01/09/2012

First week back at school. Over the last four months, I have been doing secondary research, mining the internet and article databases for information and resources pertaining to this research project. Having been set back by the Ethics application process (I had to change the parameters of the project to eliminate all primary research involving amputees, as the risks were too high for both myself and the potential participants, more on this later), and feeling discouraged by the time, slipping away, I have finally set myself back on a course to complete this project in a way that I feel will be both successful and satisfy the original proposal put forth to the CIHR.

I have visited several websites dedicated to support, sharing of experiences, and information for amputees. The process of reading through postings, finding out about various operations and procedures, as well as the setbacks and medical complications many amputees deal with has been a real eye-opener. The conversations on these support group blogs does not center around aesthetics, but focuses primarily on functionality, usability and rehabilitation.This is far different from the various TED lectures I have listened to from amputee/advocate/athlete Aimee Mullins (1998, 2009, 2010), Dr.Todd Kuiken (2011), Inventor Dean Kamen (2007, 2010), or pro-snowboarder Amy Purdy (2011).

This project focuses on amputation and embodiment. The truth of the matter is that the majority of amputees do not have the money/medical coverage to be focusing on the aesthetics of the prosthetic they are wearing, however, for the sake of my investigation, I will be looking at amputees, like Aimee Mullins, who exemplify the ideal vision of the body expanded and adapted by technology. I do recognize that Mullins is in the minority, but she is in fact of great importance to the overarching issues I am examining.

In my original proposal to the CIHR, I outlined the expectations for the project, including interviewing amputees, prostheticians, engineers and inventors. I applied through the Research Ethics Board in September 2011, hoping to begin the process of finding willing participants for my interviews. The first application was rejected by the Board, stating the Psychological Risks were above minimal (in compliance with the Second Edition of the Tri-Council Policy Statement on Ethical Conduct for Research Involving Humans 2010 (TCPS 2)) and in order to interview any amputees I would have to involve an individual with expertise in counseling (a Psychologist, Counselor, Therapist, etc.). At that point (early October 2011), I was already researching online sources, watching a variety of TED Talks and searching through peer-reviewed articles on the subject of amputees and embodiment. I was also continuing my art practice, attempting to work through some ideas/imagery. The set-back of having to re-evaluate my research project made me extremely anxious: what did this mean for my project, how would I continue, is secondary research enough? Also, as a note, the funding was held by the school’s financial department as I had not been given the go-ahead by the Ethics Board.

After mulling it over for another month, I decided the best course of action was to eliminate all primary research involving amputees, and simply use whatever information was available online: support group websites, TED Talks, articles, books, etc. I also re-wrote my application for the Research Ethics Board, conceding that I would not involve amputees (I do recognize my lack of expertise when it comes to dealing professionally with another individual’s psychological issues, and asking an amputee to discuss a traumatic event falls under that umbrella) and that instead the only primary research would be interviews with prostheticians.

The funding was finally released December 2011, a full 4 months after the proposed ‘beginning’ of my research project.

My upcoming project relates specifically to Mullins and her 12 pairs of legs. Each pair serves a different function and/or has a different aesthetic. It is my intention to create a series of “portraits” of Mullins that questions the body’s ability to adapt to the prosthetics, bringing to light Brian Massumi’s logic that the body is just as much a prosthetic as the prosthetic itself.

01/16/2012

This week I contacted a prosthetician in New Brunswick, requesting an interview. As the only source of primary research allowed by the Ethics Board for this project, I am interested in speaking with a prosthetician about the process of making a prosthetic: how fittings work, prototyping, materials used, requests made by patients (ie: cosmetic requests), and the gap between what is presented to the public as prosthetic advancements versus the reality of what most prosthetics look like.

I got a response almost immediately, indicating that she would be interested in discussing my project as well as the extent/my expectations of her involvement. We scheduled an interim telephone conversation to take place on Friday January 16th. Unfortunately, when I called, the prosthetician was busy with patients and unable to return my call. In the meantime, I have sent her an email outlining the types of questions I am interested in getting feedback on as well as the necessary forms outlining her involvement should she choose to be involved. Hopefully I will have more news on this development next week.

