Monika Strasser

Essay

Can body modifications be seen as craft?

Monika Strasser

MA Jewellery & CorpusAdellab (Metal Department)

Konstfack University College of Arts, Crafts and DesignStockholm

2011/2012

Supervisor: Christina Zetterlund

Abstract

The main question of this essay is: “Can body modifications be seen as craft?”. Craft is theessence of the author’s work and her passion. But she is also interested in beauty and has a criticalapproach to the fact that beauty generates pressure in society. Through history different ideals ofbeauty have been existing. Ideals of beauty and body modifications are very much connected toeach other. Within this essay the author tries to connect the process of the interventions made tothe body, in order to reach beauty, to her field of work, the crafts. As a trained crafts woman, shehas also a critical view on existing hierarchies between different kinds of skilled making.

Other artists with similar ideas in their work are presented. It is investigated how differentsources define craft, making, tools, and body modification. Using this background, four ways toconnect craft and beautification are presented: the use of tools, the making of tools, the body, andthe process of making.

It can be concluded that there is indeed a connection in the tools used to perform each taskand the relation to the human body.

Contents1 Introduction 2

1.1 Related Artists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21.2 Outline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

2 Ideals of Beauty 5

3 Definitions 73.1 Craft vs. Making . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73.2 Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73.3 Beautification and Body Modification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

4 Relation between Craft and Beautification 104.1 Association 1: The Use of Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104.2 Association 2: The Making of these Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114.3 Association 3: The Body . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114.4 Association 4: The Process of Making . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

5 Conclusions 14

6 References 17

7 Lists of Figures and Tables 197.1 List of Figures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197.2 List of Tables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

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1 Introduction“What is beauty? What is art? What is taste and fashion? Is beauty something to be observedcoolly and rationally or is it something dangerously involving?” [Eco, 2004, Introduction]

Since I was very young, I have been wondering a lot about the ideals considered to be beau-tiful through history. I have been wondering a lot about what is considered beautiful and what isnot. And today I still ask myself: “Who decides what is beautiful?”, or: “Who decides how wehave to look, to make up, to dress up?”

I ask myself where the ideal of beauty will take us. Today, we are expected to have the perfectand forever young body. It is quite alarming that so many, and especially young, women seem tobe manipulable and aim to reach these ideals. Even plastic surgery has become quite common.

In order to begin my research, I started to deal with the subject of “beauty”. This made meread a lot about beauty in many senses. Now I use this essay to order and bring together mythoughts.

Parallel to these questions about beauty is my passion for traditional craft. I also see craft inother kind of skilled making. For example, while sitting at my hairdresser, I often think that heperforms a kind of craft. Being a trained metal crafts woman, I have a very critical approach tohierarchies, which are strong and common in craft, art, and making in general. Some professionshave a better reputation than others. For example, a goldsmith is seen as being above a carpenter.Then again, fine arts is considered to be at the top of the making professions, even when makingskills can not always be seen in the final product.

Within this essay, I try to connect the process of the interventions made to the body to myfield of work, the craft. Tools are vital in making craft and therefore are the starting point for myinvestigations. In the beauty industry there exist many tools. And tools are the most importantitems for a craftsman, too. I myself have a very strong affinity to the tools of my workshop. Inmy opinion, the combination of tools and the making of things is the meaning of craft.

For my practical master exam work I have chosen to make “tools for beauty” and to connectthem to craft in general. I am interested in the act of augmenting the body. This act can be seenas a kind of craft, at least in my eyes. In this essay I try to provide more substance to this claim,using the tools as a connection.

The objects of my exam work hopefully make a statement about the beauty craze withoutjudgments. The objects are supposed to make aware of the topic only. They shall be beautiful insome ways, but also disturbing and therefore question the beauty ideals.

The aim of the objects is to make the viewer aware, and to sensitize people about the beautycraze. How can these objects which make people aware of the beauty craze look? How can Ivisualize this, using mainly the brush but also other tools as a reference, as a metaphor for allkind of interventions on the body?

1.1 Related ArtistsDuring the time I was writing this essay and while working on my practical work, I searched forartists who are working with similar ideas and topics. It does not mean that they connect craft tobeautification, but their work has certain similar aspects to my own.

