Gymnauseum: 'Pimping' of Body and Machine
Journal: Griffith Research Online (Griffith University, Queensland, Australia)
Year: 2013

This thesis is based on my PhD studio project, Gymnauseum, which uses chindogu, a Japanese creative form for intentionally producing absurd and useless design objects (Kawakami, 1995), as a starting point. Gymnauseum is a pseudo-gym in which visitors can ride absurd and nonsensical fitness machines that question the obsession with obtaining (and retaining) an ‘ideal body’. The fitness machine sculptures in Gymnauseum are also, in a sense, ‘ideal bodies’; long, lean, and shiny, they are based on