LIMBo: Visual Histories

These sketches explore objects that have to do with the body as a whole, done as research for an upcoming project to do with prosthetics. The first image, a bottle for prescription pills, a bottle of ibuprofen, a lone pill, and two pills in a plastic container, looks at things that are meant to improve the body from the inside. This was important in helping my group and I think about ways to augment parts of the body from a neurological perspective. We had discussed the use of prosthetics to improve things like guilt or empathy, and wanted to explore what that could mean at a physical level.  The second image depicts surgical instruments used in neurosurgery. The instrument consisting of a wheel with evenly spaced spikes is known as a Wartenberg wheel, designed to test nerve reactions as it was rolled across the flesh, is not as commonly used today. However, the instrument above it, called a ronger, is often used today by neurosurgeons for gouging out bone. The third image depicts a woman wearing what’s known as a Milwaukee back brace, the image for which was taken from a website about scoliosis treatment. Indeed the brace was made in the 1970s to correct the spine, which would curve into an ‘S’ shape from scoliosis. I found the visual that the brace creates quite stunning, but I also was interested in the use of the whole body in order to correct one part. The last two images, of a chair and a bed, are depictions of objects made to accommodate to the body rather than change it.