Jewelry artist Cho Hyunjung (Seoul, 1983) graduated from Konstfack in 2011 with her degreeproject The body of the embodied body. Her aim is to cast a light on our uneasiness toward ourown corporality. She talks about the twist of feeling when someone sees a bodily detail of whatis supposed to be attractive, for example in the incident of seeing hairs under stockings or ugly

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toes inside beautiful shoes. She asks if everything that is supposed to be beautiful has a certaindistance from real corporality. [Hyunjung]

Swiss jewelery artist Christoph Zellweger’s (Lubeck, 1962) work has been always circlingaround the body and the interventions made to it. He focuses on the body as a constructionsite. Estrangement and fragility of the contemporary individual are central to his work. His workdiscusses the body as a place for social rituals and non-verbal communication, like life extension,penis extension, chemical control of body and mind.

Dr. Pietro Morandi, an associate professor at HgkZ, University of the Arts Zurich, describesZellweger’s view:

“In recent decades, the readiness to reach for invasive procedures and means of influencingthe human body and its appearance seems to have drastically increased in society. This couldalso confirm the assumption that ways of human self-modification and perfectionism whichstill resort to accessories, appendages and extensions [...] are retrograde.” “Zellweger seesthe human being as a homo ipsi faber (human who creates itself), as a human who strivesto invent himself; a being, whose transformational fantasy and imagination overshadowswhat even its most advanced and boldest technologies of modification and self-change areable to reach. It is undisputed: the human body not only is increasingly interpreted as func-tionally limited, as insufficiently beautiful, as defective and unsatisfactory, but also actuallymodified”. [Zellweger, 2007, p. 42]

Homo faber, the maker, the creator, is a philosophical concept articulated by Hannah Arendt[Arendt]. It refers to humans that control the environment through tools. I connect the homofaber to the craft person. Zellweger, starting from homo faber, invents a new name for the humanspecies, the homo ipsi faber, whom I connect to the person modifying itself.

Zellweger connects homo ipsi faber and homo faber. This connection is similar to my con-nection between making of beauty and making of craft. Therefore I see similarities between mythoughts and Zellweger’s ideas.

The Swiss artist Manon (Bern, 1946) works with installations, performances and photog-raphy. She first came to prominence in the 1970s with the installation The salmon coloredboudoir (1974/2006). She showed her sleeping room as an agglomeration of feminine intimi-dation. [Manon]

In her photographic series Woman with shaved head she addresses, among other things, thesocial construction of identity. Through the absence of the hair, which is considered to be a veryimportant feminine attribute, Manon plays with the way men look at a woman, who presentsherself alluring but at the same time denying [Maurer and Ulmer, 2008, p. 194].

I can connect her work in some way to my own work, because I am using hairbrushes andhair, hair being a very strong symbol of femininity. Perfect hair, strong, full, and shiny is one ofthe must haves today. Hair always had a special and strong symbolic character. Full hair standsfor vitality and strength. Hair is used as an expression of identity. It’s seen as a media usable tochange the own identity [Tiedemann, 2007, p. 36].

The Dutch artist Ine van den Elsen is dealing with the beauty of aging. In her work TheDiscovering she is looking for tomorrow’s beauty. She says that we live in a time where gettingold is seen as something negative and everything possible is being done to manipulate mothernature’s clock. Liposuction, Botox treatments, or anti-wrinkle course are becoming commonpractice. We are literally polishing away everything that gives our identity and character. We arecompletely forgetting the beauty of life. She wanted to show the characteristic aspects of the facein her thesis project at Design Academy Eindhoven and thereby showed that these feared signsof aging are really quite beautiful and characteristic.

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She found a way to give her own and other faces more identity. She created a kind of elephantskin by applying a very thick layer of make up to a face. The application of this thick layer ofmake-up can be seen as a kind of craft. Once it had dried, it started to pull and you could clearlysee where the skin had a potential to create wrinkles. She then documented the results of thisartificial aging process with a series of black-and-white photographs [van den Elsen, 2009].

1.2 OutlineThis introduction intends to explain why I investigate the connection between craft and beautymodification. I try to do this without judging the beauty craze. Nevertheless, my own exam piecesshould make the viewer aware of potential issues at stake within beauty craze. While I do notknow of any artists that have shown exactly these connections in their work, I presented fourartists that at least reflect on some related aspects.

