A collaboration of Tom Igoe and Marianne Petit

The title for this piece was given to us by a homeless woman in January 2002. I was walking my dog late at night when she suddenly approached and asked this question.

The Structure: I wore a backbrace for seven years as a child. This brace, my first, is a formidable object made of steel and leather and is almost indestructible. My perception of the object, as the individual it was designed for, is from the inside out. It represents a physical barrier to the world, but, one that is worn temporarily like a pair of shoes or an overcoat. However, most people view the brace from the outside in, and it is a daunting object that is not inviting to touch. By extension, the response of others to the brace itself increases the sense of separation for the individual encased within it by adding other levels of social, emotional, and psychological distance.

I wanted to do something with the brace for quite sometime. Years ago I made a lamp out of it, but, no one found it as funny as I did. After misplacing the brace for 10 years I rediscovered it last year and decided I wanted to build a sculpture using it as the interface. I thought about different ideas but nothing seemed right. By December it became clear that the piece should be about death. Or rather, about grief. And the structure seemed right for examining the nature of grief, the nature of actual versus metaphorical death, and the relationship of the mourner to the outside world.

The Interaction: The brace stands on a pedestal. Video is projected onto the backpad at a delayed framerate making the audio unintelligible. The video brightness levels are reduced making only shadows of the images visible. The individual approaches the brace and must rest their hand on the front chestrod where the sensor is embedded to change both the speed of play and the brightness levels. Contact with the brace must be maintained by the user to make both the video and audio comprehensible. When their hand is removed the video and audio gradually return to their muffled states.

The Audio: The audio consists of three elements which are excerpted, looped, layered, and abstracted.

• "Dirge Without Music" by Edna St. Vincent Millay
• Some found text
• Erik Satie's "Gnossienne No. 4" as performed by Teodoro Anzellotti

The Video: The video consists of small abstract loops of both symbolic and personal representations of grief.