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ORLAN & Frankenstein, Part 2: Beauty and DNA

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Submitted by kgould on Fri, 05/06/2011 - 1:01am

ORLAN & Frankenstein: Part 2 on Prezi

I went about this project by enlisting several friends for headshots and "beautiful features" lists, where they were instructed to select three facial features from people they considered  to be exceptionally beautiful. 

I then took those features, spliced them and pasted them together in Photoshop, and made them transparent--into masks that could be overlaid the photos of my friends.

I then asked them for explanations of the features they chose and their reactions to the final project--was it beautiful? Would they have the surgery?

Overall: no. These amalgamations of beauty were not, in fact, beautiful. They were creepy, freakish or, at worst, horrifying. Monstrous. Not unlike Frankenstein's creature.

If we view plastic surgery as an invasion and marginalization of the body, homogenizing features we consider to be 'beautiful," by commodifying beauty--the reactions to the beauty mash-ups make sense. 

Should we defy nature? Should we augment who we are in order to fit a script set by society?

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