In the following chapters, I will search for connections through different perspectives. Inchapter 2, a historic view of the question is outlined. While chapter 3 is a short overview anddefinition of craft making and tools, chapter 4 presents four possible, very specific associationsbetween craft and beauty modification. Finally, examples of my own work are presented togetherwith the conclusions in the final chapter.

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2 Ideals of BeautyEverybody has their own view on beauty. Or what needs to be done to become beautiful. Butthen, generations of women have been, and still are, subdued to the beauty ideals. “Who dictatesthe beauty ideals?” This was one of my first questions. After reading a lot about ideals, it becameclear that an important factor in this dictatorship is played by the beauty industry.

But this answer might be not enough. A better one is perhaps given by the feminist andsociologist Waltraud Posch. In Korper machen Leute, der Kult um die Schonheit [Posch, 1999],she states that this also depends on the patriarchal society: “The history of beauty is a history ofbodies and fashion, of a concept of morality and gender roles. In a patriarchal society, the visualappearance of a women shows us like a mirror the dream and desires of men.” [Posch, 1999,p. 36]

Perhaps the industry is patriarchal indeed. But as feminist Teresa Riolan found out, the in-ventors of most of the beauty products and tools are, surprisingly, women [Renz, 2006, p. 301].

More women have more money and power and scope and legal recognition than we haveever had before; but in terms of how we feel about ourselves physically, we my actually beworse than our unliberated grandmothers. Recent research consistently shows that inside themajority of the West’s controlled, attractive, successful working women, there is secret underlife poisoning our freedom; infused with notions of beauty, it is dark vein of self-hatred,physical obsessions, terror of aging, and a dread of lost control. We are in the midst of aviolent backlash against feminism that uses images of female beauty as a political weaponagainst women’s advancement. [Wolf, 1991, p. 10]

The ideal of beauty norm today is reduced to extreme underweight and perfect young skin.The natural forms are reduced to problem zones which are seen as being ugly and they need to bealtered. But the real problem zones begin in the head: a “skinny low” self esteem and the fear ofnot being desirable without having a perfect body. This fear makes cash machines tinkle: beautyis a million dollar business.

The beauty-product market is big. Industries like fashion, advertisement, sports, and cosmet-ics propagandize their beauty ideal. In addition, there is the market of plastic surgery and well-ness. All industries earn when humankind is not satisfied with its appearance [ViolenceStudy.org,2012].

Posch’s critical book starts with the text: “Being beautiful like a model: millions of womenwant it. They do abrosia, do gymnastics and puke with the aspiration of more acceptance andlove. They suffering with their bodies and hunt for an unrealistic ideal.” [Posch, 1999, foreword]

Related to Posch’s patriarchal theories, Michele Roten questions in her book Wie Frau sein[Roten, 2011] certain free decisions and choices made by women today. They accept themselveswith the comment: “I did it for me because I like it, because I want it”. A breast augmentation todouble D or just something simple like accepting the husbands surname with the comment: “Itsnot important to me, I really wanted it that way”. These examples show that such decisions arenot really free, if seen from an objective point of view. In the best case they are compromises,in the worst case they are free decision camouflaged as opportunisms or resignations in a societyby men’s ideals marked [Roten, 2011, p. 52].

This is what I want to say when I talk about the pressure that society generates in the case ofbeauty. Often the urge to intervene on one’s body comes from the outside. However, us womentend to say that we would do it only for ourselves anyways. “In the way that women got free fromthe children-kitchen-church feminine craze”, writes Naomi Wolf in her book The beauty Myth[Wolf, 1991], “the beauty myth over-toke the function of an authority instrument of the society.”

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Through history we can see that different ideals of beauty have been existing all the time,from ancient Greece until today. Umberto Eco in History of beauty, shows through paintings apicture of the most important changes in the beauty ideals throughout history.

Since ever beauty has been equalized to social power, strength and intelligence.[Schuele, 2002]

“If in history the required ideal of beauty was only followed by the high society, now, thanksto the mass media, this is different: everybody wants to be beautiful today”, writes feministSlavenka Draculic in the German feminist magazine Emma [Draculic, 2006].

Ideals of beauty and body modifications are very much connected to each other. Throughhistory, modifications like the corset or the Japanese foot binding among others, have been con-sidered as beauty ideals.

