Shell and Core

Course Code and Name: MSJ11211 Mass Communication

This semester, the theme for Curriculum Integration (CI) forum was “The broken windows theory”. The basic idea of broken window is when a certain problem goes unattended in a given environment, people’s attitude toward that environment changes and leads to more problems. This idea has been applied in various fields like criminology, psychology, sociology, health, marketing, business communication etc.

While choosing our topic for the mask, we wanted to select a topic that can reach a mass audience and also impactful enough and of course, goes with the theme. Hence, the idea of our mask “Shell and Core” came in.

“You wear a mask for so long, you forget who you were beneath it.”

― Alan Moore, V for Vendetta

This quote was our initial inspiration to make the mask where we tried to portray a corrupted society hidden under a pretty face. In 2016, Daily star published an article which was mainly based on the amount of corruption that occurs in our country but very few news came out. According to another article of The Daily star (2016), Bangladesh ranks 13th among the most corrupt countries in the world. It has been recorded in 2015 that 8821 crore taka is being bribed from the service sectors (The daily star, 2016). Everyday several news articles are made on various levels of corruption yet few news articles are seen where it is being corrected. The main reason for Bangladesh still being one of the corrupted countries is that no one ever tried to fix the broken windows. Very little news related to bribery or any other sort of corruption comes out, laws are not enforced properly.

This mask depicts exactly this idea of how corruption is still an issue in our country yet our media and government would try to show how we are “developing” rather than fixing what is going wrong around us. We represented our country through the face where the “Shell” is the prettier version and when we tear it we see the “Core” which represents our corrupted society. We thought this subject needs to be told because this is something we all know, we all can relate to yet no one really talks about it.

The whole mask making was indeed hectic and challenging as we had to make the mask twice as our first mask did not come out well. However, we still finished it on time with everyone’s cooperation and hard work. While drawing the mask, we had few things in our mind and the most important thing was it should reach greater audience. It should be something impactful and easier to understand. Since none of us had much idea about art we took help of a friend who helped us to do the mask exactly how we pictured. We kept half part of the mask white which represented pretty picture of our country since white means peace. We tried to enhance the beauty of it by putting all nice shimmery eye shadows and make lashes. The reason we thought of using real makeup because it also symbolizes something important; they hide all the scars and ugly parts of our face. For the “core” part, we used newspaper prints especially the headlines of the news which are related to various corruptions. We also made use of the board where in part we wrote the key quote of our mask and covered the other part with newspaper prints. We stuck to using acrylic colors mostly, but also used sign pens for the texts.

After a hectic mask making session, finally came the day when we had to exhibit our mask. The exhibition took place on Shilpakala academy, Dhaka from 27th to 29 of April. On 26th of April, we went to Shilpakala academy from installing our mask. While installing, we tried to keep it under proper light so that texts are visible otherwise audience would not get the message. Finally, on 27th April our CI exhibition started where people from various backgrounds including our Head of the department and other faculties visited and gave their feedback.

During the exhibition, we have got some amazing feedback from people. They not only praised us for our work but have also shared their own point of views with us. Nandita Tabassum, Senior lecturer of Media Studies and Journalism department thought this was an important topic to bring up. She also added that it was interesting how metaphorically we tried to bring out an important concept like corruption. We also took feedback from an ULAB Alumni of BBA department, Farah Nawal Rayana. She, in her interview, has shared her own point of view where she mentioned how it was important to showcase this problem. She believes there are a lot of problems that are unsolved in our country but we do not talk about it, her interview also clarified the fact that we were successful in reaching the audience with our message. Our next interviewee was Fowzia Fiona from ActionAid Bangladesh; her feedback was a bit different from the rest two. She believes our mask not only represents the corrupted system of our country but may represent any other issues that are being hidden for a long time. She also thought the use of makeup was very significant as it actually made it easier to understand that the whole idea of hiding under a pretty face.

This was our first participating in CI exhibition and we indeed have a hectic run, starting from making the mask to brainstorming and finally putting our thoughts into the mask. The theme “Broken windows theory” was a bit different and tricky to understand hence it wouldn’t have been possible without an active team. Our journey was a bit rocky since we had to make the mask twice but our team effort was great and also with the help of our teacher’s assistant and others we made it. We learnt how to our outside our comfort zone as none of us were comfortable with making installation art or even art. Hence it took us a longer time to understand and finally execute. We also got an amazing response on the day of our exhibition and we were successful in putting our thoughts in the mask as audiences understood it and received it well.

Lastly, We would like to thank our faculty, Mahmudun Nabi, for the opportunity and our teacher’s assistant, Nabila akter for helping us. It was one of the experiences that we will cherish. The whole mask making process was a fun learning experience and it taught us how to work outside of our comfort zone which will definitely help us in our future.

References:

Kar,A.(2016,December 10).Fix the Broken Windows. The Daily Star. Retrieved from: https://www.thedailystar.net/opinion/online-exclusive/opinion-fix-the-broken-windows-1328056

Kar,A.(2016,September 01).Corruption: Nature of the disease. The Daily Star. Retrieved from: https://www.thedailystar.net/op-ed/economics/corruption-nature-the-disease-1278478

Learnings and outcomes (Self-reflection): This was the first time my art was exhibited in Shilpakala Academy. I am calling this art because this was no less than an art for me. Being a noob at art, this was a very new and exciting experience for me. And to convey a message like this was no less than privilege. Although we had to face few challenges since our first mask broke but I am confident enough that I can pull off such mask making task with ease now.