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Thesis Info
- LABS ID
- 00116
- Thesis Title
- Negotiating the Space Between Body and Machine
- Author
- Rachel Beth Egenhoefer
- E-mail
- rachel AT rachelbeth.net
- 2nd Author
- 3rd Author
- Degree
- MFA
- Year
- 2004
- Number of Pages
- 14
- University
- University of California, San Diego
- Thesis Supervisor
- Adriene Jenik
- Supervisor e-mail
- Other Supervisor(s)
- Jordan Crandall, N. Katherine Hayles, Barbara Kruger, Brain Goldfarb
- Language(s) of Thesis
- English
- Department / Discipline
- Visual Art Department
- Copyright Ownership
- Rachel Beth Egenhoefer
- Languages Familiar to Author
- English
- URL where full thesis can be found
- Keywords
- Body & Machine, Cyclical data structures, Ergonomics, Candy, Textiles & Technology
- Abstract: 200-500 words
- Objects make our insecurities about these intangibles comfortable. They assure our thresholds of belief and decision to trust in these cyclical information systems whether digital, analog, emotional, physiological, or spiritual. Conscious or unconscious, the algorithmic movement of our bodies interacting with machines negotiates a space between. This molded space of negotiation functions in the cyclical as does our sprit, mind, machine, and grid. Candy becomes an ideal medium to discuss that which is intangible, to represent that which does not physically exist in a form which evokes all the senses. Able to not just see and touch, but also hear, and smell; leading to the ultimate desire of taste and therefore consumption. Candy in every state of its process is temporal. Fluxuating in the threshold of temperature candy reaches it’s ideal state to harden. Only to change again, melting down with the atmospheric influences. And changing again with it’s desirable consumption. It’s being exists as a tangible representation of emotional Ferris wheels. Textiles share obvious historical connections to technology, its object oriented process serving as the blue print for the immaterial processing of computing. They also share a constructional make-up that interests me more. Knitting together codes of base-two patterns- knits and purls, zeros and ones. Cloth provides the comfort and security of an object. It is tangible code we can see and understand, while giving us the same comfort as our own clothing accessorizing out bodies. Tying together the processes and objects of my work is the circular looped motion that constructs our actions, desires, and movements. The cycles of analog to digital information pulsating up and down a wave of electricity. The obvious cycles of the body’s hunger and fulfillment intertwined with cycles of digestion. The motion of two hands knitting a string of yarn into cloth. The motion of our bodies interacting with machines, tensing and relaxing as we negotiate in the space between. Digital information plots points for electricity to flow through. Textile patterns plot the construction of cloth. While plotting points, like the grid, order is pure relationship, a relationship of a spinning Ferris wheel.