CW2 – ESSAY
State of the Art: Amputation and Prosthetics
Amputation is not a defeat or failure of treatment, but an effective management strategy for certain conditions in the paediatric population. The principles of management, especially in the paediatric population, have not changed. Current surgical strategies focus on providing an optimal residual limb for prosthetic fitting. New technology provides improvement in the design and fabrication of prosthetic devices. When Col. Steve Austin of “The Six Million Dollar Man” had three limbs replaced by bionic devices in the 1970s television show, he was suddenly superhuman — “better, stronger, faster” we were told at the beginning of each episode. His prostheses allowed him to run as fast as a race car and gave him strength likened to a bulldozer, all of which came in handy in his new life as a secret agent. Heikki Uustal, medical director, Prosthetic/Orthotic Team at JFK Johnson Rehab Institute in Edison. Almost 50 years later, ‘bionic’ limbs are becoming a part of the mainstream, worn by children, grandparents, and everyone in between. But nowadays the goal is not to give patients superhuman powers — life as a secret agent can be so overrated — but to return them to some sense of normalcy. THE ALTERNATIVE LIMB PROJECT – was founded by Sophie de Oliveira Barata, using the unique medium of prosthetics to create highly stylised wearable art pieces. Merging the latest technology with traditional crafts, Sophie’s creations explore themes of body image, modification, evolution, and transhumanism, whilst promoting positive conversations around disability and celebrating body diversity. For Latvian-born Modesta, who had her left leg amputated below the knee as a teenager due to ongoing health problems, alternative limbs are as much a way of expressing herself as the clothes she wears. “Being a self-confessed fashionista, things that I’m into tend to change all the time, and like most key pieces in my wardrobe I would only wear it a number of times,” – “The first time I wore a limb that was so obviously bionic, it gave me a total sense of uniqueness and feeling mutant human in the best way possible.” After studying special effects prosthetics for film and TV, de Oliveira Barata worked with a realistic prosthetics company for eight years, continuing to experiment with artistic limbs in her spare time. In 2009 she contacted Modesta with her unique idea for an alternative limb company, and the pair began collaborating on a ground-breaking stereo leg, replete with speakers and stiletto shoe. The prototype was a success and de Oliveira Barata’s clients now range from ex-military men looking for a sci-fi leg to children wanting a secret compartment to store their pencils. The bespoke limbs cost between $4,600 and $21,000. Materials vary according to each design, but must be durable, lightweight, and water resistant. Swiss army knife arms with fold-out tools, nightclubbing legs that light up to music, and cooking arms with different attachments for kitchen appliances, are just some of the futuristic designs she has been working on as part of the project with special effects students at Hertfordshire University, in England.
Robert McCall
Robert T. McCall, an artist whose fervour for space exploration found expression in his six-story-tall mural at the National Air and Space Museum and two postage stamps cancelled on the Moon. McCall eagerly translated his youthful enthusiasm for drawing knights in shining Armor on spirited steeds into paintings of intrepid astronauts in gleaming space vehicles, both real and imagined. When NASA in 1962 hit on the idea of enlisting artists to promote its mission, Mr. McCall was one of the first three chosen. He went on to create hundreds of vivid paintings, from representations of gleaming spaceships to futuristic dream cities where shopping centres float in space. His most famous image may be the gargantuan mural, showing events from the creation of the universe to men walking on the Moon, on the south lobby wall of the National Air and Space Museum on the National Mall in Washington. More than 10 million people a year pass it. Or it might be his painting showing a space vehicle darting from the bay of a wheel-shaped space station, which was used in a poster for Stanley Kubrick’s landmark 1968 film, “2001: A Space Odyssey.” Then there are the mission patches he made for astronauts, including one for the last men to walk on the Moon; the many paintings that hang in military buildings from the Pentagon to the Air Force Academy; and the enormous mural at the Johnson Space Centre in Houston showing the progression of the American space program, from the first Mercury missions to the space shuttle. Though his illustrations of manned space flight include Alan Shepard’s first Mercury mission, McCall did not attend a launch until Gordon Cooper blasted off in May 1963. In an interview with Smithsonian magazine in 1984, Mr. McCall described the exquisite tension of riding an open-cage elevator to the space capsule with Cooper. “You get in the habit of wanting these experiences,” he said, saying he imagined himself in Cooper’s shoes. McCall went on to witness more than 25 additional launches, including most trips to the Moon and most space shuttle missions. McCall’s work continued to alternate current space programs with visions of the future. He not only produced large paintings, eventually moving on to paint giant murals, but he also went to the opposite end of the size spectrum by painting stamps for the United States postal service. In 1971, he produced First Men on the Moon, a 7-by-9-foot oil painting of the Apollo 11 astronauts on the Moon as well as the first stamp cancelled on the Moon by the Apollo 15 astronauts, depicting them in their Lunar Rover.