The prosthesis is the signifier of trauma, of the violent separation of limb from body and of abnormality from normality. Like all objects under human inspection, the prosthesis is a far more than its physicality; it is myth, it is signifier and it is a symbol. The medical prosthesis represents more than the mere bio-engineered extension of a comprised human body, it is a symbol of its owners history, their para-ability and the event of separation (both of limb from body and the body from abled society). In this approaching epoch of advanced bio-engineering and robotics the myth of the prosthesis and its user has the opportunity to adopt positive connotation or at least those that are not associated with disability, trauma and the disadvantaged. As technology develops into post-human possibilities, where the prosthetic limb will out perform its human counterpart, disability will become decoupled from rehabilitation technology and these devices could be seen as advantages rather than a handicap. The aesthetics of medical equipment and especially those of everyday applicability, that of the prosthesis, has certain physiological and societal affects on the user and the observer alike. The design of these objects outside of the purely practical and mechanically critical could have a remit not just in art and design terms but in the physiology and mentality of the amputee themselves. The story of the prosthesis is one often so personal, so subjective and tainted with a history and individual perspective, one so individual that the object as an art and design subject is often ignored. In this essay the understanding of the circumstance and surgical process of gaining a prosthetic limb is not the objective, on the contrary pure design and the technological advances that facilitated this emerging art and design form will be its focus.
The most ubiquitous forms of prosthesis, those very basic examples familiar to all children with amputations served as a most futile and poor example of mimesis. The image above (a collection of my first three legs) displays this bare almost orthopaedic aesthetic clearly. The image above makes evident that these devices aren’t for the purpose of modality or effectiveness but for that of disguise; the disguise of disability, and the disguise of difference. The obsession with realisms, an almost grotesque scientific realism, of rubber disjointed toes, latex skin, shaping in human forms and of course that false ‘flesh’ colour varnished over every surface. These prosthesis only managed a “basic function”, and in that truth it both weakened the resolve, spirit and the physical capability of the amputee. This does not just promote a culture of denial and shame for the amputee but in the default demand for humanistic realism we sacrifice use-ability, performance and the essential physiological incentive of celebrating para-ability and body diversity. The acceptance of the self as a amputee and prosthesis user is the acceptance and celebration of the medical device that enables its user ot walk and to operate as a fully functional member of society and of life. “You’re not disabled by the disabilities you have, you are able by the abilities you have.” (Pistorius, 2007) This ability is enabled through technology but the social and intellectual digestion of this technology – often so clinical – is made palatable through the aesthetics of art and design.
Prosthetic technology was often, and somewhat still is associated with physical achievement, that of athletics and ironically of the heroic connotations of the Greek Olympics. The dialogue and the language of other forms of human expression was somewhat neglected. In the field of cultural production, that of film, visual art, installation and fashion Aimee Mullins acts as a muse and an ambassador for both athletics and the arts. Through the pure visuality of the arts, new perspectives were introduced into the language and prosthetics – the language of beauty, awe, otherworldliness and even luxury. In collaboration with directors, artists and designers such as Matthew Barney and Alexander McQueen, Mullins has modelled prosthetic art objects that both challenge the meaning of art and prosthetics and what they both can represent. “When I used Aimee for [this collection], I made a point of not putting her in… sprinting legs. … but I thought no, that’s not the point of this exercise”. The point is that she was to mould in with the rest of the girls” (McQueen, 2000). Alexander McQueen speaking after his 1999 SS show, featuring Mullins modelling a hand craved elm prostheses. The decision to present the hand carved prostheses as any other piece of attire or accessory could hold significance in this discussion: essentially McQueen normalised the prosthesis and likewise Mullins. Prosthetics as fashion statement brings up some very interesting questions about consumer society and luxury consumption in our capitalistic society. Fashion is a luxury industry, producing aspirational goods to embody, desire and adorn. Could then a prosthetic leg be viewed or constructed as a consumer good, as an object of desire; like bags, shoes or jewellery? If it can, the prosthetic limb, both that of leg and arm could come to symbolise and to represent an aspirational not a pitied product. In engineering terms prosthetic technology has conquered human potential and in design terms it has come to represent luxury and desire. The engineering and physics of the prosthesis could make an impact on its societal interpretation but perhaps it is through aesthetics, the aesthetics of beauty and consumerism that the prosthesis could be viewed through the prism of strength, beauty and even fashionablity.
