Abstract
Mask Project: A proposal of an integrated approach to practice-based, costume-led and craft-oriented research
By Johanna Oksanen, Aalto University, Finland
The ‘Actor’s breath meets mask’: Rethinking living cultural tradition through craft practice in design for performance practice-based project generates a new study of the relationship between the design of theatre masks for contemporary performance, their function as actor’s working tool and their fabrication via a novel technical experiment, the traditional art/craft of crocheting. This research project involves artistic and theoretical investigations with applied pilots and practical application. The artistic practice of the research cases/pilot productions will eventually be investigated as a whole, from multiple viewpoints, through several material based themes. This article is to be seen as the first step to discuss the methods of practice based, artistic research from the viewpoint of this mask project. I will propose and pre-analyse some approaches for investigating the case(s) of crocheted theatre masks through material based examples. The methodological aim of the project in its entirety is to draw together a proposal of an integrated approach to practice-based, costume-led and craft-oriented research in the international field of costume research through series of articles deepening the research themes introduced in this first one.
Author keywords
artistic research, contextualizing, craft, craft art, mask theatre, methodology, meaning-making, practice-based research, verbalizing, visualizing