Artifact Four: The Art of Personal Adornment
Objective:
- Evaluate personal values and paradigms around body decoration and physical beauty.
- Investigate how physical appearance affects definitions of identity and belonging.
- Analyze values and belief systems of physical appearance across cultures, sub-cultures and generations.
Original Post:
I take some time to consider these questions. I have many different styles of dressing in the different age. I think everyone is same to me, nobody can remain the same style since they are a child. However, I have a special thing never changed for about five years. It is a Bodhi seeds prayer beads, mother asks it from a monk. I wear it on the wrist as a bracelet, and I also wear it on my neck because it is around 2 feet long. There are four pieces ambers beads on it. It is my belief, I think it can give me good luck and health, so I always wear it. I also bring it to America, I wish it can bless me to happy every day.
For human beings, clothes are items which can cover and warm our body. Therefore I put more values on health, I always wear proper clothes in different seasons. It is normal that girls always wear skirts or silk stockings in the winner but it is bad for their knees. Everyone has their own personal views of values, they could focus more on their beauty. Additionally, I also pay a lot attention on my outlook. I think that if I dress well I will feel more self-confidence. For example, in the society, people don’t know each other when they first meet. They will judge everyone by their dress, so I don’t want to give strangers a bad impression.
Considering recent period, I really like Korean style. I’m a Chinese, but I like the dressing style of Korean people because it is trendy in Mainland China. Many trendy Korean brands are really popular in my country. The one I liked the most is called Pancoat. I have many Pancoat T-shirts and pants. I like Pancoat because their mascot is duck which is same to Eugene. I think it is very close to the local culture, and can let me integrate into American life. Many of mine Pancoat T-shirts have a big duck logo. Some of them also have big duck eyes. In the campus, many people ask what brand of my T-shirt while I go to the lecture hall. I got my best American friend through talking about my T-shirt. I think my style of dress let me become more self-confidence. It gives me more chance to communicate with local native speaker, which improve my English skills a lot.
In this decade, I have changed many dressing style. On the on hand, I need to wear proper clothes in different ages. Most children like Mikey and Donald, I like them, too. It is difficult to see a person wear a T-shirt which has a big Mikey face in my age (I’m 21 now). I like plaid shirt very much when I was around 18 years old. I have many color plaid shirts, red, blue, gray and white. I like white plaid shirt the most because it looks very clean and easy to match with any pants. To be honest, I don’t have any specific style of dress until I came to America. However, I have few favorite clothes, white plaid shirt, tan casual pants and black coat. I like these clothes because they can make me looks slimmer. On the other hand, I changed different style when I live in different place. For instance, I live in Eugene, so I wear T-shirt with duck logo. And I have a piercing on my left side ear. I got it in the last year, I didn’t do that when I in China because Chinese think it is not a boy things. In America, we are free to do what we want, so I got it. I think it is very suit for my recent style.
The core value in my family also is self-confidence, so I also required to dress well. In my hometown, people through their watch, shoes, and belt to show off their status. Therefore, my father give me a quartz watch which is very expansive. He let me wear it when I attend to some parties of my parents. My parents always wear black and white clothes, I think it is too boring, so I always wear colorful in my daily life.
In my peer community, people like to wear casual clothes but these people will put lots of money on their adornment. Although they are just student, but most of their family are rich, they like wear famous brand bags and watches. Some people think that their core value is personal development. They through famous brand bags, watch, and shoes to find friends who have same economic condition for their future development.
Sanders, C. R. (1989). Introduction: Body Alteration, Artistic Production, and the Social World of Tattooing. In Customizing the Body (Chap. 1). Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press.
Reflection:
In this Chapter, I learned about the art of personal adornment. Through watching people’s adornment could make an assumption of their personal values. For instance, from their dressing, tattooing, piercing and jewelry can guess their age, healthy or not, personal belief and nations etc. However, I will focus on the tattoo, because tattoo always can express personal belief.
Allen Iverson is a basketball player in NBA, he has many tattoos on his body. The picture is one of his tattoos in the neck. It is a Chinese word “Zhong (忠)”， the meaning of this word is loyal and credible. We can make a guess that “Zhong” is important personal value for him so he wants to remind himself. In other words, Iverson might like Chinese culture, so he has a tattoo in Chinese.
Moreover, David Beckham, a famous English football player in the past. He also has a Tattoo in Chinese on his waist， which is “Sheng Si You Ming, Fu Gui Zai Tian (生死有命富贵在天)”. The meaning is that don’t worry about too much, just do it. He also likes to wear suit and T-shirt, his dressing always very clean and tidy. In my opinion, Beckham is courageous and organized person.
In conclusion, this assignment helped me to learn how to identify person’s values from their outlooks. I believe that they have a strong relationship between outlooks and personal values. I pay more attention on the tattoo in above pictures, but we still can guess more about their personal information, like career, education level and wealth level etc. This assignment is really useful in my future life.
Future Goal:
It is very important to identify others personal values and their basic information depends on others’ outlooks. Therefore, I will always notice other people’s dressing and sum them up. Although we cannot judge others by their appearance, it still important to learn how to identify it.
artifact 1: Life Value Assessment
artifact 3: Is Food Art? Discussion
artifact 4: The Art of Personal Adornment
artifact 5: Aesthetics of Horror
artifact 6: Creativity Spirituality
artifact 7: Art, Technology and Games