Trigger points

Trigger points a project from Touchy-Feely encourages leaning against the wall by providing warmed protrusions with which people can stimulate and sooth sore muscle areas. Trigger Point Mouldings encourage heightened, physical interactions between bodies and architectural surfaces, and suggest that buildings can perform, or intimate towards the necessary work of massage therapists.

Massage therapists commonly work to access and manipulate multiple trigger points in the body  found in the shoulders, neck, knees, etc as a means of aiding such diverse ailments as nausea, quitting smoking, colds, fatigue, sexual problems, etc.

The seemingly-sculpted forms of the Trigger Point Mouldings were derived from a process of casting plaster using fabric formwork. The bulges are not designed, but rather, capture directly the material behaviour of the plaster poured into sewn, fabric forms. Davidson and Rafailidis worked in consultation with massage therapists to be of an appropriate depth and shape to facilitate self-trigger point massage.

The wall has the trigger point tiles placed at strategic heights to allow for massages at the trigger points of the neck, shoulders and lower back for people of various heights and sizes. The mouldings are heated to a generous 45 degrees Celsius to assist in their function as a haptic interface, giving the wall an animate character and helping to relieve sore muscle groups.

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