In J.G. Ballard’s Crash1 the body is manifested in two forms; the warm malleable flesh of the human and the cold, hard metal of the vehicle. Over the course of this staggering novel the two become entwined in a transgressive dance, skidding across the typical boundaries of sexual encounters. We are confronted by the potential for a techno-corporeal world which begs the question; can the body be more than we imagine?
The body exists to give material form to something; be that flesh and bone, metal and engine, or something more abstract. A body can be political, an agent of expression, a fleshy cage or a tool for emancipation. It can represent the whole of an individual or a multiplicity of parts taking on meaning as fragments of a new entity.
As a concept the body constantly tussles between upholding pristine excellence and glorious, tangled imperfection. As an image it moves between representation and symbolism with ease, both tactile and illusory at once. It gestures, makes marks, is marked upon, sits within, moves through and is navigated. It can regenerate, break down and manifest the psychological as physical. It is a powerful ally and a terrible enemy.
Across our digital platform students are employing the body in all its forms. Whether as a tool for the senses, a vessel for the performative or the inhabitant of spaces, our graduates are considering the body and its effects in all its messy glory.
- J.G.Ballard, Crash, London, Cape, 1973