On another note, I have started sketching out some ideas for the Aimee Mullins series, now titled “The Twelve Lives of Aimee Mullins.” I am anxious and excited about this project: the images floating around in my head seem intriguing and this series could have a lot of potential, but I am also weary of its content and the way it will look aesthetically. I have chosen to work with watercolour, because I want the portraits to stay loose rather than rendered realistically.

I am continuing to work on the written portion of this project, the first draft of the thesis is due February 6th.

01/23/2012

I have not as of yet received a reply from my prosthetist contact. I will send another email but I don’t want to interfere with her work schedule or her patients.

Continuing work on the Aimee Mullins project, and I will post some sketches here soon. I am juggling some other projects at the same time, and will discuss them at length once I have sorted out some details.

I found an incredible online journal: Journal of Neuro-Aesthetic Theory, in my research around amputation and embodiment. The volume “Phantom Limb” (2004) is of particular interest, with essays by Vivian Sobchack and Marquard Smith (both also published in the book The Prosthetic Impulse). This online journal is an excellent resource on the topic of prosthetics, body image and theory. Sobchack’s essay “Real Phantoms/Phantom Realities: On the Phenomenology of Bodily Imagination” was particularly interesting and definitely worth the read.

01/30/2012

The final week before the first draft of the thesis paper is due. I have been struggling to find the words to describe a project that still feels slightly out of reach. As part of my weekly updates, I have chosen to include an excerpt from my paper, tackling the intention of the project before me:

THE TWELVE LIVES OF AIMEE MULLINS

As an appendage of Under the Skin, Beyond the Skin takes up the exploration of prosthetics in art. At the time of this writing, the project is on-going, the manifestation of prosthesis-as-extension slowing evolving through my studio practice, and includes The Twelve Lives of Aimee Mullins, to be discussed in this chapter.

Aimee Mullins is a dynamic and engaging public figure, a poster-girl for beauty campaigns (L’Oréal) and the future of prosthetic possibilities. In a 2009 lecture for TED, a speaker series dedicated to sharing inspired ideas about technology, entertainment and design, Mullins asked the audience to interpret an innovative visualization of a body enhanced by prosthetics, stating: “People that society once considered to be disabled can now become the architects of their own identities, and indeed continue to change those identities by designing their bodies from a place of empowerment.” (Mullins, 2009)

The potential to have power over the transformability of the body suddenly moves the focus away from dys-ability toward super-ability, taking up a possible bodily reality devoid of limitations and enlightened by expanded possibilities. It is beyond tantalizing to imagine possessing the capacity to create and re-create one’s identity, to consider the body as a canvas awaiting inspired ideas, and a physical appearance limited only by imagination. Mullins sets the stage for these new possibilities, celebrating her body’s super-ability with twelve different pairs of prosthetic legs, equally varied in appearance and purpose. Ranging from more traditional imperatives of form and function to impractical yet aesthetically astounding examples of body extensions, Mullins has become the architect of her collection of identities.

As the muse for The Twelve Lives of Aimee Mullins, this project while still in its early stages of realization uses Mullins’ likeness to explore through an artistic praxis the ways in which the aesthetics of a prosthesis might affect the body.  The exchange of previous perceptions of the disabled body for one which might engage with possibility and potential opens a creative avenue through which to negotiate the image of the prosthesis. Every individual connects with the body and becomes embodied in different ways. Corporeal perception establishes how an individual acts in the world and on the body. More than just a change in outward appearance, what Mullins implies through the interchangeability of her limbs is an essential re-formation of the body and a continuous re-interpretation of an embodied existence.

