Tom Bieling:
Gender Puppets
Verlag: Lit Verlag; Auflage: 1 (August 2008)
ISBN-10: 3825812456
ISBN-13: 978-3825812454
In this project we shall explore the social impact and the correlation between human and artificial gender construction. Illustrated by the example of body language and nonverbal communication of manikins it opens up an in-depth insight into the social practice of constructing social (gender) roles on the one hand. It also tries to analyse the relevance of that topic for the designer’s work and thought process on the other hand. We discuss the function and process of social adaptation of human beings in principle, and how closely these principles are connected to the bilateral influence of every day culture in modern life.
This exploration identifies the mimetic operating scheme of human socialisation, which also includes the gender construction, as component part of the human-puppet-interface. The human-made, -positioned- and -presented manikin – as at the same time human image and reflection – assumes a similarly active and passive function in matters of manipulative impact on the constructive process of human socialisation. The integrative process of social component construction, incorporating human image, occurs not only through demonstration of sex, but in particular by accentuation of (assumed) gender-typical posture, gesture and facial expression. Hence in turn result in categorisations, selections, definitions and adaptations, which for their parts are being imitated or staged.
