Public Massage Organ

Janaína Moraes, Chris Berthelsen, Adam Ben-Dror

Public Massage Organ (The Hopeful Decomposition of a Massage Chair Part 4e) (semi-remote operation)

by Janaína Moraes, Chris Berthelsen, Adam Ben-Dror

We take a defunct massage chair bought by accident-on-purpose from a liquidation auction and, having no expert mechanical or electronic knowledge, hopefully decompose it for pleasurable use, with “whatever” and “whoever” we happen to find.

We ROAM the sub/urban environment of Whakatū (formerly known as “nelson”) with the dismantled parts of the massage machine – a ramshackle roaming massage parlour ready to form into public massage organs on demand. This is connected and “controlled” across the islands, where we set up a remote clinic in the under/grounds of our homes and institutions in Tāmaki Makaurau (formerly known as “auckland”). 

The massage chair is THE equipment of alienation for reviving the bodies of overworked employees, making the human hand obsolete with the definite movements of the robot. BUT The hopeful decomposition of the massage chair devolves the apparatus to an indeterminate and uncertain state and brings back sensual contact with humans, non-humans, and the sub/urban environment.

When various parts are gambiarra-ed into a public massage organ, combining with other people, various sub/urban infrastructures, knowledges, and stuff that isn’t human, we form a mucus terrain of sense-pleasure and care.