Kinesics » Written Research
Excerpt from my written MA Thesis:
Can media arts be used to form new educational information channels which will cater for deeper cross-cultural knowledge and more direct learning methods?
The term cultural diversity consists of more than what is obvious to the eye; it represents differences in behaviour; in world perspectives and in human interaction. The accessibility to other cultures of the world has been brought closer and closer to us in a constantly globalising world. In our information driven societies, mass media plays an important role in communication between and about cultures, however the media is often politically or culturally biased. Racism, miscommunication, stereotyping and ignorance are all familiar terms when it comes to cultural co-existence, and mass-media is often an active contributor to the creation of such negative attitudes. In my MA project, Kinesics, I am answering to the call for creating better understanding of differences in culture.
Kinesics is the interpretation of body language such as facial expressions and gestures — or, more formally, non-verbal behavior related to movement, either of any part of the body or the body as a whole. Source: wikipedia.org
It is claimed that over 60% of human communication is non-verbal. Non-verbal communication systems vary from culture to culture, so there is a lot to learn about people and their culture by gaining greater knowledge about non-verbal diversity. Often the wrongdoing is not in what you say; more how you say it, because what your body communicates is often stronger than words. In order to reduce discrimination and miscommunication among different cultural groups, it is important to portray cultures in a new light. I believe that this can be achieved by going beyond the romantic or ethnic projections of culture and appearance, and focusing on fundamental differences such as kinesics, in order to uncover the real human obstacles that make it so difficult to communicate. In this project I am exploring the relevance of art and design in culture; how can media design contribute to a more transparent base for understanding of cultural differences?
The Self in Interaction with the Other in a Globalising World
At this point in global history, as geographical borders are blurring and global media and internet technologies are bringing people closer, diversity in culture and differences in behaviour is becoming increasingly clear. We now see meetings of different cultural interaction systems on a daily basis; in business meetings, during travels, and in multicultural societies. My project is an exploration of the self in the context of cultural interaction systems, and it is an exploration of the self in relation to the other in the frame of these systems. What are the obstacles and the influences to the self in interaction with others? Why is it that I have been experienced as a cold person by some but warm by others, as wild by some and calm by others and as well mannered by some and as rude by others? There is a deep curiosity within me eager to unfold some of the important ways in how cultural interaction systems shape who we are and how we habituate the viewpoints we do. As a bicultural person, Irish and Norwegian, cross-cultural issues are a part of my reality and close family relations. “Do you feel more Irish or more Norwegian?” The truth is I do not know, because I am somewhere in-between. I do not identify fully with either cultural identities, but partly with both. My interest in cultures starts with this personal meeting of cultures, the experiences I have had since birth of my two cultures, and later during travels and studying abroad and personally encountering many cultures of the world. From my experiences I acknowledge a deep value in learning about culture through personal interaction, rather than through dry literature introduced in schools, or falsified media representations.
Mass media is economically and politically biased, what we are presented with in media is manipulated and carefully picked, often out of its original context. Too often we are presented with romanticized representations of culture with an overwhelming focus on ethnicity. Although media exposure brings us closer to other cultures of the world in many ways, it also spreads fear and panic through its representations of ethnic stereotypes and extremists. One such example is the media hype surrounding the Taliban and Muslim suicide bombers, which in the west has created a state of panic and a general fear of all Muslims as the evildoers of the world. Obviously such media representations give people an inapt perspective on reality, and increase the cultural gap by creating fear and hate instead of bridges for understanding.
Rather than creating communication, it exhausts itself in the act of staging communication. Rather than producing meaning, it exhausts itself in the staging of meaning. The hyper reality of communication and of meaning. More real than the real, that is how the real is abolished. (BAUDRILLARD 1994)
Cultural theorists have long been discussing the influence of mass media on reality. Jean Baudrillard (1929 – 2007), a cultural theorist, philosopher, and sociologist, discussed the concepts of “hyper reality” and “simulation”, referring to the virtual nature of contemporary culture in an age of mass communication and mass consumption. He believed that we have lost the ability to relate to reality because the media has replaced reality with symbols and signs, and this simulation of reality is always prepared, edited and destructive of cultural values. As a Graphic Designer, I am a guilty contributor to the world of advertising and the promotion of simulation. My creative energy is spent feeding into the simulated world which Baudrillard argues has become reality. “Make us look like so and so…” “Make us seem bigger than we are, like we are global…”, and indeed do we do it, we design surfaces to simulate the identity of the client. We design magazine layouts, manipulate photographs of models to make them appear skinnier with bigger boobs and lips, so that all the susceptible teenagers out there will think that’s how we’re all supposed to look. So the teenagers in turn do become like that. They become a hyperreal version of themselves, a Scandinavian Britney Spears or a British Shakira. The media in that sense not only simulates our reality and surroundings, but also by intruding personal identities it contributes to the self. If our knowledge of the other (and the self for that matter) and of reality is to continue to be influenced so immensely by the media, then as a media artist I see a growing need to produce more honest media, or even new information channels.
I want to reverse this theory of hyperreality, so that the mediated image can become a more real representation of reality, or even better, it can become an aid for us to better understand our reality, and the reality of the other.
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Please explore the visual projects and greeting maps in the menu to see how my research was translated into design/media/performance pieces.