Sacrificing something in order to reach an ideal was and is still common: always people haveused different kind of ways to get closer to their beauty ideal. In German, we have the say: “Werschon sein will, muss Leiden.”1 It could not be more true, since many of the ways to become morebeautiful are somehow painful. But why do we want to do this to us? Why are we willing to bearall the pain? Is it because of the pressure of the society? “Beauty generates social pressure”, saysSchuele [2002].

Today we no longer say that the corset or Japanese foot binding are beautiful. Now, we dohave other beauty ideals which require often body modification. And in some years, they willmaybe not be considered being beautiful anymore.

I have chosen to write more about two different kinds of body modification: weight controland plastic surgery (see Chapter 3). As augmentations we can see make up, hairdressing, waxingamong others. But weight control, in my eyes, is one of the most important interventions in orderto reach the beauty ideal of today. Having a perfect figure is considered a must-have of today.

The fact that we should be forever young is even much stronger than the must-have of aperfect figure. Plastic surgery is mostly used against aging, but is also used for weight control(for example in the case of liposuction).

As other types of modification beside plastic surgery, we can see, for example, toes that weredeformed because of high heels2, piercing, tattoo, etc.

The next chapter presents a definition of what craft and making means to me, but relates alsoto the ideas of three well-known authors. Further, two specific kind of body modification andtheir tools are shown.

1“Who wants to be beautiful must sacrifice for it.”2Does this mean that a shoe can be seen as a tool that deforms the toe? I do not think so, because usually the

shoe is not worn for that purpose.

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3 Definitions

3.1 Craft vs. MakingCraft: 1. an art, trade, or occupation requiring special skill, especially manual skill [...] 9. tomake or manufacture (an object or objects) with great skill and care.

[Random House, 1995, Webster’s College Dictionary]

Making: 1. the act of a person or thing that makes. Make: 1. to bring into existence byshaping, changing, or combining material.

[Random House, 1995, Webster’s College Dictionary]

Often the words “craft” and “making” are used as synonymous. According to the abovedefinitions, if somebody performs a “craft”, the end product is important. A skilled (and oftentrained) craftsman creates an object, often with a focus on the æsthetics. “Making” can describeexactly the same action—however here, the focus is on the process itself and not on the endproduct. Sometimes, the result does not even really matter. Also, “making” can be performed byanybody, not only trained or skilled persons.

Different implications are given to the word craft as the emphasis shifts away from materialtowards technique and process. “Actions, technical processes, specific materials are a descriptionof craft”, writes Howard Risatti in his book A Theory of Craft [Risatti, 2007, p. 16].

Glenn Adamson sees craft as a process. Not only the end result is craft, the process of mak-ing something is craft. Adding to this, he also questions the unfairly undervaluing of the craftscompared to art: “Craft is not a defined practice, but a way of thinking through practices of allkinds, and there is no reason that any medium or genre of production should be more conduciveto this way of thinking than another.” [Adamson, 2007, Introduction]

Richard Sennett, in his book Handwerk [Sennett, 2009], sees craft not only in the traditionalunderstanding of a carpenter or goldsmith etc. He sees craft also in playing music, programmingor cooking.

The definition of craft used in this essay is to create something by using tools, by using thehands, or even the body. The process of making is very important to me, but obvioulsy, as anartist, also the outcome counts. I see the use of tools together with the skilled making to gain aresult as craft. This is how I perceive it.

3.2 ToolsTool: 1. an implement, esp. one held in the hand, as a hammer, saw, or file, for performing orfacilitating mechanical operations. 2. any instrument of manual operation. 3. the cutting ormachining part of a lathe, planer, drill, or similar machine. 4. the machine itself; a machinetool. 5. anything used as a means of accomplishing a task or purpose: Education is a tool forsuccess. [Random House, 1995, Webster’s College Dictionary]

A tool is a device that can be used to achieve a task. An implement that is used by handsand used to perform or facilitate manual work, specifically it denotes a small manually operateddevice.

