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It seems strange that a people so keen on cleanliness were so unwilling to wash in water. Since the great plagues and the closing of public bathhouses, western Europeans believed that bathing was positively bad for you. Skin protected the body from putrefaction and disease. Toxins left the body as perspiration, menstrual blood, urine and faeces.

Submerging the body in water risked the re-entry of toxins through the pores and orifices. Yet you had to be seen to be clean. The solution was to change your body linens frequently. The linen chafing your skin absorbed the toxins you had excreted and could be fiercely washed even if the body could not. So a flourish of bright white linen at the neck and the sleeve publicised your hygiene. And because “Cleanliness is indeed next to Godliness,” as John Wesley preached, spotless linen exhibited virtue.

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Having a bath is part of my daily routine .Yet I have never really researched the topic. I feel like as something that I do nearly everyday I should have a better understanding of its history and context for other people.For me a bath is a part of my day where I unwind and relax and I look forward to the peace and tranquillity that a bath allows me to have.Researching other people use and need for a bathing interested me particularly.This seemingly universal activity and its uses extends far beyond its original purpose of cleaning ones self.Wether this means a religious ritual or mental stabiliser.Other peoples use for one intrigues  me.As something that is part of my life day in day out should I not learn of other peoples experience and what they gain from it?The Vulnerability and privacy of washing ones self also interest me.Now it is seen as a very intimate experience yet in the Roman times was seen as a social activity where people discussed philosophical and political matters.I hope to Look into how bathing and venerability our intertwined and our sharing of this experience.Focusing not only on the psychology behind bathing but also  the shape and structure of baths in different countries and through history will cultivate different colours and patterns for my research.Focusing on its size and shape would be an area that I particularly want to delve into.The general image we all seem to have of a bath  is a very specific and linear from of a long rectangular shape but there is a much greater variety in its appearance.Evaluating the most effect and useful bath in terms of its shape  while relating to its purpose linking back to its effects on mental health will generate a large amount of my  research.Not only looking into the shape of the actual bath but the shape that the body forms when we sit in one and the way in which this contorts the body.Wether the person is  too small, tall or large to fit in the bath their position and the way the lie could generate interesting shapes .Relating this to the persons experience and how their comfortably  or lack of that could effect their overall experience.Having been in many baths myself and experienced   the way your body position changes and your movement is restricted in each different bath , I have never explored the effects of this on a persons experience or looked into the contortion of the body in this way.The original purpose of bathing comes  from people wanting to be clean and for sanitation reasons either in the physical or spiritual sense but as a history student I am interesting in looking back on how and why our bathing habitat have changed and the effects of this on our bodies.What we have consider clean and what we have perceived as dirty. Delving further into germ theory is  something that interest me greatly and how in modern day we have landed on a very specific but general idea of  how we should wash ourselves.Despite this there are disparates culturally  in how we wash ourselves, the standard of sanitation varies significantly.Examples in Japanese culture such as separating a toilet from the bathroom.Researching into the liquids and soaps that we have used historically to keep us clean and the reaction we have to them based upon the area in the world we come from will be included in my research : Our reaction and the irritation ,soothing and calm generated by different substances.I will Not only investigate  the products but also the devices such as scrubs ,sponges and equipment used to wash ourselves.I enjoy looking into the human body and its biology and  the relationship between cleanliness and disease and their somewhat interconnection in history will prove something I find very interesting to study.The very substance that is supposed to prevent contamination can be the cause of it!

