The Machine Man / 2018

inner reality and form

The image we have of our own body is normally invisible to others. This subjective experience of our own body schema is the result of thousands of sensory impressions, images, and feelings that we have stored as body memory. In this way, we construct the inner reality of our physical form. Sometimes this image is altered by something: by a neurological or psychiatric disorder such as Parkinson's disease, stroke, or depression. Or by a system extension, such as a prosthesis, a cochlear implant, an electrode in the brain, or even a smartphone. The project investigates the spectrum from purely therapeutic restoration to augmentation and enhancement of physical or mental abilities, drawing on the knowledge of doctors, patients, philosophers, and artists.

In an intensive research process, questions for qualitative interviews with patients are developed in collaboration with various scientists. Vanessa Valk conducts these interviews in personal conversations lasting several hours.
These interviews convey a person's very personal body image, narratives that reflect the subjective experience of the body in an individual way.

We process the transcribed and depersonalized interviews in various artistic processes:
Together with a dancer, we develop a choreography based on the text material that examines movement sequences, such as those caused by hemiplegia. With a puppet maker and performer, we develop one or more puppets that deal with the experienced body image in terms of proportion and shape, and we stage them. With an actor, we stage the interview content performatively, as a sound installation and as a reenacted interview situation. With an actress who specializes in transdisciplinarity and has completed her master's degree in this field in Zurich, we examine the gestures that result from a physical extension, for example through a smartphone, and become part of our everyday life. We will remove these gestures from their context and present them as a video installation and performance.