Remote Civic Studio
2020
Indoor Body Arrangements
Mikaela O'ConnorWe’re quarantined. Michigan has been ordered to stay safe and stay home. This means everyone is spending more time inside than they usually do, and many are now suffering from boredom. However, from boredom comes creativity and during my time in quarantine, I decided to use my body as a way to interact with my space in a different and fascinating way. Indoor Body Arrangements project was inspired by Valie Export’s Body Configurations series. Export used her body to interact and conform to the architectural aspects of our modern society, while also commenting on the tension between individuals and the social forces that shape urban reality. I decided to mimic this project inside my own home due to the fact that we are not supposed to be outside. I started interacting with the architectural set-up within my house and with the utilities such as the refrigerator, washing machine and the furniture. Photographing these moments forced me to think of different and interesting ways I could position my body to interact with and mimic my surroundings.
While Export was able to take her photos outside and around the city, I took my photos inside my house and both were a way of mapping our surroundings and relating it back to public spaces. Similarly to my first project of mapping the city of Grand Rapids through texture, I was able to map my house by conforming and interacting with my surroundings. Even though my images were not taken in a public space they will be available to the public online.
