Focusing on faces
by Bob on July 20, 2007
A friend and I were talking today about faces appearing in media. So I was intrigued to think about faces and how we focus on them and interpret them, and, in fact, even make them.
Faces are critical in communication. They fall into the area we know as "non-verbal communication". We can see with silent clowns, children, mimes, and even adults what a facial gesture can convey.
In the computer social-interacting network model, a face on one's web page can be interesting or even sometimes deceiving. It may not even be of the actual person. One can be fooled. Especially online with no face-to-face communication.
Some people even use gender-neutral photos on their page. A picture of a building or a statue unrelated to their real image. Whatever a real image is in fact, if we know that. Little of what we see in photos are a good indication of what a person really looks like or who the person is inside in their being.
Mime is the quintessential facial articulation without any words. We imagine how hard it is do perform mime but also realise how much is communicated in it, despite no words uttered.
We focus on faces because we don't know how else to read someone's inner being. The eyes are especially the tunnel to the soul, so we look at them or even through them. Lips tell us a lot. The formation of words. Expressions of the eyebrows might tell us everything we need to know about a person's demeanour and attitude.
Many people when another is talking to them, focus on the lips. Others focus on the eyes. This is possibly cultural or even just physiological. It's easier to understand someone when we are watching their lips. But we miss the eyes and other facial expressions in doing so. So watching the face while communicating is very complicated to do in practice.
We get to why people focus on looks. Prettiness and beauty is seemingly desirable so we fall into the trap of physical appearance as a tell-tale of who a person is or will be for us. But it ultimately can be a snare.
There is so much more to a human's being than just the face. But it is the entrance point from which we perceive the person. We are obliged to go deeper to know the person. Whether we do is a choice: superficiality or deep heart-to-heart connection.
Wise philosophers said that the body is just a facade and a material bag which encases our being and not to be taken to seriously. I think that in our modern age people do simply judge a whole person by this facade which seems unfortunate in the end.
One need only to think of a posed picture. "Smile for the camera ! Say cheese !". The person is definitely on best behaviour. We must see them more often to know.
Motion pictures and films are a continuous strip of still images producing an illusion of movement and also of something being alive. But it is an illusion. All those still pictures and frames zipping by us.
Circus clowns know all about faces. The great Italian movie director Fellini knew this too, and was fascinated by clowns and their expressions and personalities on and off stage, to the extent that he made a film about them in 1970 called "I Clowns".
They say that behind each smiling clown is a tearful one. The classic sad clown. Well maybe that's just the human condition.
In ancient Greece actors wore masks which obscured their real faces. So their performances had to be good to get the attention and heart of the audience. Therein is a lesson. Don't judge a book by its cover if we really want to know someone.