#protheses

Metabolic Chairs, Close Ups

Second Hand Director’s Chairs with Protheses/Add-Ons: Table, Pockets, Light, Mini Beamer, Hook.

To be used as flexible seating in the exhibition space.

2019

for Metabolic Museum–University

Aryn was never meant to be ‘special’. She was never meant to be some big great gladiator or fighter or soldier to the Galra. There was no grandiose purpose elected for her from the powers that be.

Aryn was dead.

For all purposes they cared about, they thought she was dead when the screaming stopped. And when her 'body’ was pulled from the arena, and she was found still breathing and in a state of shock, she was deemed ‘good as dead’, equating to roughly the same thing. She was useless as a slave but her body could still be put to use for practise. Waste not, want not. 

She was given to a young Scientist with no expectation that she would come out the other side of the experience alive. She was a glorified cadaver for him to do as he pleased with, and that’s where interest in her ended. No one said to fix her, no one said to make her whole again, but he had a hypothesis that he could. Her only saving graces were being too stubborn to die and that the Scientist in question had time, patience and a curious hunger for understanding and finishing what he began. 

The neural mapping was long and arduous work, keeping the subject alive was tedious but beneficial, and made much easier by the paralysis. It granted him the luxury of knowing when he succeeded in reopening pathway communication to the brain, by signs of pain. 

His initial hypotheses were met with skepticism that it was too complex and could not be done efficiently, that the work was not worth the reward, and that something so extensive was too much overload for a primitive being to handle. But Lukta believed that it could be done. All that information was already present, it just needed to be translated in a functional way to the digital prosthetic’s interface so that it was as simple and efficient as the neural network itself. The cybernetics developed by the Galra were already beyond measure, but his aim was to further the integration and lessen the strain on the system. Something that could be beneficial to the entire Empire and development of cybernetics and even integrated into the manufacturing of sentries.

His meeting resistance of ‘it’s not broken, don’t fix it’ did not deter him with the boon of having such a test subject in his grasp. He worked in silence for six months, any who cared thinking he'd given up the notion, and no one but Aryn’s remaining crew to care about the lack of news and whispers they had occasionally heard of her, which was rare to begin with.

 Aryn’s time with the Scientist, Lukta, was a mixture of trauma, drugs, tests, and mental conditioning to keep her easier to work with. She couldn't tell you about much of the half year, but she could tell you it was bad. There are certain terrifying memories she does retain, but most were repressed heavily into the void that was the whole experience. It was not as painful as it should have been, but she was conscious for a great deal of it, and she has had many nightmares of witnessing parts of herself flayed open to get at the nerve endings required. Lukta realized after a time that the stress produced unfavorable results to the experiments, and he began covering her eyes and ears. Leaving her in a world of darkness with only her thoughts and assumptions of what was going on with her body that she could not feel. That was until she could.

Patience and diligence yielded success to a very satisfied Scientist, and afterwards he had no more use for Aryn. His fondness for her did not extend past the pride of his work and the care a poorer child takes in a new toy, when they do not know if another might ever come. He ran extensive tests on the cybernetics to collect as much data as he could, but afterwards was more than happy to return her to her former owners or anyone who would take her, provided he received occasional updates for long term field testing and data collection.

So Aryn became not an important role, but an expensive piece of equipment. A tool to put back into use.

I am no longer wearing 'skinny' jeans exclusively. Over the weekend I went and bought a whole new jean wardrobe to go with my new legs/prostheses. It's nice to not have to worry about my suspension belt to show since I no longer have one! It used to cut me off just below my hips and it was always painful.

It was such a workout to try on all the pairs I initially wanted to purchase but it was worth it to see how things fit. Having jeans that fit at the waist and are long enough is really an art form. I'm wishing I would have done a before and after with how jeans looked to really give the full effect but I thought about that one a bit too late in the game.

My jeans tend to get caught at the top of my prostheses which I have to adjust each time I stand up. I'll still have this issue but if this is the only thing I'm dealing with in regards to wearing jeans I can deal. I used to have a protrusion on the back of my left prosthesis for some unknown reason. My previous prosthetist should have been able to disguise that issue better but he didn't even try to improve things. Smooth thighs is something I don't think I've ever had up until now and I am beyond grateful for them!