Substantial Analysis
Describe in detail your project’s physical qualities — you are making a physical inventory of the object.
I will be making a literal Umbilical cord. I’m going to be using a type of Bungee cord and halter. I will be wrapping this in fabric and using a sort of belt in order to strap it around your stomach. This is comparative to a “child leash”. I want to relate to the over bearing over protective mother by showing how your child is literally an extension of yourself and a child leash is a second umbilical cord. By wearing this contraption with a human or animal in the halter it will inhibit you from daily activity. The pulling with disturb your walking and even just completing the day’s task will be ten times harder with a child or dog pulling at your waist.
Formal Analysis
I am going to be using faded pink and tan fabric to replicate the actual umbilical cord color. It will be put together imperfectly in order to give it a more human feel. The halter will be wrapped around the subject in a disorganized manner. The bungee cord will be connecting through the belly painted onto cardboard attached to my waist, this way you can really understand it is coming through my stomach. The product should make you feel slightly uncomfortable similarly to how you might feel seeing a child on a leash in the streets of New York City.
Sensory Engagement:
What senses did you set out to engage for yourself? For your viewer? How did you do this with your materials and through your use of your self-extension?
You’re going to be uncomfortable, and so will I. Something is pulling and nagging at my waist, almost dragging me to the floor and its attached by this human connection which we all think of related to a woman’s pregnancy. The thing that creates our belly button. I think that this idea of having something inside your organs that is so delicate and intimate displayed across your waist and being tugged in such an aggressive manner is a little disturbing to see but also thought provoking. Initially people will think it’s a child/dog leash but when they look closer at the color and style of the fabric along with the painted belly they will understand there is a deeper message of attached and slightly insane mothers.
Intellectual engagement
What ideas did you want to consider in making and/or using your self-extension? How did you do this with your materials and through your use of your self-extension?
I wanted to think of something or someone who is literally an extension of yourself and the first thing that came to me was your child which you made and is a copy of your genes. I then thought about how for some people their dog is their child. I was thinking about how I had seen videos of myself as a child learning to ski with a leash around me, because that is the safest way to do it. If you take out the skiing aspect, it’s kind of disgusting to put your child on a leash and treat them like a dog. This lead me to think of the umbilical cord which is the actual leash your baby is on before birth and many mothers try to force that connection by being overbearing and over protective. I wanted to include both human and animal aspects. The halter is very similar to a dog collar you would see in Petco, but the umbilical cord only loosely relates to a leash and really looks more like an internal organ.
Emotional Response:
What feelings did you want to experience? How did you do this with your materials and through your use of your self-extension?
Attachment and frustration often go hand in hand. This is what I wanted to experience when using my “umbilical leash”. On one side you are loving it, the fact that your dog Is so attached and looking so cute. On the other hand, it is disrupting your day and making you walk very weird pulling you side to side. This is exactly it, very frustrating, but you can’t complain because it’s your child.
Content-based analysis:
What have you included in your project, such as images, decoration, or logos? What do these elements reference?
Dog halter or sexual halter. Umbilical cord replication.
Theories and Hypotheses:
What does your self-extension amplify, enhance, or hinder? How does your self-extension challenge you, your identity, or your humanness? What questions did you ask in your process?
My self-extension hinders you from walking normally by being attached to another person/anima, much like a mother is hindered after having a child. It is simultaneously hindering and enhancing due to the fact that you are attached to the one thing in this world closest to you but you are also being pulled and dragged by that somewhat annoying thing. It challenges your maternal instinct and your patience level. I cannot imagine the kind of patience you need to be a parent but this challenges it. Why are we so overprotective of children? Should we let them go or should we hold on forever? Some animal species take care of their children until death do humans do that as well?
My project has a power dynamic that changes based on the way you wear it, front facing or backward facing completely changes the feeling evoked, this can be seen in the video.
Program of research
How did you decide what to “extend”? Why that part of you? Is your project representative of your identity? Your culture? Society?
I think your stomach is your core and it is also one of your chakras. Your stomach is where your babies are kept and therefore it was the perfect body part to choose to extend from. My project is a representation of my society and in the day and age we live in with so many threats and so many overbearing parents. I’ve seen many friends go through difficult times when moving off to college due to growing up with over bearing parents. I was lucky to grow up with a lot of independence and responsibility that my parents never felt overly attached to me.