Even some animals use tools for certain limited tasks, but we human use them very exten-sively and in such a diversity. I do agree with Charlotte and Peter Fiell in the foreword of theirbook Tools for living:

It is no exaggeration to suggest, that tools had made man, because they allow us to shape theenvironments and cultures that makes us who we are. [Fiell and Fiell, 2010]

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Already Himsworth showed that humans have used tools to intervene on themselves sinceprehistoric times. Himsworth states that:

Since prehistoric times, tools have shaped human existence. The design, the making and theuse of tools is one of the most important feature which has shaped and accompanied humanexistence. The first tools in history were made of flint and obsidian. Obsidian is a volcanicglass which is exceptionally sharp if broken. The intentional striking off of a large piece inlater times justifies the believe held by some, that at certain periods in the Stone Age manshaved himself. [Himsworth, 1953, p. 18]

While this last quote is not a scientific, rigorous definition of “tools”, it clearly shows that theinstruments used to change or modify the body are seen as tools. By using these tools, nothingis created, but something that was already there is modified. But clearly, improving objects, likerefurbishing something, is seen as craft.

Looking at the beauty industry today, there are many different kind of tools (see Association1, Section 4.1) to be used to get a more and more beautiful body. It seems that the industry inventstool after tool just to sell even more of them. Most of these tools are supposed to be used onlyfor one kind of accomplishment.

3.3 Beautification and Body ModificationBeautification: to make or become beautiful.

[Random House, 1995, Webster’s College Dictionary]

Body modifications: intentional permanent or semipermanent alterations of the living hu-man body for reasons such as ritual, folk medicine, aesthetics, or corporal punishment. [...]Common methods that have been used are incision, perforation, complete or partial removal,cautery, abrasion, adhesion, insertion of foreign bodies or materials, compression, distention,diversion, enlargement, and staining. [Encyclopædia Britannica Inc]

When I was sixteen, a friend of mine was sick with anorexia. When she had a body weight ofonly 35 kilogram, she was still looking into the mirror, perceived herself as fat. This experiencedid affect me very much. It was the first time I came aware of the beauty craze. Through the yearsI observed many times how crazy women worked, convinced they do it only for themselves,against their own bodies.

“The beauty cult is so subtle that still today millions of women believe that they would actu-ally choose to do diet after diet for themselves” [Posch, 1999, p. 35]. This is why I am critical tosome aspects of beautification. I often asked my self if I would perceive the world and the thingsdifferent than others do. I recognize that I often see beauty in unexpected, for others normal orunspectacular, things. As quoted by Posh in her book, psychologyst Ursula Nuber says:

We would have less worries and would think less about wrinkles and fat if the media wouldn’tpermanently show us the ideal bodies and faces and at the same time show us the thousandsof treatments and possibilities we have. Wouldn’t we know nothing about all this thingsagainst wrinkles, we wouldn’t think about it so much. [Posch, 1999, p. 101]

Especially young women tend to emulate skinny models. Feminists and doctors have sug-gested that the very thin models featured in magazines may promote eating disorders [BBCNews, 2000]. The young women are influenced by the photoshopped images they see in themedia when they decide what is beautiful and what is not.

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There is a trend of being skinny, but being skinny also means having a certain control aboutthe own appearance. Women who can not accept how their body is formed or curved are oftenunsatisfied. If they get hungry, they immediately chasten themselves, they want to control allabout themselves [Hauner and Reichart, 2004, p. 74].

Eating disorder and controlling weight is a kind of modification of the body. The natural bodyis forcefully controlled by evoking food rich in calories, reducing the weight through the use oflaxatives and appetite suppressant, through excessive sport, or by provoking vomit with the helpof a finger. In this kind of shaping techniques I see already a connection to craft. The body isshaped by the use of tools.

The most radical technique of beautification is plastic surgery. It can be seen as a modifica-tion, because the body is permanently changed. Lifting, nose job and liposuction (extraction offat) are the commonest types of modification. Tools used for plastic surgery are, for example,scalpels, cannulas, syringes, and dermatomes3.

Through the operative beautification the individual looses his authentic self.Schuele [2002]

Lifting is performed today already on 40 years old women, in the USA they are even younger.The American Academy of Facial Plastic Surgery announces that 39% of the face liftings aremade on women between 30 an 49. Aging is the biggest enemy of today’s women. [Posch, 1999,p. 165 and p. 101].

The next chapter will discuss the connections between tools and body modification more indetail by using four specific connection points, or associations.

3A dermatome is a surgical instrument used to produce thin slices of skin, which can be placed somewhere elseon the body.

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4 Relation between Craft and BeautificationSince I define craft as a process of making with focus on the result, the beautification of the bodycan be seen quite clearly as a craft. To connect craft and the beautification of the body I havesearched for several connecting points, or associations. The four associations presented here arethe most obvious and the ones that make most sense to me.