Prosthetic art, unlike the majority of traditional fine art mediums is dependent on interaction – that of an amputee – and therefore what set out to be an inclusive art form has in fact manifested itself into must exclusively. This ‘human art’- doesn’t just demands the attention or the input of humanity but actually is integrated into the body itself and is somehow hollow with out it – finds itself at the centre of the contemporary art sense, especially around the early and mid 00s. The artist/director Matthew Barney featured Mullins in his 2002 film Cremaster 3, in which the iconic Cheetah scene features (an homage to Mullins career in athletics). What is the material in this work, if we were to take in as a still? Is the medium the prosthetic, the body of the actor or is it the picture plain of the camera? Through this question we open up the limitations of what can be considered an art medium; the body, the place between ourselves and the object (therefore our own vision) and of course the prosthetic itself. Mullins herself speaks about “empowering people to play a role in their own space and body.”; and in many ways amputees have an advantage over the fully able, as in we can created a distinctly unique bodily condition. A bodily condition and augmentation that empowers the form, the community and the individual.
Prosthetics as a medium, as a device of artistic production cannot be taken out of context, the context of it user, its artist and its audience. The Alternative Limb Project ran by the prosthetics artist, Sophie de Oliveira, is a prosthetics studio that fabricates both ultra-realistic and ‘alternative’ limbs, and in many regards has established the aesthetic and accompanying culture for this community. The image above was featured in the ice queen performance at the opening ceremony of the 2012 London Paralymics and for the first time in this essay, and indeed in visual culture the core aesthetic of disability is challenged. In previous examples the only two aesthetics or styles was that of then medical or the grotesque and animalistic. The crystal leg would in a broad generic manner conform to an idea of beauty or aesthetic acceptance held by the majority of the public. Aesthetics provide a store of symbols and myths behind them and embroiled with contemporary society and our visually dominated senses these messages can have quite potent impacts. The history of medical and even ‘alternative’ prosthetic design conformed to the aesthetic of ‘otherness’; that of the medical and even grotesque. To challenge the normative aesthetic is to challenge the normative attitude of both the amputee and the able public.
All objects are more than their image, their picture plain gaining context, meaning, myth and symbolism in the eye of the society and individual that created it and those that act as audience to it. In this age of post-human augmentation and design, where the inherently non-biological plays a continuously greater role in our lives, a new language of myth and symbolism emerges. Objects of mimesis, that of the prosthesis and other medical design products have the ever present potential to possess the connotations of ‘otherness’ and of the grotesque. It is through art, design and that “age old poetry” (Mullins, 2009) of human expression and creativity that brings the corporeal humanity to the cold, distant and the alien of these objects. Perhaps to enlightenment society to the reality, not the adversity of an amputees life is not through the distant achievements of the ‘super-abled’ but through the unique aesthetic expressions of the average amputee. The success of the para-abled community in athletics, art and indeed all field of life is course pertinent but fearing ostracisation through heroism the aesthetic and approach of the mundane everyday experience of an amputee may signify much more. Design is the language of the visual, and although we may not be fully literate in it, the messages continue to be communicated. Through design we can give amputees and all those who avail of rehabilitation technology the opportunity to shape this aesthetic and through that augment not just their own identity but they identity and the narrative society projects onto them. In essence empowering a individual, once considered disabled through the creation of an aesthetic removed from the median but also from the medical, grotesque and the disabled.
Videos:
Aimee Mullins; My 12 Legs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQ0iMulicgg
Matthew Barney’s Cremaster 3: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AtjvyQqim50
Bibliography:
Online Article: http://productsofdesign.sva.edu/aimee-mullins/
Online Article: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/mysport/2312850/My-Sport-Oscar-Pistorius.html
Magazine Article: Alexander McQueen, i-D Magazine, July, 2000
Online Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQ0iMulicgg
Curatorial Intuition 