ARMATURE FOR THE PRESSURIZED BODY

This project was driven by the idea of proprioception (from the Latin proprius, meaning own), a fundamentally personal and internal understanding of the self through movement and position that bridges interior and exterior body conditions. In relation to proprioception, gravity is an important force that allows the individual to navigate the internal construct of the body. Careful study during movement reveals the body as a pressurized vessel; the action of gravity on these internal fluids is processed intuitively into a positional or spatial construct of the body. This project was interested in finding ways to provoke the body to explore the idea of pressurization while being sensitive to the human form. This led to the creation of a piece that works in conjunction with gravity to inhabit the interstitial areas of the musculature to generate a relationship that is phantom-limb-like. Although the piece is foreign, it was fit in such a way that a psychological construct can be made to understand it as a natural extension of the body.