Paper short abstract:

A theoretical examination into the seminal nature of the re-presented face in facial reconstructions on the viewer and why this impact is an important societal moment.

Paper long abstract:

Facial reconstruction offers forensic and archaeological investigations an insightful opportunity to discover and engage with the countenances of past individuals. Illustrating a theoretical dimension to the practice, this paper examines the commanding presence of the face and its ultimate end in producing a response and therefore a responsibility for the presented Other elicited from a contemporary audience. Facial reconstruction concerns itself with the anatomical re-presentation of an individual; however, theoretically, the phenomena of the face can neither be reduced to components nor parts as it is more than an object. Its multitude of meanings overflow the imaged form and demands us to affirm the Other's past presence. Drawing upon the body of work from twentieth century philosopher Emanuel Levinas, this discussion hopes to explicate the weight of the face and its seminal role in the event of experiencing a facial reconstruction.

The enterprise of facial reconstruction utilizes this beckoning and summons of the face's expressions and imbedded meanings such as identity. Encountering the face of an Other calls the freedom of the viewer to an obligation in protecting the ethical height of the re-constructed individual. However, it is this opportunity's impact upon the contemporary viewer that is vital when considering this moment of encounter. We are consistently in previously attained social relations, often resulting in forgetting the force of the Other's countenance upon us, but with instances such as the beneficial relationship with facial reconstruction we are reminded of these reverberations of being which span temporal and spatial boundaries.