Bodies in Space
Objective
Students will work collaboratively (may be appealed) to design and fabricate work that engages the human body as a spatial and perceptual instrument. These works will exist outdoors and must offer physical access or support for bodies by standing, leaning, sitting, or gathering, and must not only function as ergonomic objects, but as a tool for shifting perspective, attention, and interaction.
What does it mean to shape a space where bodies are not just observers, but participants? How can sculptural forms reorient awareness, provoke sensory or spatial attentiveness, and frame nonverbal dialogues—between people, between people and the landscape, or between body and material?
These works should resist easy categorization as “furniture” or “design.” Instead, they operate as situated interruptions or invitations—sites where orientation becomes meaning, where presence becomes part of the form.
Key themes to explore include:
• Positionality – the way a sculpture proposes or constrains the position of a body
• Spatial dialogue – how people relate to one another when gathered by a shared object or form
• Embodied perception – how sculptural forms shift awareness of surroundings, horizon, or ground
• Ecological interface – how materials and forms speak with or against the landscape
To do:
1. Research & Proposal
• Identify one artist, architect, or landscape interventionist that positions human bodies in space to shift perception or create social conditions.
• Write a short reflection on how this informs your thinking.
2. Design & Development
• Conceive a sculptural form that engages the body—not necessarily as a user, but as a participant.
• Make models using wood, plaster, or modeling clay
• You may encourage gathering or solitude, leaning or standing, encounter or reflection—but avoid reducing the work to function alone.
• Scale and materials are up to you, but weather resistance, safety, and feasibility for outdoor installation must be considered.
3. Fabrication & Installation
• You may work individually or in collaboration.
• Final works will be installed outdoors at the retreat site and must be independently stable.
• Include anchoring or ground interface solutions if necessary.
4. Questions
• How does your sculpture invite or structure human presence?
• What kinds of relationships does it stage—between people, between person and place?
• What is the role of attention in your work—what are we made to notice?
Deliverables
• Preliminary drawings, models, and proposal
• Final installed work
• 300-word artist statement explaining how your piece functions as an interface between body, material, and environment
Examples
https://www.jeppehein.net/project_id.php?path=publics&id=154
https://www.winthrop.edu/virtualtour/art-tour-purple-worm.aspx
https://www.jeppehein.net/publics.php
https://www.hauserwirth.com/viewing-room/louise-bourgeois-on-view/
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/orchestre-a-series-of-26-outdoor-seating-sculptures–97601516912527920/