Peachy's installation development: "SQUEEZE"

After researching artists, I came up with the concept of "intimacy tactility". First, I did the research on texture materials which can create pleasant or unpleasant feeling. For the site, It should be narrow enough and not too high like a perfect box for people to walk though.



Site

The first chosen site ( too high)

The final chosen site

Materials
The list of material that can be used for the installation which give the sense of touching.
It can be sponge, fur, fabric, microfiber and rubber.

Tactile analysis shows the characteristics of pleasant and unpleasant materials and the conjecture feeling when people have physical touch with those objects.

Work Development

First conceptual design is to make the connection between architecture and human body. I want people to feel like they walk inside the body. The general concept comes from Ernesto Neto which using stretchy fabric filled with objects. I list the weighings based on different feeling when you squeeze it through bag. People can smell or lick it if it's snack. But it is too literal.

From the previous one, I have changed the objective, walking inside me, to something not too literal that people can clearly see what exactly it is. This one keep the main concept on Abramovic's. It has to make pressure on people and make them decide what they gonna do. 

So, I began to design the space which force people to touch my installation without refusing.

First development: plan to mix materials with both pleasant and unpleasant on the very thick form board to make the viewers make harder decision "which side they should face."

Second development: Begin to make a mock-up by filling up the space with balloon, looked more fun than fear that I want it to be because of their colors. I have to pick only one color. The ceiling is too high. So, I need to find new place.

Third development: It is at the 4th floor walkway which decide to fill it up with floating balloon from the ground and hanging down the non-float one. I have 3 choices of balloon color in my mind; red=red blood cell, black=black hole, white=cloud.

Fourth Development: adding lighting and sound effect to create more fear. I chose black color because I want people not see clearly what's in front of them and to make them lost in the balloon jungle.

Example of the sound effect

250 word Essay

SQUEEZE

My installation, SQUEEZE, is inspired by Marina Abramovic's “Imponderabilia” which the artist performed with Ulay (her partner for thirteen years). Her work tries to explore the relationship between the physical body and architecture. They were naked, facing each other and acted like the columns of an entrance, making people pass though them and make decision on which way to face. They want to create a complex situation of endurance, in which using their body performed in extreme intimacy with the architectural element, the column. There is also some work from Ernesto Neto who are the master of 'experience sculpture'. He has explored the use of stretchy material such as Lycra, nylon or cotton which can make the organic structure itself to awake or arouse people senses. The audiences can touch, poke, smell, or physical touch. The last one is Cathrine Worel who did the “Braille” which is touch based language. The viewers can leave the reading traces and creating visible histories of transgressive intimacy.

Referencing Abramovic's, Neto's and Worel's work, is to create the installation interaction between people and space through sensu­al intimate tactility that can leave the traces of the interaction too. I select the site by the width which should be narrow enough to create the pressure and the ceiling should not be too high. The chosen site is the walkway on the fourth floor behind Inda studio. This walkway is usually used by teachers to go down by the elevator or to go to their rooms. The installation forces them to pass through with out any alternative route. I prefer to use balloons as the medium of my installation. There are several reasons. First, it's stretchy material that can please excite or terrify. Second, it can fill up the space. Third, it's available in many shapes and colors. The installation is columns of balloons hanging down from the ceiling and adhere them on the ground. I chose to present the installation at the evening, then decide to use black balloon to create scary ambience. I added sound of rubbing and exploding balloon and have a horror theme song as its background. The light is placed on the floor to make it glow under balloons. It requires people to contact intimately with the balloons surfaces as they pass through.