Interactive 3D Computer animation, Kirsten Geisler, 1997<\/p>\n
The enchanting power of her steady gaze, fixed upon us, pulls us under her spell. Larger than life – simultanously real and unreal – she, Kirsten Geisler’s “Beauty”, watches us. She is the epitome of standardized beauty. However, although she seems to satisfy all of the conventions of an ideal feminine beauty, the absolute void of expression on her elegantly proportioned face creates a lingering vexation. Although one would not expect her to have any autonomy, slowly she begins to speak:: ” I’m a beauty – I’m a virtual.”<\/p>\n
A microphone, installed in front of the large format video portrait, gives visitors the opportunity to break the spell and to get into a conversation with the Beauty. She responds to questions and comments from visitors by nodding graciously, shaking her head or by answering, “I don’t like it”. The most surprising moments are when the Beauty suddenly winks knowingly or when she, for a brief moment, smiles.<\/p>\n
At this point, at the latest, the discrepancy between natural and artificial beauty becomes clear. In the “Dream of Beauty”, Kirsten Geisler skilfully plays the conventional commercial aesthetic off against itself. The construct of ideal feminine beauty, which Geisler’s Beauty represents, is not only exposed as sheer facade but also forms a wall that impedes profound communication.<\/p>\n
Geisler demonstrates that – regardless of whether we are dealing with traditional or digital media- the stereotypical portrayal of women has reached such a degree of artificiality that the boundaries between the real and the virtual world could lead to a situation in which fantasy and the world of imagination would once again take on greater meaning in our rationally ordered everyday lives.<\/p>\n
The creative leeway is vast here, the remaining area displays human organs like a spare parts storage. The organs appear on small video screens in the installation space. The eyes, the nose, the mouth, and various perspectives of the face, that appear on the screens, point toward the future possibility of continually forming the face anew. This new freedom in the construction of changing identities has, admittedly, not only positive but also negative implications and in the face of an ever-advancing gene technology, the full extent of the negative implications are not yet foreseeable.<\/p>\n
In her most recent work Kirsten Geisler makes it unmistakably clear that, contrary to every overestimation and mystification of the technical possibilities, the current state of technology is still sketchy. Her virtual beauty is, at its current stage of development, neither a perfect digital clone nor an equal human conversation partner. She is rather a naive, childish one, who is capable of learning nevertheless. In the future phases of her development, which are planned for the next year, she will continue to learn and expand her communicative abilities. Whether or not she will become an emotional and expressive “Beauty” depends most of all upon our willingness to acknowledge her social and communicative competence.<\/p>\n
Dr. Soeke Dinkla, Wilhelm Lehmbruck Museum Duisburg (GER)
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