex sells product. Model is beautiful because of her mix of adult and baby features: babys chin and cupids bow, her high cheekbones, nose and flawless skin is beautiful in an adult sense
Psychologists argue that when you get aroused your lips become larger, darker and fuller
Researchers show that babys spend longer looking at adults with smooth skin, big eyes and big lips. Beauty matters even more than we consciously realise.
The model Incorporates the adult beauty of the high cheekbones and the pretty nose, nice forehead and nice jawline. But also the slightly retreated chin and the cupids bow upper lip, very short cupids bow like a baby, the lower jaw features of an infant which is very attractive combined with the adult features and big eyes.
A Symmetrical face is typically a healthy face, when you depict something as asymmetric you are not seen as beautiful. In a more primitive sense the face advertises health. Clear complected individual as the hero, skin becomes a moral reflection.
Greek philosopher: Pythagorus theorem: Plants and animals grow precise to mathematical laws- based on a geometric ratio. The key to beauty was the ratio of 1 to 1.618. Floor to navel and navel to head, if you are well proportioned that ratio should be correct.
From the above video: If the face wasn’t beautiful then that wasn’t the case. Dentists in their dental work noticed that the upper front tooth was 1.618 x as wide as the next tooth over the lateral incisor, so the central incisor was as wide as the next tooth over.
The mask was used as a template for a surgeon when fixing facial deformities. The below images are examples of the mask being used on one of the patients for facial reconstruction surgery. Eye bags, full face lift, uplifted breast and a full face peel - joan rivers.
Above image and below text: Marquardt Beauty Analysis. (2014) Defining Facial Beauty. [online]. Available from: www.beautyanalysis.com/research/perfect-face/archetype-theory/. [Accessed 1 April 2015]
‘Classification’ theories and science and technology have always played a significant role in characterising the face. From Ancient Greece to our modern day, the classification of the beautiful (and ‘good’) face has been based on balance and symmetry. According to the evolutionary psychologist Steven Gangstead, ‘Symmetry alone explains why Elizabeth Taylor, Denzel Washington and Queen Nefertiti are universally recognised as beautiful.’
(Kemp, Bruce and Linney, 2004. p. 101)
Recent research shows that we are genetically programmed to prefer symmetrical faces. And certainly, although there are wide differences between individuals and across culturs in what is considered physically attractive, there is a remarkable consensus of agreement about what constitutes facial beauty.