Reading 1: "Extended and Prosthetic Bodies"

Reading.

It seems that using "the body" as art automatically sets a subject that the art addresses, whether it is personal space, or relations between people or between a person and his or her environment, or what have you. By starting the work with people, it becomes about people in some way. It makes perfect sense that it does so, however. As people, we see the world in terms of ourselves, so it makes sense that if the body is used as a medium or vehicle for a work, then the work, in turn, becomes about the body. I just find it interesting that other more traditional mediums are less charged. For example, if one were to paint a still life, the audience won't immediately assume that the artist was making a statement about using paint (unless, of course, that was the artist's intent). Maybe these other, more traditional, mediums are less charged than the body simply because they are more traditional and have the weight of a few thousand years of history behind them; maybe because we are humans and possess bodies, it is more difficult for us to witness someone else do something to their own bodies.