This week I worked with Allister ( we talked about working together for some times). I approach him with an idea/concept that was inspired by an amazing movie I saw some years ago called "Yi-Yi" ( in english - " A one and a two") from Edward Yang.
In the Movie, Yang Yang * the young boy that is discovering feelings - love and sexuality, takes pictures of the back of people’s heads to show them what they cannot see. As we can only view what is in front of us, we really only see 50% of the truth. This represents, in my opinion, the movie's philosophy, that there is a second side of every story and that having the perception of that other side reveals new things and it was what remained in my memory in relation with the movie.
So for this week assignment I wanted to explore this and try to create an object that allows people to see their back as a way to create a reflection ( this word fits perfectly here since the movie is all about reflection) about their own perspective in life.
My first idea was to create a necklace made with mirrors that brings the image for our back to the front. When I started working with Allister, we started discussing about this idea and we thought about using cameras instead of mirrors and ended up choosing to create a back harness that could be attached to the body like an accessorie that someone could use in a special occasion. This accessorie consist in a back harness and in a necklace mirror that allow us to see our back neck. What is reflected in the mirror is what is projected in the back harness - we are using a reflecting plastic sheet ( even if this paper creates distortion, it allows to create the desired effect)
We started by doing some sketches and to create a model in paper to adjust and to get the desire effect and dimension
Testing:
The final result:
We asked Yan Yan to model for us for the final Photos ( thanks, Yan Yan ).
Edward Yang died this last summer. In this homage to him, u can take a look in one of the moments of the film
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XPxfbbGzI-E