4.1 Association 1: The Use of ToolsThe use of tools to accomplish a task is the most obvious connection between craft and beautifi-cation. Upon closer inspection, there are even some tools that have similarities (Table 1). Manyprofessions gravitate around beautification. For example make up artist, hairdresser, cosmetician,nail designer, and cosmetic surgeon. All of them use many tools to practice their profession. Theycan be considered as craftspeople and have an own craftsmanship as well. If I compare the toolsfrom my goldsmith workshop to tools found at places where beautification is performed, I cansee many similarities:

Craft (Goldsmith) Beautification

solder scissor nail scissorwire scissor hair scissorfile nail filebind rail eye lash curlersandpaper pumice stonesaw scalpelpencil powder puff

Table 1: Some tools found in my workshop, and their counterparts used for beautification.

One might notice that the result of craft is a final object, whereas in beautification, there isno object being made. Or that just changes are performed on an already existing body or object.But Risatti attributes to the class “craft” not only object hood but also applied function. Appliedfunction for me is the process of making and the use of tools. So says Risatti: “Object hoodand applied function are feature common to man-made things, including tools and even somesimple machines, not just craft objects.” Risatti also states that craft has traditionally been usedto refer to things with applied function, like cutlery—knives, forks, ladles, spoons, and spatulas.But should cutlery be considered as craft just because it is functional, too?

Is there a strong enough connection via function and tools and craft objects that is compellingenough to include them in all the same class? Risatti [2007, p. 41]

If we include them all in the same class, does this mean that tools by themselves are craft?And does this, if tools are seen as craft, lead to the conclusion that everything that is made withtools is craft as well? Then, obviously, beautification can be seen as craft. Risatti examines theterms “practical use” and “applied function”:

When generically referring to the realm of the ’practical as opposed to the abstract’, termslike ’use’ and ’function’ lump all practical, functional objects together, thereby erasing subtledifferences in kinds of uses and types of functions. Teasing out this differences will showhow craft objects, dinner flatware, tools, and machines, as functional objects, both relate anddiffer from each other in subtle but substantial way. [Risatti, 2007, p. 42]

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In his book, Risatti also refers to the Oxford English dictionary, in which a tool is definedmore specifically as an instrument of manual operations, “usually, one held in and operateddirectly by the hand”. Considered the applied functions, we can say a tool is something useddirectly by the hand with intention to make something by doing something to material [Risatti,2007, p. 42].

Does this mean that to make something by hand, to do something to material, is craft? Forme this is exactly what happens with beautification on the body. In the case of beautification, weuse tools to achieve the task. And the process of making with such tools is very relevant. Everytask has its specific tool, as it is the case in craft too.

One could argue that the control of the weight then can not be seen as being craft becauseobviously no tools are used. But as a tool you can also use your hands and fingers, which havebeen used since ever as tools by a craftsmen. In the case of an anorexic woman, she uses herfinger to trigger vomit in order to control and form her body. Weight can be controlled also byvisiting a gym—and there are plenty of tools which can be used to shape a body.

4.2 Association 2: The Making of these ToolsThe making of the tools can also be seen to be craft. Beauty tools traditionally have been madeby silversmiths. They made hairbrushes, combs, powder boxes, and mirrors, objects that wereused later on for beautification . This is already a connection between beautification and craft.

Another connection between beautification and craft by making of tools I could discoverwhile writing the text Tools for Beauty. I had the possibility to visit a factory which still produceshand-made, wooden, body brushes. All workers at the factory worked on the brushes skillfullyand with passion. Surprisingly, they all were visually impaired. It seems like a paradox that thebrushes are made by visually impaired persons, but are intended to be used by others who wantto become more beautiful visually.

4.3 Association 3: The BodyThe body can be seen as a central element, in crafts as well as in beautification. Craft has a strongconnection to the body, craft needs the body, the body holds the tools and controls the movementsand the strength that are needed to make and to produce something. Craft is a bodily work. (Seealso my definition of craft, Chapter 3.1)

Risatti says: “Tools are manually operated, they never reduce the body to a mere source ofpower as do machines. Tools involve motion and are designed around the hand and the body askinesthetically sensitive.” [Risatti, 2007, p. 52]

By their nature, tools have more in common with craft objects than with machines. The waytools respect the human body through their kinesthetic properties, the way they are sensitive tothe body by being made to fit the hand and extend the body’s motion, tools reinforce traditionalcraft [Risatti, 2007, p. 53].

