Mads Rosairus

A body that is examined, evaluated, and disciplined ultimately becomes docile and compliant. Both traits are favored in the megamachine, a machine that uses humans as its components. Docile Body is a self-portrait, built to question how my body is shaped, regulated, and disciplined by institutions, social control, and surveillance. The animatronic positions me in a liminal space between the real and the artificial, the organic and the machine.

The material and mechanical properties of the animatronic capture a crudeness, fragility, tension, and release. By examining, amplifying, and mechanizing my body’s unconscious, repetitive and self-regulating movements, I blur the line between the human and the machine. In doing so, I find myself rediscovering and reconsidering my sense of embodiment, agency and obedience within the megamachine.