Le sommeil d’un mannequin: exploring material memory through film

Le Sommeil d’un mannequin is a practice-based research project that examines the relationship between the female body and the body of the mannequin through creative methods of plaster body casting and experimental film. The film, Le Sommeil d’un mannequin, conveys the psychic experience of memory found in the unconsciousness state. Through the use of experimental filmmaking, this project speaks to the transformative power of memories and the interpretation of memory that is implied in the psychoanalytic writings of Sigmund Freud. Subsequently, this project bares importance to the study of material culture because it takes into account the human essence present in the fabrication and production of cultural objects. Applying Jules Prown’s method of object analysis uncovered the role of the mannequin to be more than just a cultural display of feminine identity.