Luke Kindle

Did you know that every animal begins as a hollow tube of cells, its ends the future sites of the mouth and anus? [1]

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[1]In Tide Pool Touch Tank, I use body as a conduit in research regarding communication between humans and nonhumans. I carry out and record gestures towards and of a specific undersea invertebrate, seen in a YouTube sashimi cooking video, presenting a microcosm of the philosophical exploration for fundamental understanding of being, of the body, and of communication. In a reversal of semiotic signs, signifiers, and agency, I present sculptural drawings made from the digestive sand castings the animal leaves behind on the ocean floor. The body is treated as a malleable tool, a mediator for the convergence of the familiar and unfamiliar. Through the performance and rudimentary drafting of biological processes as well as inquiry into the play between the surface and inside of the body, I suggest an effort towards a transformation into some kind of platonic body ideal—a “tube state” epitomized by the form of the sea cucumber.