Images_my bathroom as a result of my body

 A series of images taken today after having a shower. The images are mainly of the glass structure - the shower - and the stream/drips/watermarks left on it after my presence in the shower - after me using the shower to shower. The steam/drips/watermarks are a unintentional drawing on the relationship between my body and the shower during the act of showering. The splashes made by myself during showering/washing/combing/shampooing/conditioning/scratching/turning on/turning off/adjusting/shaving/lifting/bending hit the steamed up glass partition and create a drawing of the consequence of movement - the consequence of using the shower for it's intended purpose.

The actions and movements I do when I shower very depending on what I enter the bathroom to do. If I have a bath, chances are I won't leave any marks on the shower. If I shower, wash myself and not my hair, I will leave washing/scrubbing/rinsing marks on the shower cubicle - visible from the inside and out. If I shower myself and wash my hair, I will leave completely different marks - or traces that my body has been there - on the shower. In fact, every time I shower the markings I create will be completely different - as unique to me as my fingerprints - and created as a consequence of movement, ritual, routine and actions within the shower.

Outside of shower, just after having a shower. 

My reflection in the shower door - reflected on steamed, splashed glass

  The shower from outside of the shower looking in at the mechanics of it. My drawing exposes or hides parts of the shower - this is a consequence of me using the shower - a result of inhabitation. A result of body does action uses product meets material.

 And again.

Inside the shower, just after having a shower.

 Looking out at the bathroom through the splatter/splash/watermarks on the shower glass.

 And again.

 The drips on the soap holder are a result of my presence in the shower.

 The splatter marks created by my body - a visual of the body and product colliding.

 And again.

 Towards the top of the shower glass less splashes are visible - would a taller person splash the whole shower? Would an even smaller person splash even less? The splash marks are unique to my body.

 

The floor outside the shower, after stepping out of the shower.

 Stepping out of the shower door and onto the bathmat, the transition between shower and floor is splattered with drips from my body as it moves through the door way and places each foot on the floor outside before reaching the bathmat. Then closing the door behind me.

(19th) Movement Diagrams_Rediscovering the Bathroom IV

(19th) Movement Diagrams_Rediscovering the Bathroom III

(19th) Movement Diagrams_Rediscovering the Bathroom II

(19th) Movement Diagrams_Rediscovering the Bathroom I

Friday 19th August_Movement Diagram

 

First movement diagram in relation to Friday 19th August Diary Entry. This diagram looks at the movements recorded in the diary for that day throughout various points in the day.

The circles represent when my body was fixed at a point for a varied pause of time. I have used dotted lines to represent lines of sight when I looked in the mirror.

This is the second movement diagram I have created which can be compared to Thursday 18th August's movement diagram, overlayed and used as a visual tool to drive the design of my bathroom.

The drawings are personal to my movement and actions within the bathroom, tailor-made to how I negotiate my existing bathroom and give the viewer insight into the way way I inhabit my own personal space.

Monday 29th August_Diary Entry

Sunday 28th August_Diary Entry

(18th) Movement Diagrams_Rediscovering the Bathroom IV

Overlaying the text and visual. What could be a beautiful flowing diagram looks awkward around the edges where the body and the bathroom meet.

(18th) Movement Diagrams_Rediscovering the Bathroom III

Taking the initial movement diagram and removing the context.

It looks like a trail of someone who keeps bumping into walls.

These diagrams will be useful to overlay on each other (once I have created a few over a period of time - reference to time Perec, routine, film measuring time and diary; measure of time spent somewhere, memories and routines etc - from previous diary entries). They will create a sort of matrix of movement maps for me to develop further.

How do I create my bathroom for someone else to see? Or how do they experience what I do, how I move and how I interact with my bathroom - products and body?

(18th) Movement Diagrams_Rediscovering the Bathroom II

Commands or actions?

(18th) Movement Diagrams_Rediscovering the Bathroom I

Overlaying the action words with the movement diagram, giving a sense of the action that was taking place at the time. Most of it is pretty obvious since the context of the bathroom is given. It is still  little ambiguous in regards to actions such as 'pick up' or 'adjust' - what is being picked up? What am I adjusting?

Rediscovering the bathroom.

