Image Credit: Kaye Winwood
Last Wednesday, Kaye and myself presented Expanded Intimacy; it’s research and the prototypes so far, to an audience to gain their feedback. The intention being that from this exchange the knowledge gained will feed into the next steps of our collaboration.
It’s quite interesting to have an audience experience and give opinion on the project so early on in our research/design development. Just 6 weeks into our residency! I believe that this will enhance and enrich what we do next.
We presented three different glass art objects. Each object has been designed to engage with one of the most sensitive areas of the body, namely the mouth and tongue, the hands and fingers. We presented the art objects in a sequence, isolating or perhaps highlighting the bodily/sensory pleasures;
Fingers,
tongues,
mouths.
Throughout the course of the evening, I started to consider that the user actually became the performer themselves. Performing with the object, the culinary concoctions and whilst doing so, used all their senses. This combination of object, content and user is enabling us to produce a participatory experience, rather than something that you might contemplate behind glass or on a plinth.
‘Fingers’ became an extension of the users hand, their touch. As they brought the glass attached to the hand up to their mouth – looking directly into and onto their own hand:
Image Credit, Kevin Ryan
‘Tongue Ladder’ saw the audience become even more intimate with the object. Tongues licked through each culinary texture…
Image Credit, Kevin Ryan
‘Mouth’ The audience needed to place their whole mouth into the glass, then bring their heads fully back supported by a performer so that they could receive the contents. Highlighting the correlation between the senses and how our sense of smell is connected to our taste.
Image Credit, Kevin Ryan.
I noticed gestures and bodily postures became exaggerated, reminding me that language is embodied.
Language requires a physical embodiment, our mouths turn words into flesh.
Our hands’ externalise the functions of our mouths.
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