Rosa Shepherd
She/Her
1998
Thesis: The Space of a /
A Duet’ plays with the relationship between a moving body and space. It is a proposal to consider the point of contact between a mover and the ground as the living spot/starting point from which a floorplan/spatial arrangement can grow. A floorplan which uses touch and the exchange of weight as tools of measurement to determine and make new shapes in space.
A foot sweeping in an arc across the floor leaves behind a single line.
If the arc is made with the tip of a toe, the line of contact will be narrow, perhaps hardly present.
If the arc is made with the whole foot, the line of contact will widen.
Made with the whole body, the line of contact will be wider still.
And if the momentum of the arc is suddenly lost and the foot finds a resting spot on the floor, the line of touch will end in a solid point.
Using these observations and considering both mover and ground to be equal partners in design, any point of contact and the exchange of weight between them holds the possibility to become a floorplan and spatial arrangement. A dance, a child’s first steps, to swirl a finger across a surface; all of these things become little architects in their own right.
