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Arts & Communication A mean, the body. A mean body

to the other), but kids still go back and forth in the most The project, a non-written component of my thesis,
random places, or they fall. Yes, they fall, which means involves a cubic wooden structure designed to hold the
they are subjected to gravity too… (sigh of relief). sandbags to be performed with. This structure forms a
Just one adult — meaning a not-kid, a not-climber — three-dimensional grid — an excavated cube. The volume
got onto the lowest space in the grid of a net rope ladder is divided every four 42 cm along its three axes. The full
at the park and sat there. Bounced slightly, involuntarily, structure measures slightly less than 200 cubic cms. The
because a kid was jumping next to them, making the adult’s divisions in its three dimensions are made from wooden
bottom bounce. Nothing more, nothing less. Like a bag, studs, so there are three-dimensional gridded spaces inside
a bag of sand, there is such comfort in resting, hanging it — invisible 42 by 42 by 42 cubes. Forty-eight of them.
on that fabric that holds us, and just staying. To feel that Did I want to build my dream inventory space? May be.
weight, the one that even the most athletic body after a Some segments of the inner cubes (42 cm studs) can be
run wants to experience. But I am not talking about sports. removed, allowing more space to inhabit inside. People
I am talking about that comfortable use of space, preferable will be invited in, sandbags will hang. Hang the sandbags
to climbing up and down in the park while we debrief the on your body, hang your body on the sandbags, hang
work week with our friends. No drink or drugs involved — your body on the grid, hang your doby on the drig, it all
that makes us want to climb, I know. gets so mixed up. The size, or module, responds to the
measurements of my body; 42 cm is my width (Figure 7).
Back in the 60s, Edward T. Hall started discussing At the end of the day, it is my inventory, and as I said at the
“proxemic bubbles,” which were virtual frames that people beginning, only in my body I can trust.
would inhabit during social interactions . These bubbles
[14]
were unitary, one bubble per human — does he know that A construction kit, a grid, the crush, for the sandbags
bubbles join? He probably did, but that was not his point, and me.
and he used them to describe and try to quantify context as 8. The recount
a form of perception. Through this lens, he explored how
people use space in certain ways, in certain spaces, and how To recount is to tell someone, something that happened
close they would get when next to certain others (Many somewhere, sometime, again. Recount does not mean to
of T. Hall’s observations and subject groups were divided count again, because this something, supposedly, did not
between white and people of color in his books). There are change. It already happened. There could be no units,
so many factors that take place undoubtedly in this use of no parts, no divisions, no inventory, no grid, no self. If
space, in this willingness to hang, that may be it is just as you recount, you do not recount. I Insist. Recounting
I perceive it, in my bubble. Perhaps this is what makes me reperforms a new order, a new reclamation of space and
want to generalize… “External structures are internalized time; by the somethings. Counting again and again the
and projected outward once again as backgrounds whose same number of things, makes the order go away. As a
main function is to disappear” . I wish I could climb concept. Because, practically every time, there is indeed an
[15]
all the time, and I do when no one is looking, or mostly order, and it is just as changeable as our perception of it.
when there are no kids around, because an over-sized kid Carried on a dolly by foot, it takes about 22 min back
becomes a threat, or a once-adult kid, to put it that way. and forth with one bag of plaster —
The juegos are for the kids. Do not break them, not even if
you have taken your shoes off. DAP White Plaster of Paris, twenty-five pounds. DAP
White Plaster of Paris twenty-five pounds. DAP White
What are these internalized boundaries, and how Plaster of Paris twenty-five pounds. Do you want your
can they be externalized in a juego? A structure we are receipt?
not going to break, I promise. A space to rest on, and a One row, fifteen.
moment to push instead of climb. Because it is safer. Two rows, thirty.
Even the exhibition spaces allow that: “Nothing that kids Three rows, forty-five.
could climb on, please!” There is a collective memory of a Four rows, sixty
certain use of a certain space. There is an asserted or not Five rows, seventy-five plus three.
— like the playground benches — architecture that we
remember, and that is why we think we know how to play. Thirty sandbags, ten at a time, not the same ten all the
It is interesting how hanging over something is a relief but time. One falls, new count. Still ten.
hanging something over us is invagination. Sand is still The torso in a rectangular frame. The torso in a
here, but the performative action feels almost like it has rectangular frame. The torso in a rectangular frame. The
been inverted. torso in a rectangular frame. The torso in a rectangular

Volume 1 Issue 2 (2023) 9 https://doi.org/10.36922/ac.1137