4 Years of Faces at the World Science Festival

by Christopher Agostino

The World Science Festival has been a great adventure for me as a facepainter over these past four years. Working with new and unusual themes is a wonderful way to expand design concepts — plus I am a bit of a science geek and fully appreciate this opportunity to share my enthusiasm with kids and families.

I chose to go from being a lone facepainter to the director of a company of artists because I wanted to be able to have an artistic impact on large events, with dynamic face designs in sufficient number to visually alter the event. This is facepainting as a visual performance art.

Because our Transformation Facepainting concept is a constantly creative exploration of design principles rather than the repetition of specific designs, our company can create new and unique designs to suit the theme of each specific event, and thereby bring that theme to life in a fully participatory way on each guest we paint.

Our work in arts-in-education and family theater also gives us the tools to support a promotional or educational concept with contextual interactions with the people we paint as we transform them with thematic designs.

In the case of the World Science Festival, I’ve had as much fun talking with people about these things we are turning them in to as in coming up with these unique designs — telling stories about moments of science such as the 1919 solar eclipse that generated worldwide headlines proclaiming that “Einstein Was Right!”. Plus, we’ve occasionally had the privilege of painting scientists in designs that fit their field of science, as in the time that a molecular biologist doing research on the brain gave me insight into how to depict neurons firing.

I’ve also had the opportunity to present my performance/lecture on the cultural significance of masks and painted faces for some wonderful audiences in their Discovery Theater.

For more information on the lecture: https://thestorybehindthefaces.com/lecture/

Some things I might never think to paint turn out to be the inspiration for wonderful faces.  http://worldsciencefestival.com/ http://worldsciencefestival.com/blog/face_painting

     

2 comments on “4 Years of Faces at the World Science Festival

  1. Jack Fink says:

    I can see in the images above, how a new venue would spark interesting, fresh, new designs. Keeps the artist interested too. – JF

  2. […] 4 Years of Faces at the World Science Festival (thestorybehindthefaces.com) Luckily people do not come into the airport with the painted faces recorded at the festival. Hear a speaker on the cultural significance of masks and painted faces at the  Discovery Theater. […]

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