Body Wrapping and Medical Shadows

Being dressed is a way of feeling protected within your surroundings. These surroundings could be touching you or not. Being enclosed or covered is a way of feeling dressed, and therefore comfortable and protected. The idea of wrapping your body is an interesting concept in dressing the form. This act of dressing can be done anyway the person feels:

· Wrapping only parts of the body,

· Tight compression on the skin

· Wrapping for modesty, superiority, narcissism etc.

· Wrapping the body loosely and freely

shad·ow   [shad-oh]

–noun

1.

a dark figure or image cast on the ground or some surface by a body intercepting light.

2. Shade or comparative darkness, as in an area.

3. Shadows, darkness, esp. that coming after sunset.

4. Shelter; protection: sanctuary in the shadow of the church.

–verb (used with object)

18. to screen or protect from light, heat, etc.; shade.

Word History: Shade and shadow are not only related in meaning; historically they are the same word. In Old English, the ancestor of Modern English spoken a thousand years ago, nouns were inflected; that is, they had different forms depending on how they were used in a sentence. One of the inflected forms of the Old English noun sceadu, translatable as either "shade" or "shadow," was sceaduwe; this form was used when the word was preceded by a preposition (as in in sceaduwe, "in the shade, in shadow"). As time went on these two forms of the same word were interpreted as two separate words. The same thing happened to other Old English words, too: our mead and meadow come from two different case-forms of the same Old English word for "meadow."

There is many interpretations of what a shadow can be - i particularly respond to the 4th point - to protect or shade the object, which could be reflected back into the body and dressing as a way to protect the body. I have been looking at protection in a medical way - whether this be a way of protecting the body after death (mummification, cremating, coffins?) or protecting from disease or infection (dressing wounds or applying something to the body - this could be a physical something or a psychological something)

Medical Dictionary

1. shad·ow definition

Pronunciation: /ˈshad-(ˌ)ō, -ə(-w)/

Function: n

1 a : partial darkness or obscurity within a part of space from which rays from a source of light are cut off by an interposed opaque body

b : a dark outline or image on an X-ray photograph where the X-rays have been blocked by a radiopaque mass (as a tumor)

2 : a colorless or scantily pigmented or stained body (as a degenerate cell or empty membrane) only faintly visible under the microscope

"shadow." Merriam-Webster's Medical Dictionary. Merriam-Webster, Inc. 15 Apr. 2010. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/shadow>.

I have found this medical explanation interesting, as a shadow is an obscurity or blockage. Could this be a way of protecting or hiding something that would otherwise be shown without the shadow? A shadow seems to be negative in this picture – a tumor? Or degenerate cell..

Could covering the body be a negative form too? By blocking the body we are unable to read what is underneath, similar to an x-ray.. But is this why people dress, to keep a façade up?

Some images generated with light and obstacles:

I particularly like this one as the paper was twisted to layer and look wrapped to some degree.

The layers and grades of transparency create an interesting effect – if the light box was the body and transparent layers were lapped over and levels of shade were created this could this be seen as a medical shadow like an x-ray?