CRITICAL BED THEORY:
EXPERIMENTAL CONTEMPLATIONS OF INTIMACY
COMING SOON TO PRINT
I am writing this from my bed. You are most likely reading this from your bed. If not, take a minute to lie down with me.
Are you there? Good, let’s begin.
THE EXPERIMENT
I refer to the research portion of this project as “The Experiment”. Essentially, it is a sleepover. I asked six people I loosely knew to spend the night with me in a bed that was neither mine nor theirs. The preparation included a series of communal decisions: we shared with one another what we would bring for activities, food, etc. Since I was organizing the setting of the Experiment, I provided a choice of sleeping arrangements for each participant. Everyone ultimately chose to share a bed with me. We met at a mutually decided time in the evening and upon arrival, we put our phones away in order to focus our attention on each other, or the space that we were in together. Then, we slept. The next morning, we asked each other questions and recounted our memories of the previous night. For documentation purposes, we video-recorded these “interviews” to directly address our most recent experience together. I call it an “Experiment” but by no regard does it take a formal approach. And so, The Experiment focuses on six relationships, six nights, with six different people.
THE DRAWINGS
To maintain anonymity, the participants are identified by the initial of their first name.
Each chapter is titled the date of the Experiment and includes drawings of objects that serve as symbols and scenes that are significant to the narrative of each night.
THE ARCHIVE
We used 35mm cameras to photographically document the night. I asked permission to preserve certain effects (like written notes, drawings, pistachio shells, bottles of wine, hotel key cards, the like) that would be archived and later photographed. Photographs coming soon.
THE INSPIRATION
I researched object-based art and performance art that centered beds and found myself most transfixed by the activation of the object when occupied by two people. This provided the foundation to conducting my own experiment. Slideshow of inspiration coming soon.
