Please Enjoy These Weird Gifs Of Australian Politicians Trying To Prove That They’re Not Robots
The project aims to remind us that "politicians are human too" by forcing them to pull wacky faces for Instagram.
The Federal Election is almost upon us, and while you should probably be more concerned about accidentally voting for a racist and wondering if, as a young person, your vote even counts, our politicians are preoccupied with trying to prove to you that they are in fact actual human beings, and not Replicants disguised in fleshy sacks. Welcome to #AusPol!
#AusPol
Fairfax photographer Nic Walker partnered up with Instagram to take some very nice photos of various Australian politicians in a series called, Election 2016: Our Leaders. Because young people can only be swayed by the latest technology, these portraits are actually gifs or “moving portraiture” that are meant to “elicit a very human response” to remind the viewer that “politicians are people too”.
That’s right — our politicians are so incredibly charmless and uncharismatic, that they feel compelled to prove to the public that despite their wooden expressions, lack of empathy and total inability to relate to Australians on any basic level, they too are living, breathing humans! You know, just like you! They are not robots! Look how they blink!
In actuality, sticking politicians in a room of harsh lighting and forcing them to make funny faces seems to have instead exposed a total lack of personality and in some cases, made them seem downright alarming. Join us won’t you, as we critique each moving portrait, watch our nation’s representatives stare into the abyss, and look down the barrel of a very dull election.
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Malcolm Turnbull
Malcolm Turnbull appears to have to remind every single muscle in his face how to smile. It seems to physically pain him to smile. His smile falls for a few seconds and then, remembering that he read in Fortune that the proletariat loves to smile, he tries a second time.
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Bill Shorten
Bill Shorten can’t decide if he wants to deliver a friendly smile or if he wants to look like a solemn leader who gets shit done, so he decides to just oscillate between the two and it backfires. The result is Shorten appearing to flinch in fear at the entire universe, like a scared baby possum. “What do the people want?” Bill thinks, anxiously. If you knew Bill, we wouldn’t be in this predicament.
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Julie Bishop
Julie Bishop has obviously panicked here and over-compensated, pulling extremely wacky faces that I’m sure she now bitterly regrets. At one point she does an ‘I told you so’ kind of face followed by a pout, so perhaps she’s role-playing everyone’s most smug female relative to trick you into voting Liberal.
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Christopher Pyne
Christopher Pyne looks like he is vehemently agreeing with someone — he keeps nodding like “Yup yup, I know, I know” — although I can’t imagine anyone actually wanting to agree with Christopher Pyne, so this may be a sad portrait of a man actually play-acting what he imagines having a conversation with someone would be like.
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Tanya Plibersek
Tanya Plibersek is like, “Why the fuck are we doing this?” but then changes her mind and gives a sarcastic smile. Then she remembers it’s bullshit again, and stops.
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Anthony Albanese
Anthony Albanese thinks this is the funniest fucking thing that has ever happened to him, which makes me tremendously sad. Maybe no-one has ever taken his photo before.
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Nick Xenophon
Nick Xenophon is super mad at you for some reason, but then changes his mind and shrugs like, “c’est la vie.” I’m starting to think that these politicians have never actually interacted with another human being and are just recreating faces they saw on old I Love Lucy episodes.
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Barnaby Joyce
“Hello darkness, my old friend.”
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Image from Sydney Morning Herald‘s Instagram.