Donna Haraway in her “A cyborg manifesto science, technology and social-feminism in the late twentieth century”(1991) comments on three critical breakdowns in history that demonstrates that we are moving towards a cyborg era. This piece comments on the third critical breakdown: the boundary between physical and no physical has become very imprecise. This piece reflects on this breakdown by incorporating the senses that have both a physical component related to the actual sensation and a non-physical component related to perception. The physical sensation component of the piece relates to the fleshmap studies created by Fernanda Viégas and Martin Wattenberg. Fleshmaps is an interactive program that was developed using 33,871 participants of both sexes, to pinpoint the erogenous zones on the body that are of most desirable to them and the zones they find most desirable on other people. To physical represent this I decided to look at the neck, that traditionally is a very sensuous part of the body and the zones that were indicated on the neck by the Fleshmaps. Furthermore I decided to use the lower part of the face as well as I feel is it a sensuous area that lover often caress and hold. Thus the pattern I used to make it, is reminiscent of hands cupping a face.
Using RTV-2 silicone I made flat braces for the lower face and neck areas. The flatness is a direct representation of the flat images provided by the Fleshmaps. Furthermore the silicone was cured with a small amount of flesh tint to give it a second skin quality. In the silicone I set 13mmx13mm laser cut acrylic crosses to present these point of desire. By setting the crosses in a stretchy silicone I was able to remove the crosses when it had set. This allows the wearer to place in the spaces created by the 13mmx13mm, 15mmx15mm crosses where they feel no desire, to cover up those areas, so that they can only be touched in the area they feel desire. Thus the silicone and acrylic cross form a physical barrier for where the wearer feels no desire.
The non-physical component is related to the perception of desire. The gaps created by the set crosses, allows the wearer to display where they perceive they most like to be touched. To heighten this desire the pearl pigment 650 Micropearl was added to the silicone.
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