Post content
Soundtrack – Me va, Me va by Julio Iglesias.
It was the Neolithic period about 9,000 years ago when the inhabitants of southern Hebron carved the oldest masks known to exist.
Stone masks probably intended for funeral rites due to their virtual impossibility to "wear". Masks like this one:
The use of masks (I think we could also include makeup here) was gradually adopted in rituals, ceremonies and wars. Whether to help channel spirits or to instill fear in the adversary.
I'm even more interested in those that help the wearer pretend another reality to the spectator: theater masks. Which allow the actor to project a character onto the audience.
For example, those used by actors in Greek and Roman theaters.
These also allowed them to represent different emotions and for the same actor to perform several roles. Same function as Noh theater masks.
Thousands of years later we remain practically the same, only now the masks are TikTok and Instagram Beauty filters. Social networks where the metonymic expansion of the character ends up devouring the individual.
My first-hand experience with Beauty filters is limited. I've only used them a couple of times out of professional curiosity and, some, because I found them quite fun. Like the one that adds a few years to you:
I remember that night well. I was with Ana in Huế having a Tiger beer on the second-floor terrace of a bar. It was hot, very hot and very humid. In the background, always present, the smell of ripe durian for sale at street stalls. While we finished our beer and looked for a restaurant to go to dinner, people on the street started setting up a small sound system at the four-street intersection. Minutes later a kind of jam session began where anyone could come out to sing, from some quite drunk gentleman to a girl who was really good at it. We couldn't help but go down and watch the show. Finally we moved to the restaurant that was down the main street. We had dinner with dishes we didn't know and that tasted like Vietnam. The typical Southeast Asian basil stood out alongside a fantastic mix of sweet, spicy, salty and sour. Finally we improvised a little walk along the Perfume River while deciding to have "one last drink" at the Gecko Bar. The place was a backpacker destination, a bit westernized but where you felt welcomed even by the cockroaches that roamed the tables. You sat on one of its benches and, from time to time, pushed away the leaves of plants that embraced you while you drank a Tiger with ice.
–
Meanwhile Zuckerberg, self-proclaimed lord of the Metaverse (as if there were only going to be one), promises us an exciting virtual world in which to live unforgettable experiences through a mask.
A mask that doesn't serve to project a modified reality from the individual to the world but from the world to the individual.
And I remember that they've been promising us VR since the 80s/90s with Tron or The Lawnmower Man. And I'm flooded with a déjà vu of Second Life, while I observe how companies create strategies for us to keep consuming in the virtual world... and speculators rubbing their hands with the buying/selling of pixels...
Until I can live an experience like the one in Huế I think I'm going to remain skeptical about Zuckerberg's promises.