ABSTRACT
In straight booths, isolated subjects, protected from the intrusive gaze of neighbors by enclosing partitions, look “straight” ahead at video monitors. Unlike heterosexual peep shows, gay video stalls permit lateral scopic interaction between consenting occupants. The partitions that separate adjacent stalls possess glass windows covered by operable screens activated by red and green buttons. When both parties consent to lower the respective screens that divide them, they see their own reflected image superimposed on the glass window that frames the body of their neighbor: self and other fuse to become an object of desire trapped in the thin space shared by adjoining stalls. Inspired both by the uni-directional gaze permitted by straight video partitions and the reciprocal gazes facilitated by those found at gay booths, the Badlands Health Club consists of a giant rock-climbing wall intersected by scuba diving tanks pierced by multiple apertures ranging in scale from “glory holes” to “picture windows.”.
