Research
Learning about wearable extensions through the videos of Lucy McRae, Neil Harbisson, and Viktoria Modesta opened up my mind about what body extensions can be, the form they can take, the function of them, and the messages they can send. In Lucy McRae’s talk, she discussed augmenting the human body to surpass its own natural evolution. This brings me back to my own concept of humans as animals, and how far we have evolved from other animals but how close we still are. I came up with two concepts based on this.
The first concept is to create some type of garment that accentuates and emphasizes various aspects of the human form to be more like our relatives, the other great apes. This would mean exaggerated musculature, especially in the forearm and calf areas. The idea behind this would be an aesthetics, functional, and conceptual one. The form would be an interesting and unique garment silhouette, the function would be to make the human form more intimidation (which is a useful evolutionary trait), and the message would be to bridge the gap between humans and other animals.
The second concept is also inspired by these talks. Moths, for example, have patterns on their wings that resemble eyes, in order to intimidate and ward off predators. Humans also use this concept in a slightly different form in India. Villagers in areas that are prone to tiger attacks would wear masks on the back of their heads, as tigers are less likely to attack when their victim is looking at them. These worked well for a couple years but soon the tigers figured out the deception. I would create a garment or wearable form that would seek to combat this more effectively. This too would have formal qualities and function as an intimidation evolutionary suit.
Sources:
https://www.quora.com/Is-it-true-that-tigers-wont-attack-a-human-who-is-looking-at-them
http://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/why-do-butterflies-have-eyespots.html
https://www.ted.com/talks/lucy_mcrae_how_can_technology_transform_the_human_body?language=en
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2fiSAXr4UME
Concept Sketches
Design Proposal
I plan to make a garment that is has unique aesthetics but also functions as an extension of human evolution. The function that I would like to incorporate into my wearable extension is the factor of intimidation. Intimidation is useful for warding off predators and is thus a useful survival trait. In making a garment that amplifies this, I hope to surpass our natural course of evolution in similar ways that Lucy McRae discussed in her TED Talk.
