GRACE CARROLL

In this materials workshop with Martin Conreen, we were asked to do “materials speed-dating”, in groups we passed a box full of mystery objects around, chose one, then described what we would do on a date with it. We also had to figure out the theme of each box.

In order, the objects are silly putty, what we thought was asphalt (smelt like rubber) and fish scale material. 

The asphalt was actually crumblings of a mummified body, used years ago by art students for mixing paints. I guess smelling a dead body is something I can cross off my bucket list?

Initially I found articles on parasites in society and came up with a set of questions. However I didn’t think there was much depth to these questions, so I went back to newspapers. I found lots of articles encouraging readers to embrace emerging technologies, and lots of information on self diagnosis and self help against illness. I think these bits of information are like traces of transhumanism in ordinary life, in a very everyday object.  My new questions are:

- How can a person become Wolverine?

- How can a mutant’s abilities be possessed by a human?

- Where did the idea of mutants with super powers begin (in stories and history)?

If this were to happen in reality, I can see a lot of people engaging in meaningful emotional relationships with artificial intelligence. Perhaps people would be less lonely.

The beings drawn in the book are surreal imaginings of objects which exist in reality, such as plants, people, science, animals and tools. Everyday things such as a croissant or a hippopotamus are transformed with their own physics and mysteries.

Having no explanations to go with each illustration allows the reader to form their own thoughts and translations of what each image means, which is quite nice in itself as you cannot just take the artist’s opinion on what it is: you are forced to think of your own interpretation.

Going beyond the outer medical objects, she created diamond encrusted and engraved hip prosthetics, gold dentures and precious metal clavicle plates.

I liked this work because it seemed to me that if you were going to seek surgery, you would spend a lot of money on it and you would expect to get the best medical care possible. Whether this involves prosthetics constructed from precious metals, I do not know, but it’s funny that you can get white gold dentures.

By making a hip prosthetic more visually appealing, would you be more likely to want one in the future? How would you feel with a beautiful object inside your body? 

Although the rings perfectly fit Noronha, they are considered “foreign bodies” as they are “beyond the body”. Does this categorisation mean that all jewellery can be classed as a “foreign body”?

Inspired by the ultimate parasitic product, the radio, Keating created several objects, which in turn cleverly feed off the parasitic objects of our age, wifi connections and iPhones.

During this talk/workshop I learnt these important things:

- the first example of wearable technology was the Abacus ring (which you can still order online today) - very basic technology but it is pretty much a calculator on your hand

- wearable technology can be more than just say, jewellery. It can be the vehicle you’re in, it can be the room you can occupying.

- about Vitamins' project Skin Display, which is on finding out who has messaged you by pressing your thumb to a raised section of the phone, and you look at your own hand to see the gist of the message and who has messaged you. This is quite nice in an organic way - you are more connected to the message in a way, as it is temporarily imprinted on your skin. It disassociates the message with technology and makes it more human again.

The painting with the robot and the children holding a gun, are they nonchalantly holding the gun to keep the robot at a distance, or are they toying with its emotions? The robot looks almost afraid of the children.

"I’ve never seen such infinite beauty in my life"

"I wish that I could talk in technicolor"

"I can’t tell you about it. If you can’t see it then you’ll just never know it. I feel sorry for you."

"Me? There is no me." The most interesting thing about this experiment was her hypervision of her surroundings; we are all particles working with other particles. The idea of herself, the idea of the ego, and her view on others, was completely wiped. She was experiencing the entire universe just being one, herself absorbed into the wholeness.

The X-Men are a group of mutant superheroes dreamed up by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. They all had different super powers, for example mind power or physical strength or the ability of summon storms. They were either born a mutant or were made into one, sometimes by force.

My favourite X-Men was Wolverine. He had animal instincts, amazing physical strength and can heal incredibly fast. He also had adamantium bonded to his skeleton, allowing him to shoot razor sharp metal claws through his knuckles.

This was a cool way to think about transhumans - perhaps all the X-Men can be considered transhumans rather than mutants since they all have some ability which elevates them above the average human. Perhaps in the future there will be Wolverine style implants available. Mutant-like implanted magnets in fingertips have already begun to be a trend for health reasons or novelty.