Thursday 18th August_Movement Diagram

First movement diagram in relation to Thursday 18th August Diary Entry. This diagram looks at the movements recorded in the diary for that day throughout various points in the day.

The circles represent when my body was fixed at a point for a varied pause of time. I have used dotted lines to represent lines of sight when I looked in the mirror. I am going to bring this quickly into P/shop and label the various movements back onto themselves and have a play around with creating another movement diagram from this.

Tuesday_Sketchup model

 Starting to construct the sink with drawer underneath

 Side view of construction and handle (adjusted later on)

 Tap, mirror and drain hole

 Over all plan of my bathroom from Sketchup today

 Closer view of my bathroom

Perspective view of the bathroom showing over all layout. Includes towel rail and improved drawer and door handles. Yet to add individual tiles and lighting.

Plan of my bathroom.

Shower also needs shower head, hose and shelving. 

Sketchup model shower progress

 

 Detail of the glass structure, door hinge and drain

 Close up of the drain

 Over all view of the shower in progress

More detailed still...

Including the faucet and door handles

Sketchup model cont...

 Over all above view of my bathroom

 Detailing up the bath

 Beginning on the shower

Playing with curving the shower floor

"SPACE" Georges Perec

This is the nice diagram in Perec's Species. It just speaks for the volumes of connotations a singular word can mean and various other meanings around it. This use of the same word, in Perec's case "SPACE", is what inspired me to draw a list of connections. In language, the connection between the body part, action and product is visible.

Rooms > Days > Products > Body Parts > Actions > Materials.

 

Rooms > Days > Products > Body Parts > Actions > Materials.

A quick diagram I have made after reading The Apartment in George Perec's Species of Spaces and Other Pieces.

This diagram looks at the connections between spaces and rooms, the actions we do in rooms and the product that is the facilitator for the action.

It takes the viewer on the journey from type of room - highlighting in a similar manner to Perec that rooms are "malleable space"; a bedroom could be a bathroom if it contained a bath etc - defined by the function they facilitate. The diagram then goes on to duration - weekly, from monday through to sunday - which highlights the rooms everydayness, and onto the products the room contains which narrows down the possibility of what that room could be - a bathroom contains a bath.

The diagram then looks at the body parts in specific relation to my diary and what body parts are highlighted within the diary. Parts such as toes and ears are seldom, if ever, mentioned in my diary. The emphasis on facial parts relates to the mirror and constant need to check if I look OK. The actions we do within a space are defined by the room itself. Such actions as bathing, showering, drying, carrying, and rubbing can only be facilitated by the product we are presented with. The action is a consequence of our engagement with a particular product and so I have created a list from my diary of the actions I made within the bathroom in relation to all of the products contained within the room, as opposed to a particular action with a particular product. Finally I was looking at the materials within the bathroom - most of the surface materials tend to be reflective which is an interesting observation and begs the question, what would the bathroom be like if it wasn't reflective and if we could not see ourselves?

Perec (The Apartment, P. 28) writes, "It seems to me, in any case, that in the ideal dividing-up of today's apartments functionality functions in accordance with a procedure that is unequivocal, sequential and nythcthemeral." In other words, that today's apartments (the today of pre-1973 atleast) are sequential to time and that "each room has a particular function". I agree with these statements, we pay more attention to our bedrooms than our bathrooms because we spend more time sleeping than bathing - even though we are completely passive in one of these rooms.

Later Perec goes on to compare the bedroom to a broom closet because functionally the both facilitate the same functions for exhausted bodies and vacuum cleaners, "recuperation and maintenance", which I find rather interesting. Both could be used for the same function if duration was not a key factor in the design of such rooms.

In relation the the bathroom, in Perec's model of a daily fictional family (The Apartment, P. 28 - 30) requires that the bathroom is used throughout the day by at least 3 separate people on 6 occasions between 07.15am and 21.45pm - the duration of time spent in each place varies greatly however. 1hr 25mins in spent in the bathroom in comparison to 9 hours in the bathroom. If action within the room is taken into consideration, the bathroom becomes the more used space.

"...bump yourself..."

Perec, G. (2008). Species of Spaces and Other Pieces (Rev. ed.). Penguin Classics; London.

Nice quote in the Foreword by John Sturrock. "To live is to pass from one space to another, while doing your very best not to bump yourself."