another effect of having mannequins produe other mannequins

"another effect of having mannequins produce other mannequins or works of art is, of course, that the active figures are depicted as 'absorbed,' in michael fried's sense of the term. in the art criticism of diderot, fried argues, the depiction of figures involved in 'absorptive' tasks or situations requiring concentration turns them inward on the depicted world; their apparent obliviousness of the painting's beholder in turn frees up that observing position for a voyeuristic interpretation of the scene."

from, living pictures missing persons: mannequins, museums, and modernity