SKIN LESSON PLANS
The following website provides lesson plans for students in grades 6 through 12.  Lessons include such topics as Skin: the Behavior and Health Connection and Variation in Human Skin Color.
http://www.sciencenetlinks.com/skindeep/

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Below is a list of books for futher reading on SKIN and the issues surrounding the festival theme.

Beauty Junkies

Inside Our $15 Billion Obsession with Cosmetic Surgery

By Alex Kuczynski

290 pp. Doubleday. $24.95 hardcover

In the U.S., a beauty and youth obsessed craze has swept the country. The standards and ideas of perfection have gotten increasingly higher and virtually impossible to attain. “What is beautiful?” asks Alex Kuczynski, a writer for the New York Times Styles section. The author, an admitted former “beauty junkie” herself, paints a vivid picture of the cosmetic industry, including the history of plastic surgery and botox, while incorporating her own story, adding an honest personal account of her own obsession with youth and the increasingly common fear of aging.

The Book of Skin

By Steven Connor

304 pp. Cornell University Press. $36.95 paperback

Steven Connor examines skin from a scientific and cultural standpoint. With “skin” being more visible in today’s society than ever before, Connor sets out to investigate the various forms of skin—both physically and metaphorically. Beginning with skin’s history in artistic works, he explores all aspects of this external surface, ranging from its natural state and variety of colors to the manipulations and disfigurations we give it. Skin takes on the function of identifying and communicating that is, in some cases, literally written on the body.

Only Skin Deep

Changing Visions of the American Self

By Coco Fusco and Brian Wallis, ed.

416 pp.  Harry N. Abrams, Inc.  $50 hardback

It is often said that a picture is worth a thousand words. In this large compilation of essays and photographs, the authors explore the topic of race, identity and the role of photography on cultural perceptions. They intend to show the various ways in which our ideas of race are social constructions, and how certain stereotypes are perpetuated through the images that we see. Photography is a strong medium for conveying powerful scenes and messages. However, the ways in which these images are interpreted can prove to be detrimental, manipulating viewpoints and contributing to a greater marginalization. 

Skin

A Natural History

By Nina G. Jablonski

266 pp. University of California Press. $24.95 hardcover

Skin takes on many different connotations, across disciplines. Nina Jablonski, a professor and head of the Department of Anthropologist at Pennsylvania State University, delves deep under the “skin” of what out exteriors mean to us as individuals. She carefully and eloquently dissects their meanings on many different levels ranging from the biology and evolution of skin, to the sensitivity, sensitivity and emotionality connected to touch and the ways in which we decorate our outer layer. Interlaced among the words are poignant pictures and photographs, depicting both human and animal skin in its many forms.

Skin

Surface, Substance + Design

By Ellen Lupton

239 pp. Princeton Architectural Press. $35 hardcover; $27.50 paperback

The book cover itself is like an ambiguous bound skin, vaguely resembling a wall of a building or maybe even a couch cushion. Skin: Surface, Substance and Design moves beyond the constraints of human skin, examining through vivid and rich images the outer layers of common- and not so common- objects around us. In one chapter, Ellen Lupton explores the “vessels and membranes” of various items of clothing and architectural design, pointing out the similarities between buildings and bodies as forms of coverings for the respective interiors. In addition she refers to the layers of coverings, such as clothing over our bodies and curtains in the windows of our homes.

Tattoo

Bodies, Art, and Exchange in the Pacific and the West

By Nicholas Thomas, Anna Cole, and Bronwen Douglas, ed.

252 pp. Duke University Press. $27.95 paperback

A collection of ten essays explores the debated history and birth of body-marking, as well as modern day implications of the culture of tattoos. There is a common focus on the Pacific—Samoa, Tahiti and Maori—as centers and origins of cultural tattooing, later encountered by European settlers during colonization. Tattooing becomes relevant in the interplay between the cultures of the West and the Pacific, being used in differing manners and capacities throughout history up to today.