03: interface and interaction

After observing Jean Pierre Gauthier's magical drawing creatures I finally decided to explore a hunch I've been kicking around. That is, I've begun to research puppetry as an approach to discussing narrative, interface and play as a physical and cultural construct. There are so many cultures that use puppetry as part of their traditions, to teach ancient narratives or to expose lessons that effect social change. I think I would be able to produce a substantial body of work which looks at puppet making and puppetry in a historical context and as myth and legend. As well as techniques and tools of the trade. I am also drawn to the intimate connection between the puppet and the puppet master. The puppets are extensions of the people who control and operate them. As an appendage, the puppet exerts a certain freedom for the puppet master, allowing them to act, create or play in ways that can skirt social conventions. This intimate interface between operator and operatee can be seen in custom made puppets which respond to the dexterity of their owners. There is also an intense relationship between the puppet and the audience. This interface is primarily sight and sound but also highly interactive. Puppets are approached and accepted by the audience not as mere machines but as personalities.

Puppetry is also explicitly spatial: it challenges accepted dichotomies between audiences and performers and it deals with the movements and actions of people and puppets in space. As you blend the audience and the stage, as children clamor to get near puppets, as marionettes walk down the street, they suggest a model of spatial design (and by extension architecture) that employs interaction to create spatial experience. I’d like to explore this line of thinking further through research and also through the vivisection. I think it could be really interesting to create a series of puppets which might:

1. Function differently for whoever is operating them based on sensory information.
2. Look at how a puppet might exist for a non-human—such as how the action of a door closing might direct puppet movement.

I'm sure this discussion will evolve and change as the research continues.