DORIS (work-in-progress)

In 1950s America, Doris, a housewife, was filmed in her living room alongside interdisciplinary researcher Gregory Bateson as part of a study on human interaction. That brief, 18-second recording would go on to generate an extensive body of scientific literature. In countless analyses, Doris’s gestures and behaviour were dissected with precision, filtered through the cultural and sexist biases of the time, whose echoes still reverberate today. Using this footage, known as The Cigarette Scene, as their starting point, Flavia Papadaniel and Diane Dormet create DORIS: a critical reinterpretation of social representations, whether in scientific discourse, always shaped by those who produce it, or in everyday perception. Through choreography, sound and repetition, the two artists explore gesture, role-swapping, mirrored figures and shifts in voice and rhythm to expose the underlying power dynamics at play. With humour and a touch of irreverence, DORIS goes further still, challenging our own perceptions. How do we reduce the complexity of human behaviour to codified attitudes we think we understand? And how can we begin to unpick our own gaze, to recognise the biases shaping our judgement?

Photographies of the show © Julie Folly, far° Nyon 2025