Images: courtesy of Aron Ralston / © Copyright Jacques Monestier / © Copyright BBC
Super _____
I’ve been investigating the idea of superpowers in fiction and real life, and why we desire to experience heightened abilities as something special and unique. The ‘super’ part of this project is about exploring the question how can we transcend the ordinary?
What happens if you apply ‘super’ in the context of armwear? What could it mean? Aimee Mullins pointed out that “a prosthetic limb… can stand as a symbol that the wearer has the power to create whatever it is that they want to create in that space.” [TED talk] If disability is an opportunity for transcending the ordinary and for empowerment, what might you choose to create in that space? Here are some opportunities for different kinds of super:
1 Super POWER
Here is an example of the classic super power - a tool that gives you a special ability in a specific context. This climbing arm belongs to Aron Ralston and allows him to get purchase on rock in places where others can’t. The paralympics demonstrates numerous devices that give you specific heightened sporting abilities.
2 Super COMMUNICATION
By contrast there are those who wish to explore self/public perception and body image. Sculpter Jacques Monestier has created a prosthetic hand that is a work of art - a “provocative alternative to both hands and hooks”. Monestier explains that he wanted to “transmute what might be considered a disfigurement into something marvellous and exotic” [Design For Disability, Graham Pullin]. He has transformed a prosthetic hand into an object of desire and healthy curiosity. In contrast to a resorting what is lost with a life-like cosmesis, it makes a statement about it’s artificiality and identity that gets the moment of realisation out the way at the beginning, when meeting people.
3 Super BEAUTY
This leads into the idea of super fashion/ beauty/ femininity. The BBC recently produced a show called Britain’s Missing Top Model where eight young disabled women competed for a modelling contract. The show attempted to redefine beauty as something to be found in uniqueness, distinctness and imperfection, in contrast to an industry that demands physical perfection and symmetry. In his book Design For Disability, Graham Pullins explains how eyewear has been transformed from a medical aid provided by the NHS in the 50s, to a facial prosthetic that people with 20x20 vision now chose to wear to enhance their appearance. It is interesting that the girls have been photographed in such a way that their ‘medical aids’ become objects of beauty that enhance their appearance and identity, as extensions of their body which can have any aesthetic they choose. So too Aimee Mullins asks why can’t disability be both whimsical and fashion-able.
