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Long before we were dabbing eye shadow on our lips and posing with toilet paper, people were donning makeup, holding props and posing rigidly in place for up to a full minute as part of a dramatic practice known as tableau vivant, or living picture.

And in positioning their bodies in spatial relation to one another, the students presented a living picture in which people of diverse skin tones, ethnicities and identities could gather together on contested ground to claim their shared belonging.

In one project for Hixson’s course, which focused on socially engaged art, students dressed up to create a tableau vivant, or living picture, re-creating Raphael’s masterpiece “The School of Athens.”

Yes, we try to think of it as a living picture, and the cam operators are the photographers.  

"The human eye is definitely attracted to something with a little bit of motion, especially when it is very subtle which is what a lot of these ads are presented as. People look at a living picture and try to work out which bit is moving".