For the final project I chose to express universal facial expression, hand gestures and emotions through the use of video. The first video piece is entitled "Las Glorias Incoherentes" (The Incoherent Glorias). It consists of two images of me sitting side by side. One is expressing emotions solely via facial expressions whereas the other is using only hand gestures. I chose to use only the universal basic emotions as described by Paul Ekman: Enjoyment, Sadness, Anger, Fear/Surprise, and Disgust/Contempt.
         I was influenced by our readings and discussions on emotional expression and the brain as well as how our faces and bodies reveal as well as conceal emotions.   The Fusiform Gyrus is the area responsible for facial recognition whereas the area that responds to hand gestures is the area associate with speech and verbal communication. I'm sure more research is underway to find which subsections within these areas respond to specific expressions. Recent studies of Huntington's patients who have trouble recognizing facial expressions of disgust have shown a correlation between the Insula and recognition of disgust in other people's faces. I was particularly drawn to the theories and research on universal facial expression. This was a topic of much debate with most scientists arguing that expressions and gestures were culturally specific and socially learned. It wasn't until the late 1960's with Paul Ekman's cross-cultural studies that Darwin's observation nearly a century prior of the universality of expressions was shown to be true. (Other scientists doing similar fieldwork verified his findings.) The emotions for which he found this to be true across all the cultures studied were: enjoyment, sadness, anger, fear, surprise, disgust and contempt. Of these fear and surprise were not distinguishable from each other however were distinguishable from the other emotions. The same was the case of disgust and contempt.        
         The hands and body are also powerful vehicles of expression. Although there may be some universal qualities of hand gestures and body language, to my knowledge there are no concrete findings to support a universal theory. In class we looked at hand and body gestures as used in theater and silent films. We looked at John Bulwer's book of hand gestures, "Chirologia" and Francois Delsarte's guide for actors, "The Delsarte System". Although these were good sources for theatrical actions that convey emotions, I could not find the direct correlations to the basic universal emotions. Taking cues from these sources I came up with my own set of hand gestures to signify enjoyment, sadness, anger, fear, surprise, disgust and contempt.
         As the brain has different faculties for the recognition of facial expressions and hand gestures, in "Las Glorias Incoherentes" I chose to have two representations of myself to illustrate this separation. One Gloria expresses emotion only through facial expression while the hands remain still. The other Gloria uses only hand gestures to express emotion while the face remains stoic. Although the pattern of emotions remains the same throughout, the two Glorias are out of sync. I did this to challenge the viewer's brain by forcing a constant shift between trying to decipher the facial expression and trying to decipher the hand gesture. It would be interesting to see the results of an MRI conducted on the individual while viewing this piece.
         Although this piece deals with emotions it is not emotionally evocative. It seems quite clear that the actor is displaying emotions not actually felt therefore the viewer is not likely to empathize with the emotion. I would expect the viewer to have an intellectual versus emotional response to this piece.
         For the second video, "surFACE" I was influenced by the idea of display rules and the cultural differences in the management of emotions as addressed in the book "Emotions Revealed" by Paul Ekman.

"Birdwhistell, a respected anthropologist who specialized in the study of expression and gesture, had written that he abandoned Darwin's ideas when he found that in many cultures people smiled when they were unhappy. Birdwhistell's claim fit the view that dominated cultural anthropology and most of psychology - anything socially important, such as emotional expressions, must be the product of learning, and therefore different in each culture. I reconciled our findings that expressions are universal with Birdwhistell's observation of how they differ from one culture to another by coming up with the idea of display rules . These, I proposed, are socially learned, often culturally different, rules about the management of expression, about who can show which emotion to whom and when they can do so. ...These rules may dictate that we diminish, exaggerate, hide completely, or mask the expression of emotion we are feeling." (Ekman, p.3-4)

Ekman tested this in a study where he showed Japanese and Americans films of surgery and accidents and observed their responses. When in private, both displayed similar expressions in response to the films. However when a scientist sat and watched the films with them, the Japanese more than the Americans masked their negative expressions by smiling.
         We all mask our true emotions in different situations for various reasons. In "surFACE" I attempt to emphasis this spilt between the felt emotion and the display emotion. Again one representation of myself is using facial expression. The other is expressing with the body while hiding the face. The monitor with me smiling is the display emotion or the mask. The image of me in the background is using body language and posture to describe the true or felt emotion of sadness. I further exaggerated this difference with my use of color and brightness.
         I am interested in learning more about emotions and universal vs. socially learned or cultural forms of expression. I can see doing a body of work of video art pieces further examining this topic.