Sophie Chen – Looking Outwards – 03

Rottlace – series of masks designed for Icelandic singer Björk.

Rottlace is a series of masks that explored themes of self-healing and expressing the face without a skin. Images of the singer wearing the mask immediately caught my attention, in both its unconventional material/form and how the mask fits the singer’s face seamlessly. Rottlace is composed of rigid materials and elastic structures – the softer materials are flexible and designed to accommodate facial movement. The computational framework of this mask is based on Björk’s facial scan and informed by the human musculoskeletal system that controls the human voice. These highly complex structures are 3D printed with multiple materials that range from stiff to flexible and opaque to transparent, incorporating tunable physical properties that also allow movement. Although I couldn’t find a video of the mask being worn, I think the design of this mask successfully manifested the creator’s intentions as it almost eerily reflects the flexible and complex nature of the human body and is very compelling to look at.

link: https://www.media.mit.edu/projects/rottlace/overview/