When looking into the mental health effects of taking a bath I will be interviewing a number of people who bath in different ways but also for different mental health reasons.Recording their experiences I will experiment myself  gaining first had knowledge of their own routine.From that I will evaluate what I also gained from the process and how it made me feel.When looking further into the shapes of baths I will look in depth at historical and cultural references and identify specific shapes, mechanisms and artwork that draws me in .Highlighting 70s architecture, Japanese styles and Roman baths.With this I will also visit numerous bath shops and showrooms obtaining observatory photos and drawing.This will allow me to expand the specific type of research I am collecting and will lead to a broader perspective of the different shapes of baths.While looking into the shapes created by the human body with force or contortion while sitting in a bath I will look onto the photographer “Don Herron’ on “bathtub shot”.Calling a bathtub a container his photographs give a unique perspective of people experience in a bath.I will focus on the shots where someone is filling or being squeezed into a restricted  space.This combined with my own photos I will take of different people occupying a bath will be used to delve further into the comfortably and fit of a bath relating to the overall experience of the user. Gathering information by going to an ancient Roman bath in London ,I will note the difference in appearance and structure of them compared to the more modern designed ones now. Assessing wether and why the environment in a Roman bath is more inducive of a social ,public environment compared to the privacy of the perception of bathing today .Analysing the photographs taken by Lee Miller in Adolph Hitlers apartment exposing an intimate part of a powerful destructive leaders bathroom and sharing it to the world in an act of defiance - exposing him in sense.Would this photo have been as powerful if Hitler regularly bathed with friends like in the Roman times ?Having had my own experience bathing in the Balinese temple Tirta Empil , I will record my  account of this experience and what it meant to me as someone who isn’t religious but I will also take interviews from people who are religions who take part in ritual bathing and inquire into the importance and meaning  in it for them.In doing this I think my perspective of bathing will change.Although I feel as though bathing helps my mental health I am not educated on the importance of it and and understanding of it to  someone who is religious and sees it in a much more holistic and cleansing way.I will visit the Gunther Von Hagnes exhibit to look into disease and decay and relate it to water born diseases.Through images and books I will examine different tools used over time and in different countries for the use of cleaning and washing oneself.Picking out interesting shapes, textures and mechanisms to inform initial ideas .Further looking into the damage of bathing I will explore soap, oils and other cleansing materials and the effects of this on different areas of the body and the skin.To obtain first hand more materialised outcomes of some of the concoctions used for bathing in history I will attempt to make some myself gaining a more accurate depiction  of their colour, texture and smell.Using the liquid I will attempt to alter/dye fabric experimenting to see if I can create any interesting outcomes.

During foundation I have really enjoyed exploring textiles techniques that I have not yet tried before .I found experimentation gives better results than following the set of instructions religiously.During this project I will allow myself to develop textiles and experiment further. Disease and Decay of the human body Is a topic which I looked into at A level and have really enjoyed exploring more during projects at Kingston.During the project I will look into water born diseases and and skin irritation as well as from and contortion of the human body allowing me to develop further my interest in anatomy and biology while simultaneously exploring an aspect of the subject that I haven’t previously looked at.Felting is something I started to develop during Bad Taste and continued using it in other projects after that .For my feting method I use water and soap and for this project I think it could be particularly relevant  playing around with different methods.Looking more into the historical side of bathing I have studied India and have an understanding of both Hindu and Muslim festivals involving water which I can use for the project.While I have never explored Bathing directly in a project so far there are areas of the project that I have enjoyed looking into and have perviously explored in various depths having a grasp of what I have enjoyed doing so far while also being able to I fun exploring new means that I will have an ongoing interest into the subject through out  the project

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Bath and Bathing

I was interested in looking into the different ways in history that we bathed .Looking into Roman baths and there longer process of different baths.I looked into things we find in nature that naturally clean us.

The privacy of washing ourselves is something I also looked into.Now a days we see it as a pretty private experience but before it was very communal and people would bath together.

The Psychology of taking bath and how it can effect our mental state.In a study in Germany participants with depression took at 40C bath from 30 minutes for a period of time and in this experiment regular baths proved more effective at aiding depression than aerobic exercise.

The clawfoot bathtub was considered a luxury tub and owning one indicated that a person was of high prestige and social class standing. Since the clawfoot bathtub came about before the time of indoor plumbing, the bathtub had to be filled by hand by servants. As time went on, the designs became more intricate and the clawfoot bathtub morphed into a built-in tub.

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Death of Sun

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destruction and damage

Purposefully or not there there is something interesting  that comes from something being worn damaged or broken.It has a story and the outcome .This might not  be obvious but most things  show  wear and tear and  process of getting to the end point.Damaged things show life and a story new things have potential but are more often than not seen as the more interesting more aesthetic and useful .Why is that?I want to look into using new vs older things and why we might keep or discard them.

Other times older things are still preferred.I much prefer using an old film camera than a new phone camera.The process is more enjoyable and the images feel like that have more of a story.Why do we like some older things but not others. Initial answer should be obvious. Quicker and more efficient yet cameras and other items are not.How are we deciding what to take from the past and leave in it?

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Taste Buds

Taste buds have very sensitive microscopic hairs called microvilli (say: mye-kro-VILL-eye). Those tiny hairs send messages to the brain about how something tastes, so you know if it's sweet, sour, bitter, or salty.

When you have a cold or allergies, and your nose is stuffy, you might notice that your food doesn't seem to have much flavor. That's because the upper part of your nose isn't clear to receive the chemicals that trigger the olfactory receptors (that inform the brain and create the sensation of flavor

Camerino experiences the world through taste. She tastes music, colors, shapes and even people's emotions. She says she has a hard time remembering what things look or sound like, but she can immediately identify objects based on their synesthetic flavors.

Synesthesia affects his social life, too. Eating out, for example, is a nightmare: "Different voices, the ambient atmosphere in the restaurant, it all makes a difference to my experience," says Wannerton. "You serve me food on a blue plate — it just totally messes up the eating sensation."