Installation with muscle chair, in use since 1969 and 2,346,246 performed tests, Brigadmuseum, Karlstad

The installative work The Muscle Chair - An Apparatus for Measuring Men by Björn Larsson & Carl Johan Erikson showcases a mechanical device developed to systematically evaluate the physiology and psychology of young men, categorising their potential for service in the Swedish military. The chair was conceived to make the military enlistment procedure one of the most comprehensive control systems of its kind. Between 1969 and 1997, ten of these so-called muscle chairs were used to measure the muscle strength of conscripts. The data collected over these years are included in one of the world’s most extensive biometric archives: the Enrollment Archive Register (Inskrivningsarkivregistret, or INSARK). The installat­ion features two video works that demonstrate the chair’s various possible uses and illustrate the extensive scope of INSARK’s data collection.