The automaton and puppet as a trigger for social change

Laura Vandewynckel
Promotors: Klaas Tindemans, Nadia Sels, Jan Vromman

Does an animated inanimate object have the power to move us in an emotional, intellectual and literal sense? Laura Vandewynckel investigates the impact of puppets and automata on the unsuspecting spectator. Can these beings, that are active and passive, subject and object, everyone and no one at the same time, be used to visualize social mechanisms? The puppet-thing triggers our critical reflection, the puppet-being compels us to engage emotionally. In the hybrid documentary project Pharmakoi a scapegoat puppet is introduced to a community of islanders and confronts them with their own role as culprit and victim in the scapegoat mechanism.