Driving through an alley in my neighborhood one day I spotted something hidden behind a pallet.
I got out of my car and found a medical model of a body
I put in my car and brought it home, not sure what I’d do with it.
The model was made by a medical modeling company in 1959 out of some strange early plastic. The plastic had a really unique quality and softness to touch. In researching these models online I found that mine was missing its removable internal organs.
I was just beginning to learn about electrical circuitry, and so the idea came to use the body as the base for a lamp.
I drilled a hole through the neck for the lightbulb socket, then wired two additional electrical outlets to it. My thinking at the time was that it’s convenient to have an extra electrical outlet handy, and it was a revelation how simple it was to wire an outlet. I wanted to put them on the arms at first, but I didn’t have a good way of securing them in. If someone pushed a plug in too hard or yanked it out too hard, the outlets might come loose.
To get around this, I simply put the outlets on wires dangling out of the arms. This way, one only needs to hold the outlets (like holding the body’s hand) when plugging and unplugging. This decision is a bit silly and ugly to me in retrospect.
The light switch is in the cavity where the body’s intestines went. Turning on the lamp feels like reaching deep inside the body and flicking something hard.
I sold the lamp to my friend Lucia for her bedside. It was my first time making something with the awareness I knew I’d rather sell it than keep it.