Initial Research & Experimental Making: Skin / Puppets

Skin / Puppets

To Begin:

My first thought and question when I see the assigned word “Puppets,” is whether I should go the literal route to learn about 1.) the actual puppets or 2.) the famous idiom puppet is used cross-culturally;  the installed political leaders or government with no legitimacy in itself. I thought I would give it a shot to understand the basics and origin of the art of puppetry first.

Basic Research:

When I first started my research in English, I was learning about how the origin of puppets goes as far as the 5th century BC in Ancient Greece. In fact, the famous philosopher Aristotle (384-322 BC) discusses puppets in his work On the Motion of Animals in detail.

However, almost every ancient civilisation have their own version of puppetry. Aside from the two simple ones: finger puppets and hand puppets, are still very popular in contemporary societies. Here’s a list of different famous puppetries from different regions:

Marionette (string puppet) – suspended and controlled by a number of strings
Rod Puppet (Marotte) – central rod secured to the head
Shadow puppet (Motekar) – cut-out figure held between a source of light and a translucent screen
Bunraku puppets – Japanese wood-carved puppet
ventriloquist’s dummy – a stagecraft that creates an illusion that the puppet is alive
carnival/body puppets – large puppets used in spectacle or parade
black light puppet – stage puppet using only ultraviolet lighting, influenced by Bunraku puppetry
Cantastoria – a whole stage production of storytelling using puppets, illustration, and other visuals
Human-arm puppet – similar to a hand puppet but larger
Light curtain puppet – use light to highlight a small portion so manipulators remain invisible
Tabletop puppet – operated by rod, influenced by Bunraku
Ticklebug – hand puppet with four legs, features are drawn on the actual hand
Object puppet – made using found items
Supermarionation – invented by Gerry Anderson for tv shows, marionettes with electronically moving mouths
Water puppet – Vietnamese puppet form from the 10th century. Built out of wood and performed in a pool
Rajasthani Puppet – Pained wooden puppet with huge expressive eyes in Indian culture

Out of all the different puppets, Shadow Puppet speaks to me the most, as it was what I grew up culturally familiar with as a Taiwanese. In fact, in Mandarin, it’s called “皮影戲”, which is directly translated into English as “Skin, Shadow, Theater.” While it varies by region, many shadow puppets are traditionally made with animal skin.

After reading about the art of puppetry, I decided to take a look at the word puppet as idioms and cultural expression. Unsurprisingly, there are a lot of interesting topics that I can dive into, such as famous puppet states, and regimes throughout history (e.g. Vidkun Quisling, Zhou Yi, the Khedivate of Egypt), and the term “sock puppet” to describe fake accounts online used to spread political disinformation.

After the initial research, I think I don’t have to choose to go either way but include both. My topic will cover both the artistry of puppetry as well as the cultural meaning of the term in today’s society. My topic statement will likely be something like, how Puppetery went from tool humans use to tell stories of our society to an idiom that people use in life when they see a real-life representation of a puppet-like situation.

Digital Painting is done by DALL.E 2 AI using the prompt “Puppets became the puppeteers and taking over the stage.”