©  2024 Berlin


 
 
https://nonbody.cargo.site/ 


I AM A GHOST WANTING WHAT EVERY GHOST WANTS, A (NON) BODY  delves into the shifting boundaries between the physical and ethereal body. 

We symbolize this concept through distinct elements: a physical sculpture and fabrics embody the organic body, and projections portray the ethereal. This interplay symbolizes the transitional boundaries between these realms. In an 8-minute audio-visual installation, we dynamically showcase the tension inherent in this transformative shift.



Abstract



The project delves into the emotional journey of disassociation, where boundaries blur between a bodily presence and the allure of a non-body ethereal existence. It explores the fluctuating states of connection and detachment towards the own body, which are creating tension between the immanent desire of being one with your flesh and physical manifestation and losing your body for an untethered, transparent, and utopian space.

This strain results in a perpetual flux of the body, with its capacity for transformation and constant shifts in shape and experiences.

Through this audio-visual installation, we aim to portray and research these diverse states, forms, and feelings, exploring their coexistence and intricate interactions within the human experience.





keywords

blurring boundaries, bodily presence, ethereal existence, flesh, physical, untethered, transparent, strain, perpetual flux, dissociation

Research: Ideation


Our process started working together with the questions around the body. We found some common themes around the abstraction of the body, its boundaries, and its physicalities.

We looked at the following questions and picked the ones we wanted to explore in our project.

How do you attract bodies?
Can we really touch each other?
What happens after the body? Before the body?
Where are the boundaries?
Does a person have edges?
Is a body a home? For whom, for what?
What are bodies made of?
What are the elements, ideas, and data that comprise of a body?
How do bodies transform?
How do we abstract the body?
Can a body be altered? Added onto, or reduced?Our process started working together with the questions around the body. We found some common themes around the abstraction of the body, its boundaries, and its physicalities.


We followed this process by thinking of the body's boundaries and playing with themes and sketches portraying different states being explored. Thinking of the body’s limits, the quality and quantity of those sensations, and what textures they’d have.


“A body without body, a body that will be beautiful, limpid, transparent, luminous, speedy, colossal in its power, infinite in its duration. Untethered, invisible, protected always transfigured.” 
― Michel Foucault, The Utopian BodyFoucault illustartes in this short essay the immanent desire of escaping the own body and explores the idea of a utopia without bodies and therefore a space where no gender, class or race is predetermined by everyones corporeality.
“The ghost in the machine presupposed that the mind and body were somehow separate entities, operating autonomously. Those critical of this position pointed out that the “ghost” of our minds ought not to be made distinct from the “machine” of our physical selves, as the loop between the two is a crucial component of what makes us human—it is what gives us life.”
- Glitch Feminism, Legacy Russel In Glitch Feminism and especially in the chapter Glitch Ghots Legacy Russell demonstrates what it means to ghost the own body and therefore disidentify with the own physcial manifestation. This offers a way for making up own rules as we search search and reconcile the problems of the body.

These quotes inspired us for their common transcendence theme, whether it goes beyond the known limits, mortality, or the constraints of the physical body. They all explore the human desire to transcend the limitations set by the natural world. 

The existential undertone reflects on mortality, the search for meaning process, and the state of being human. 

During the research phase, we looked at some artworks that explored similar topics and questions. 

Process




Moodboard

Parts of the installation:

Projection visuals
Sculpture
Frame
Chains
FabricsInitially, we started with creating mood boards, both for visuals and sound. We had separate inspirations and reference images for sculpture and projections.



Prototype

The sculpture making-of started with an intial prototyping phase to get familiar with polyuerethan material we wanted to use. The foam-like material is easy to work with in terms of achieving scale in a quick way. In the first test the focus lied on creating organic shapes and especially through coloring with acrylic paints generate the illusion of a heavy stone-like sculputre which is actually very light.

With the finished protoytpe sculpture we conducted several tests to find an easy solution on how to hang and present the final sculpture on a stage. We decided to use a box-like metall frame because it offers the possibility to attach the fabric for the projections as well, creates a visual contrast to the sculpture texture and represents the physical boundary of the body.




Exhibition

The whole artwork was exhibited at an collaborative exhibition between the UE, timelab and catalsyt in Funkhaus Berlin on the 03.02.2024.

The “Transcorporeal” exhibtion featured several hybrid performative audio-visual installations and the pictures were taken during the presentation phase of our installation.







Teambadel batu

Project Management
Research
Concept Developmentsami sipahioglu

Visual Design
Concept Development
Installationkonstantin iden

Concept Development
Research
Physical Installation Designedoardo ronco

Technical Set-up
Concept Developmentnikita proshkin

Sound Design