Often crafted objects are intended to be used by the body. For example, a cup or a bowl ismade to be hold and to drink from it, cutlery is made to be use for eating, and so on.

Risatti also relates craft objects in their purpose and in their function to the body. He suggeststhat craft objects have a close relationship to the body. “The making of craft objects (based onthe functions of containing, caring and supporting) involves a conceptual approach to the body.Craft objects and their functions/the use of them are related to the body.” [Risatti, 2007]

Because craft is a bodily work, I connect it to the act of beautification. Beautification isa bodily work. The body itself is used to work on the body, with tools as well as with hands

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directly. The product is the embellished body. It does not matter if it has been done by oneself orif it has been done by another person. Always, the body plays its part.

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4.4 Association 4: The Process of MakingProcess: 1. a systematic series of actions directed to some end [...] 2. a continuous action,operation, or series of changes taking place in a definite manner.

[Random House, 1995, Webster’s College Dictionary]

The making itself in both craft and beautification is a process of shaping, changing, andcombining. Risatti sees craft as an applied function, as a practical, physical function [Risatti,2007, p. 19].

The act of physically doing something, the making, in both craft and beautification, enclosessimilar techniques (Table 2). When I compare process techniques that I use in my own goldsmithworkshop to the ones used in beautification, I find many similarities.

Craft (Goldsmith) Beautification

sawing cuttingmetal filing manicuringdrilling piercingpolishing brushingsanding peelingpainting putting on make-upoiling creamingshaping augmentation

Table 2: Examples of process techniques used in my workshop, and their counterparts in beautification.

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5 ConclusionsAfter researching about beautification and beauty craze, I must admit that the trend to be perfectand to have a perfect body is much bigger than I imagined. Irregardless of the power positions thatwomen have reached in politics, education and profession in the last 30 and 40 years, irregardlessof the fact that they participate actively in business and have their own money, they are still valuedfor their look.

Beautification is everywhere. In the mass medias like magazines, TV, music videos, andcomputer games one can find pictures modified by using Photoshop (which can also be seen asa kind of craft). Should we continue Umberto Eco’s book about the history of beauty, we couldinclude photoshopped pictures from the magazines.

I’m not against beautification or the use of all these kind of techniques: everybody has todecide for her or himself if she or he needs and wants it. But I am wondering if people huntingfor beauty end up to forget the beauty of life, as Ine van den Elsen [2009] also points out: “Andwhy don’t we see the beauty in the natural imperfections and traces that life gives to us?” I agreewith Schuele who says: “through the operative beautification the individual looses his authenticself.” [Schuele, 2002]

Interesting is also that in a time when everybody is talking about individualism, people endup looking the same, because they all try to reach the same beauty ideals.

I asked my self where the intervention on the body starts. Where does the pressure start?Where does an unnatural suffering start? Everybody needs to decide where the border is forthemselves. But for me, the pressure starts where the physical pain begins.

My research question has no influence on the beauty craze, nor is it supposed to change theperception of craft. Nevertheless, it is interesting to compare the individual aspects in order tosee similarities. An interesting thought could be that craft, as it is an endangered species, couldslowly go towards beautification. Beautification will become more and more important. There isno end in the trend. And some day beautification may become the new craft.

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More beautiful, slimmer, younger. How will it go further, in the future, with beauty? UlrichRenz in his book Schonheit gives the following predictions:

1. With or without men, the beauty graze will go further, in all times, human have investedin their resources to augment and to achieve their beauty. With the growing of ourwealth, we will do more for our effort to get more beautiful.

2. The youth craze will grow. In an aging society youth will be a rare commodity. Andthis makes it to an object of desire.

3. With the technology advancement, beauty will be more and more feasible. And whatis feasible will be done.

4. The fast development of beauty technologies will enlarge the breach between poor andrich. How today we can read the origin of a person from the condition of his or herteeth, in future we can do it from the free of wrinkle skin.

5. The force and necessity to be beautiful will augment. This doesn’t mean that everybodywill follow it. Every development brings a counteracting force. There will be the onesthat will not participate, to not submit themselves to this stress, not gonna do everythingwhats possible and which anyhow or therefore enjoy themselves on their own beauty.