An unexpected connection has exposed itself in both the research leading up to this particular project and in writing this paper. While the original engagement with Stelarc’s artistic practice felt far removed from my own creative objectives, The Twelve Lives of Aimee Mullins has started to take on and embody the concept of the obsolete body, “as an object, not a subject – not being a particular someone but rather becoming something else.” (70)[1] If corporeal obsolescence is the condition of change and the inevitable evolving nature of the body expanded by technology, Mullins embodies the obsolete. Whether donning a pair of Barbie-like cosmetic legs, extending her height to a statuesque 6’1”, or sporting Swedish engineered “C-legs,” modeled for greater agility and speed, Aimee Mullins is ‘able’ to adapt to her surroundings, conditions and desires. With the evolution of the body as a compelling point of departure, and the consideration of corporeal extensions and expansion through technology, the prosthesis as an object might be seen to exist in mutual relationship to the body:

“’Body’ and ‘thing,’ and by extension ‘body’ and ‘object,’ exist only as implicated in each other [and] are extensions of each other […] Things and objects are literally, materially, prosthetic organs of the body. But if bodies and objects exist only as implicated in each other, in necessary and useful reciprocity, then isn’t it just as accurate to say that the body is literally, materially, an organ of its things? (Massumi 95)

The appeal of Massumi’s perspective is in breaking-down a long-standing assumption that the prosthetic’s role is to replace something missing. The mediation of the prosthetic ‘object’ to the body acknowledges the continued susceptibility of each to modification and adaptation in the other. In light of this, what bodily modifications will evolve through a creative investigation into different prosthetic adaptations? A double below-the-knee amputee since early childhood, Mullins is responsible for envisioning and embodying a reality which does not dwell on trauma and loss, but rather – and more importantly – on opportunity and possibility. It is for this reason that I chose to re/invent and re/present twelve different adaptations of Aimee Mullins.

When first conceiving of The Twelve Lives of Aimee Mullins, several issues plagued my mind: how to approach the subject matter delicately, to be considerate yet alluring, to let go of my own bodily perceptions, to be wary of fetishizing different bodies. Writing notes in the margins of my sketchbook, I considered Mullins as a public figure, a private life, a commodity, an inspiration and a muse. Determined early in the process, these works would not be ‘portraits’ allowing me to disengage from creating illustrations or likenesses of Mullins, and rather connect with Massumi’s compelling argument for the mediated relationship of body and prosthetic. With twelve different pairs of legs, the challenge became imagining how the body – any body – would adapt, extend, and modify itself to reciprocate the appearance of the prosthesis, and ultimately become something else.

The intention is to create twelve drawings, each taking into consideration a different prosthesis, however the longer I reflect on my intention and the more studies generated, the further I am drawn into infinite conceptions of bodily representation. The anthropomorphic tentacle prosthetics worn in Barney’s Cremaster cycle might lend itself to a body that could pulsate and float lazily like a jellyfish through open water; it is equally possible to imagine an overly-articulated figure, its many extremities extending in all directions, groping through a tactile experience of the world.

Artistic expression sets in motion a redefinition of prosthetic metaphor, giving over to phantasy and unlimited potential to recreate the body and therefore also redefine possible embodied knowledge. If the prosthetic is no longer required to stand-in for loss and trauma, and instead opens, expands, and enhances the body, dys-ability is sequestered to the furthest reaches of creativity. In writing this, I cannot help but wonder whether I am overlooking prosthetic realities for a more pleasurable, grander corporeal future, fetishizing the posthuman, enhanced body. I choose instead to take a page from Mullins’s autobiography, engendering a poetic approach and exposing imperfections and differences as opportunity in the face of adversity.

The Twelve Lives of Aimee Mullins could very well mutate into many more instances as I continue to explore the body/technology relationship. This prospect both excites and overwhelms.  Though this project takes up different considerations than those explored Under the Skin, there is a consistency in its materiality – the use of watercolour lending free-flowing and malleable applications – the appeal of bodily representation – its presence and absence – and the desire to capture fluid, fluctuating corporeal manifestations. As another line of inquiry, Beyond the Skin attempts to visualize difference and multiple interpretations of embodied knowledge. In a cultural moment which acknowledges the adaptability and shifting nature of the body, and recognizes the mediation between body and technology, or body and object, my intention for this project is to embody the blurring boundaries of human existence. As I continue to engage in new artistic avenues and interpretations of the body, The Twelve Lives of Aimee Mullinshas become a pursuit for greater embodied perception, dissolution of the dis-abled stereotype and the discovery of corporeal representations that may exist beyond the limits of the skin.

