The Machine
Jinny Chiang
Motorcycles have found their place in the world as a common vehicle. In some areas, they are relied upon as the main form of transportation, integrated as a mundane part of daily life. In others, they are seen as a luxury associated with recklessness and excitement. Intimacy is a sensation that, as difficult as it is to define, is impossible to untangle from our lives. It exists alongside us, integral to the human experience.
Despite their inherent differences, motorcycles and intimacy share a significant amount of overlap. Both are associated with some level of danger and fear while simultaneously encouraging freedom and forward progression. This publication aims to deconstruct the phenomenon of human intimacy by paralleling different motorcycle parts and their functions with correlating characteristics of intimacy: the engine to vulnerability, the ignition system to identity, the physical to the conceptual. This exploration of intimacy mirrors the structure of motorcycle mechanics to better understand its workings.
The machine is a collection of working parts, a collaboration between everything that is intended to keep it functioning. Perhaps machinery is present in the facets of life that we do not expect.