The Mask Phenomenon Of Art In The Information Age

Originated from the death cult in the Stone Age,mask was used to reshape the faces of the dead,however it is they have taken their place in cultural and social history as cover-up and illusion in modern times.It is fair to say that mask have had a mysterious and complex meaning since its inception and have taken on different symbolic meanings over time.From the original mask in the natural sense,to the cultural sense,to the current mask as an image with a social meaning,the connotations and meanings of masks have evolved over thousands of years.Nevertheless,with the rapid development of information technology,the boundaries of art are constantly being expanded and the types and representations of ’masks’ exist outside of tradition.Mask plays an important role,whether it is the subject of masks in works of art or the process of creating and appreciating artworks.Both the physical mask as a religious ritual,a festive object,a stage prop,and the many meanings of the mask itself,determine the complex relationship between the mask,the face and the body,and the implicit and profound connection between the mask and human identity,which is always present in artistic expression.How does mask appear through art,like natural light through a triglyph?This paper attempts to locate specific works of art in China and the West in which the "mask" of the information age has been used,and to combine these with specific works to uncover the aesthetic value and contemporary significance of the mask in the act of artistic interaction.Tn the information age,the forms and ways of communication of art creation have changed,and the development of digital media technology has expanded the means of artistic interaction,while the "Mask" as a theme of art creation that is difficult to ignore has new characteristics in the present.It can be argued that the emergence of the theme of the mask in modern art has changed the character of artistic interaction.Based on this,this essay will take the representation of "masks" in artworks of the information age and the aesthetic value of virtual masks in artistic interactions as the starting point to build the basic content of the essay,which is roughly as follows:In the first chapter,the concepts of "Mask",and ’face’ will be sorted out and analyzed to clarify the object of study.Firstly,the origin of the "Mask" as an entity and its cultural significance in different times and scenes,especially rituals,festive scenes,and theatre.The natural and cultural significance of the face as a symbol of identity and a carrier of information will then be clarified.Then,the complex and ambiguous relationship between the mask and the face will be outlined.Although they intersect in social terms,and the mask is derived from the simulation of the face,as the cultural meaning of the mask continues to expand,the two cannot be equated and used interchangeably.Equally,despite the strong and complex links between the two,we cannot discuss them in isolation.The purpose of this chapter is not to delineate the boundary between ’Face’ and ’Mask’,but to illustrate the inextricable link between the two and to clarify the object of this study,which is a necessary precondition for the beginning of this paper.The second chapter is an exploration of the relationship between the "Mask" and the "Body".By clarifying the etymology of the concept of "Body" and examining the conceptual changes of "’Body" through the ages and brought the body back into the context of the current data and information age.The relationship between the body and the mask will also be discussed in this chapter.In a physiological sense,the face is a surface and a part of the body,but as a vehicle for images,the face can replace the whole with a part,allowing for a degree of unification and domination of the body.At the same time,the ’embodied’ shift in technological development has left for scope for discussion of future body forms.Bodily communication in the information age is becoming digital,the virtual body is not the same as abandoning the body,it is a masked communication wrapped in a lot of information,digital information provides people with another kind of mask-the "Cyber Mask".The relationship between body,face and mask is deepened in the anonymized space of the information age.The third chapter focuses on the work of Chinese and foreign artists on the theme of masks and the phenomenon of masks since the second half of the twentieth century.Through the analysis of Lynn Herschman-Leeson’s "Virtual Identity"series,Francis Bacon’s portraits,the infinitely repetitive portraits in Andy Warhol’s Pop Art,the rigid smiley masks in Zeng Fanzhi’s paintings,and the digital composite art of artists such as Nancy Bernsen,the most important representations of masks in contemporary art,such as deformation,repetition,and virtualization,are sorted out.It also demonstrates the existence of artists and connoisseurs in the virtual digital space after the information revolution and explores the characteristics of masks in postmodernist conceptions of art and artistic creation.Chapter 4 addresses the possible impact of masks on artistic interaction in the post-information age.As a result of the altered avenues of art creation and Communication such as social media and virtual spaces,as well as the alienation and hollowness of postmodern life,people have taken refuge in virtual spaces in the image of Cyberface.The repetition and homogeneity of artistic images in digital media is therefore a natural consequence of the Internet as a world of images.In the virtual space,Cyber masks lead people to think further about the profound connection between image and object,representation,reality,copy,original,phenomenon,essence.At the same time,the pictorial analysis of faces and masks illustrates that the pictorial symbols produced by the homogenization of contemporary art images are also new forms of rigid masks,behind which the spiritual status quo and intellectual barrenness of contemporary people are implied.Art has thus had to turn to the virtual cyberspace,and at the same time,the presence of the virtual has led to a constant tendency towards embodiment in art creation and communication,with artistic interaction thus forming an open field of dialogue in the virtual space due to virtual identities and cyber masks,leading artistic interaction to the possibility of free dialogue.