Body Language

I am currently in the middle of the second assignment in my general studio class. The write up encouraged us to look at how our bodies work, how we interact with the built environment, etc. and to develop a piece that responded to what we learned from observation. Even as I write this in a row of folding chairs my feet are propped up on the chair in front of me. My furniture piece is therefore a response to the fact that I can't seem to sit in a chair without getting my feet off the ground in some way. My first attempt at a solution was a footstool of some kind. The stool would be table height (because I often use a table to hold my bent leg in position) with various notches or ledges built into the the structure that would serve as little toeholds.

I considered various ways of actually making this structure, from carving a frame-like structure to building it up out of layers of plywood. Speaking of making, this assignment carried the additional challenge of requiring us to work with a new material or process. For me this was not so hard since most everything is new but for some people in my class this was a bit constraining. The problem I encountered with the footstool idea in the end though was one of identity. It really was trying to be a solution for every time I sat down but practically I wasn't ever actually going to be able to really bring it with me wherever I sit. So I moved in a different direction. Now, I will be building some sort of chair/footstool combo with the idea that the chair part does not function properly unless the sitter's feet are supported by the adjoining footrest. I am planning on building the piece out of one 8' long piece of bent steel.

I am a little overwhelmed by the size and weight of the idea - just moving the material around will be difficult. Plus, the tricky issue here is how the material interacts with body weight so I will potentially have to do a number of full-scale tests. I built some proportionally correct models hoping that I could predict from them how the full-scale model would behave. Apparently steel doesn't work that way though so I will have to just go for it.