02/06/2012

Pictures Coming Soon.

02/13/2012

Pictures Coming Soon.

02/20/2012

Changes have been made to the thesis paper, especially the entry regarding the project titled The Twelve Lives of Aimee Mullins, which has now been re-titled Fleshed Out:

As an appendage of Under the Skin, Beyond the Skin takes up the exploration of prosthetics in art. At the time of this writing, the project is on-going, the manifestation of prosthesis-as-extension slowing evolving through my studio practice, and includes Fleshed Out (working title), to be discussed in this chapter.

Aimee Mullins is a dynamic and engaging public figure, a poster-girl for beauty campaigns (L’Oréal Paris) and the future of prosthetic possibilities. A double below-the-knee amputee since early childhood, Mullins is responsible for envisioning and embodying a reality which does not dwell on trauma and loss, but rather – and more importantly – on opportunity and possibility. In a 2009 lecture for TED, a speaker series dedicated to sharing inspired ideas about technology, entertainment and design, Mullins asked the audience to interpret an innovative visualization of a body enhanced by prosthetics, stating: “People that society once considered to be disabled can now become the architects of their own identities, and indeed continue to change those identities by designing their bodies from a place of empowerment” (Mullins, “12 Pairs of Legs”).

The potential to have power over the transformability of the body suddenly moves the focus away from dys-ability toward super-ability, taking up a possible bodily reality devoid of limitations and enlightened by expanded possibilities. It is beyond tantalizing to imagine possessing the capacity to create and re-create one’s identity, to consider the body as a canvas awaiting inspired ideas, and a physical appearance limited only by imagination. Mullins sets the stage for these new possibilities, celebrating her body’s super-ability with twelve different pairs of prosthetic legs, equally varied in appearance and purpose. Ranging from more traditional imperatives of form and function to impractical yet aesthetically astounding examples of body extensions, Mullins has become the architect of her collection of identities.

Fleshed Out, while still in its early stages of realization, expands upon Mullins’ prosthetic prerogative for corporeal re-formation to explore through an artistic praxis the ways in which the prosthesis might affect the body.  The exchange of previous perceptions of the disabled body for one which might engage with possibility and potential opens a creative avenue through which to negotiate the image of the prosthesis. Every individual connects with the body and becomes embodied in different ways. Corporeal perception establishes how an individual acts in the world and on the body. More than just a change in outward appearance, what Mullins implies through the interchangeability of her limbs is an essential re-formation of the body and a continuous re-interpretation of an embodied existence.

According to philosopher and social theorist Brian Massumi, “the body’s obsolescence is the condition of change” (Massumi qtd. in Fernandez 107). The idea of obsolescence might initially suggest a disappearance or death of the body, however it could also be understood as a more fluid concept allowing for expanded possibilities of corporeal appearance.  With the limitations and boundaries of our bodies yet undetermined, taking into consideration Massumi’s concept of the body as “obsolete” might prove to be the catalyst for greater embodied awareness and at the very least begin to shift the notions of our human abilities.