[Renz, 2006, p. 299/300]

Figure 1: Mascara by Monika Strasser, 2012. Silver, lichen.

Figure 2: Branch (work in progress) by Monika Strasser, 2012. Skin, bee wax.

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The objects I made for my practical work represent beauty tools and refer to the processof making. On one hand, they refer to the making of craft, because they are made using crafttechniques. On the other hand, they refer visually to the process of beautification, and to its dailyrituals, like brushing, peeling, putting make-up on, or even plastic surgery.

The process of making is very important in craft as well as in beautification.The objects show unexpected, imperfect, however beautiful, details. Imperfection in nature

is the main reason for diversity. But when we follow beauty ideals, we will look very likely allthe same.

Some objects look like tools (Figure 1). They refer to natural beauty and the changes causedby the passing of time. Other objects represent my own constructed version of nature. This rep-resents the trend to modify the human body to the extent that it no longer looks like what naturehad originally developed (Figure 2).

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6 References

Adamson, Glenn. Thinking Through Crafts. Berg Publishers, Oxford, New York, 2007.

Arendt, Hannah. Internet encyclopedia of philosophy. Accessed 2012-02-24.

BBC News. Models link to teenage anorexia. BBC News, May 30, 2000. http://www.new.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/769290.stm, accessed 2011-09-21.

Draculic, Slavenka. Schlachtfeld Frauenkorper. In Emma, volume 5/2006. EMMA-Frauenverlags GmbH, Koln, 2006.

Eco, Umberto. History of Beauty. Rizzoli, New York, 2004.

van den Elsen, Ine. The Discovering - Looking for tomorrows beauty. Goods, Amsterdam,2009.

Encyclopædia Britannica Inc. Encyclopædia Britannica. Accessed 2012-02-28.

Fiell, Charlotte and Fiell, Peter. Tools for Living. Fiell Publishing, London, 2010.

Hauner, Andrea and Reichart, Elke. Bodytalk, Der riskante Kult um Korper und Schonheit.Deutscher Taschenbuchverlag, Munchen, 2004.

Himsworth, Joseph Beston. The Story of Cutlery from Flint to Stainless Steel. Ernest BennLimited, London, 1953.

Hyunjung, Cho. Website. Accessed 2011-11-21.

Manon. Website. Accessed 2011-11-21.

Maurer, Simon and Ulmer, Brigitte. Manon eine Person. Scheidegger und Spiess, Zurich,2008.

Posch, Waltraud. Korper machen Leute: der Kult um die Schonheit. Campus Verlag, New York,1999.

Random House. Webster’s College Dictionary. Random House, New York, 1995.

Renz, Richard. Schonheit, eine Wissenschaft fur sich. Berliner Taschenbuch Verlags GmbH,Berlin, 2006.

Risatti, Howard. A Theory of craft functional and aesthetic expression. The University of NorthCarolina Press, Chapel Hill, 2007.

Roten, Michele. Wie Frau sein. Echtzeit Verlag, Basel, 2011.

Schuele, Christian. Lauter kleine Dorian Grays. Die Zeit, 02/2002, 2002. http://www.zeit.de/2002/02/Lauter_kleine_Dorian_Grays, accessed 2011-09-16.

Sennett, Richard. Handwerk. Berliner Taschenbuch Verlags GmbH, Berlin, 2009.

Tiedemann, Nicole. Haarkunst. Bohlau Verlag, Koln, Weimar, Wien, 2007.

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ViolenceStudy.org. Streben nach dem Schonheitsideal. ViolenceStudy,2012. http://www.violencestudy.org/Gewalt-Gesundheit/Streben-nach-Schoenheitsideal.html, accessed 2012-01-26.

Wolf, Naomi. The Beauty Myth. Harper Collins Publishers, New York, 1991.

Zellweger, Christoph. Foreign Bodies. Actar, Barcelona, 2007.

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7 Lists of Figures and Tables

7.1 List of Figures

1 Monika Strasser, Mascara . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152 Monika Strasser, Branch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

7.2 List of Tables

1 Some tools found in my workshop, and their counterparts used for beautification. 102 Examples of process techniques used in my workshop, and their counterparts in

beautification. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

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