Imperfection and uniqueness

October 22, 2016 Maria O'Connell Assignment 3 4 comments

spike1

In this image from The Alternative Limb project, we see singer-songwriter Viktoria Modesta posing with one of her many prosthetics. She had a voluntary amputation to improve mobility after suffering years of surgeries on her left leg. For her, the prosthetic allows her not only to function, but to express her sense of beauty and her unique identity. On the project website, she writes about meeting her fans with the prosthetic leg: So when they do clock my appearance and then see the leg, it is very challenging for them. Most importantly when the limb is attached and I’m walking with it in my full composure it has a power that is beyond something that can be described.”

Viktoria Modesta

4 Comments on "Imperfection and uniqueness"

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Charlotte Grum

Hi Maria. Thanks for sharing the Alternative Limb Project with us. I think that the project simultaneously fluctuates between aethetic and ethic statements, creating a very paradoxical figure. In a way I find her performativity more human than posthuman. Maybe lessening the prosthetic potential of creating new norms, mayb just reproducing a smooth and well designed aesthetic body?
That said – I don’t know her project well and look forward to qualifying my reflections on her work.

Author

Maria O'Connell

Hi Charlotte, Thanks for commenting. Viktoria Modesta is simply one of the customers for this prosthetic project. Since she lost a leg due to a birth accident (a voluntary amputation as an adult), I don’t think that she is looking for a smooth and aesthetic body. On the contrary, the spike she is wearing here has no resemblance to an actual leg and is fairly impractical for walking, but it makes a particular statement about sexual power and ideals of beauty. She has a number of prostheses, none of which look particularly natural. One woman on the website has an… Read more »

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Claudia Bubke

I love your example and the quote you picked. It clearly addresses the “challenging“ aspects of so-called imperfections and even their therapeutic or similarly enhanced solutions. I admire that Viktoria Modesta refused to return to “normality”, not because she wanted to set an example, but because it made her life easier in comparison. At least that is how I read it. She simultaneously acknowledges (and maybe criticises) that her prosthesis is a challenge for others, while she herself does not perceive it in the same manner. It could be argued that she took a rather uncomfortable step towards an inorganically… Read more »

Author

Maria O'Connell

Thanks, Claudia,
Yes. Interestingly the project does make limbs to match the remaining limbs, if requested. It was interesting to me how many clients wanted their prosthetic to express some aspect of their unique personalities (or many aspects, in Viktoria Modesta’s case), rather than striving to appear “normal.”

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