On KiSS

KiSS, or the KIsekae Set System, was originally a popular Japanese cardboard doll game in which girls could play dress up by changing tabbed clothes on their paper dolls. Software was developed in 1991 enabling fans (read adolescent Japanese boys to elderly Japanese men) to create their own KiSS dolls. Digitizing the dolls changed it from an innocent Japanese girl game and put it into the realm of Japanese erotica. Many of the anime style characters are typical male fantasy fare -the school girl, the cheerleader, the nurse, the scantily clad hot cyborg assassin, etc. The KiSS program features transparent graphics and masking that allows the user to drag and drop (add or remove) various clothing or accessories onto a digital representation of a doll. The KiSS dolls became a phenomenon in the mid 1990's when the Internet made it possible for the masses to download the doll creation software and players (which are available for every platform). Rudimentary P2P file sharing allowed fans of the genre to share, and for most people collect, all the KiSS dolls that were being produced.

In his article "The Art of Kiss," Blackhawk (screen name) argues that the KiSS doll phenomenon has created a community of artists. This reflects some of the ideas presented in my previous posts on the consumer and producer being one in the same then what defines an artist? On the topic of high and low art, by definition, KiSS dolls are low art. They are mass culture, they are superficial kitsch. I will step down from the Ivory Tower that I sometimes visit to secede my argument that the creators of KiSS dolls are in fact undocumented, but are still artists. Many of them are expressing their creativity for the very first time and that should be commendable. In fact, anyone who makes something visual, beautiful or even remotely creative should be branded and hailed as an artist. I used to be offended by looseness of the word artist as it was applied almost at random or a marketing ploy (Subway sandwich assembly team wore the "Sandwich Artist" badge proudly). Rather that getting into endless arguments over semantics or making someone feel bad because the word "craft" is somehow negative -I will just declare that everyone is a fucking artist. Those of us who actually study and make "high" art just need to come up with a new name - we are supposed to be creative so it should not be that hard.

But I digress. There are still the moral issues that need to be examined behind the KiSS dolls. As previously mentioned the fans or hobbyists of the genre are predominantly male. The digitized KiSS dolls no longer share any of the controls that were in place in the original game. Most, but not all, of the KiSS dolls are of adult nature, you can remove tops to reveal breasts (or not) and you can remove bottoms to reveal pubic hair (or not). It is actually the "or nots" that bothers me. The fact that there is interest among men (young and old) to play dress up with virtual dolls that represent young and underage girls is for lack of better term, perverted. It is sexual fantasy whether it denotes erotic arousal or not. It is the subjectification of women and young girls. Find a new hobby or collection.

I am at an impass. I do not believe in censorship. In Helms vs. Mapplethorpe, I was rooting for Mapplethorpe. I thought Andres Serrano's "Piss Christ" was a great work of art. I even think that Chris Ofili's work with elephant dung is thought provoking and stangely beautiful. KiSS dolls just seemed to have crossed that line for me. I don't think it should be banned, but the public should be aware of what it is.