Mensch Maschine Or Putting Parts Together

As part of the The Aplied Kitchen program, Plokta presents:

An unwanted gift sparks this imaginative enquiry into gender and technology. When Adina Camhy receives a kitchen mixer instead of the synthesiser she asked for, she begins to ask questions. How were these machines intended for, used and designed by men or women? Are they really so different after all?

In this inventive and deceptively light-hearted short film, Camhy moves from her own story through documentary archives. She traces the origins of both machines through military developers and name-brand inventors (mostly male), domestic and factory workers (mostly female). Through this small mishap, previously clear oppositions and gender roles become complex, and these technologies’ cultural and historical entanglements rise to the surface.