"Reaching Across Generations" with Andrew Belser, Creator and Producer of FaceAge, Part 1 of 2

My kids will tell you I cry when my heart is moved by something…a poem, a story or a piece of music, heck even a television commercial can bring on the tears. It’s something I’ve accepted about myself and don’t deny.

But that something has to be truly exquisite, poignant or deeply beautiful, something that reaches into the broken puzzle I call my heart and brings forth a salient emotion.

FaceAge had that effect on me. This award winning video program weaves together interconnected chapters in which young adults and aging individuals reflect on life while studying and describing one another’s faces. The FaceAge experience meets audiences through an immersive three-screen video environment presenting interconnected video chapters built around these cross-generational encounters.

I had the opportunity to experience FaceAge in Washington DC earlier this year, and after wiping my eyes and blowing my nose, I just had to meet the person behind this ground-breaking work of art and science. That’s when I met Andrew Belser, who is presently a professor of Movement, Voice, and Acting at Penn State University, as well as Penn’s Director of the Arts & Design Research Incubator, a studio/laboratory where artists and designers join with scientists, writers, philosophers and others to research and create artistic projects for national and international venues.

If you long to see the gaps between people bridged, as I do, then you will want to learn more about FaceAge, which helps us see ourselves “through the lens of old age,” as Andrew puts it. FaceAge is more than just about intergenerational connection…it is about human healing, and there is nothing more deeply beautiful than that.

Here to tell us more about that, in part one of this two part interview, is Andrew Belser, creator and producer of the award winning video exhibit called FaceAge.