If corporeal obsolescence is the condition of change and the inevitable evolving nature of the body expanded by technology, Mullins embodies the obsolete. Whether donning a pair of Barbie-like cosmetic legs, extending her height to a statuesque 6’1”, or sporting Swedish engineered “C-legs,” modeled for greater agility and speed, Aimee Mullins is ‘able’ to adapt to her surroundings, conditions and desires. With the evolution of the body as a compelling point of departure, and the consideration of corporeal extensions and expansion through technology, the prosthesis as an object might be seen to exist in mutual relationship to the body:

“’Body’ and ‘thing,’ and by extension ‘body’ and ‘object,’ exist only as implicated in each other [and] are extensions of each other […] Things and objects are literally, materially, prosthetic organs of the body. But if bodies and objects exist only as implicated in each other, in necessary and useful reciprocity, then isn’t it just as accurate to say that the body is literally, materially, an organ of its things?”  (Massumi 95)

The appeal of Massumi’s perspective is in breaking-down a long-standing assumption that the prosthetic’s role is to replace something missing. The mediation of the prosthetic ‘object’ to the body acknowledges the continued susceptibility of each to modification and adaptation in the other. In light of this, what bodily modifications will evolve through a creative investigation into different prosthetic adaptations? Fleshed Out takes up and challenges the perception of a previous bodily whole, allowing the body to be interpreted as prosthetic, and the site for radical experimentation.

When first conceiving of Fleshed Out, several issues plagued my imagination: how to approach the subject matter delicately, to be considerate yet alluring, to let go of my own bodily perceptions, to be wary of fetishizing different bodies. Writing notes in the margins of my sketchbook, I began by considering Mullins as a public figure, a private life, a commodity, an inspiration and a muse: in what way could the discourse of change manifest within my artistic practice?  Determined early in the process, these works would not be traditional portraits, allowing me to disengage from creating illustrations or likenesses of Mullins, allowing rather a connection with Massumi’s compelling argument for the mediated relationship of body and prosthetic. With multiple examples of prosthetics, each unique in form and function, the challenge became imagining how the body – any body – would adapt, extend, and modify itself to reciprocate the appearance of a prosthesis, and ultimately become something else.

The intention is to create a series of drawings, each taking into consideration a different example of prosthesis. However, the longer I reflect on this intention and the more studies generated, the further I am drawn into infinite conceptions of bodily representation. The anthropomorphic tentacle prosthetics worn in Barney’s Cremaster 3 might lend itself to a body that could pulsate and float lazily like a jellyfish through open water; it is equally possible to imagine an overly-articulated figure, its many extremities extending in all directions, groping through a tactile experience of the world. And what of invisible prosthetics – buried in the body but still capable of altering corporeal perception? Perhaps an even greater project has begun to emerge?

Artistic expression sets in motion a redefinition of prosthetic metaphor, giving over to phantasy and unlimited potential to recreate the body and therefore also redefine possible embodied knowledge. If the prosthetic is no longer required to stand-in for loss and trauma, and instead opens, expands, and enhances the body, dys-ability is sequestered to the furthest reaches of creativity. In writing this, I cannot help but wonder whether I am overlooking prosthetic realities for a more pleasurable, grander corporeal future, fetishizing the super-human and enhanced body. I choose instead to take a page from Mullins’s autobiography, engendering a poetic approach and exposing imperfections and differences as opportunity in the face of adversity.

Fleshed Out could very well mutate into many more instances as I continue to explore the body/technology relationship. This prospect both excites and overwhelms.  As each drawing feeds into another, possibilities multiply and bodies morph; rather than achieving clarity of subject, new shapes evolve and distort, giving rise to even more complex corporeal considerations.

Though this project takes up different considerations than those explored in Under the Skin, there is a consistency in its materiality – the use of watercolour lending free-flowing and malleable applications – the appeal of bodily representation – its presence and absence – and the desire to capture fluid, fluctuating corporeal manifestations. As another line of inquiry, Beyond the Skin attempts to visualize difference and multiple interpretations of embodied knowledge. In a cultural moment which acknowledges the adaptability and shifting nature of the body, and recognizes the mediation between body and technology, or body and object, my intention for this project is to articulate the blurring boundaries of human existence. As I continue to engage in new artistic avenues and interpretations of the body, Fleshed Out has become a pursuit toward greater embodied perception, dissolution of the dys-abled stereotype and the discovery of corporeal representations that may exist beyond the limits of the skin.