Denaturalised, transgressive, nonhuman: the prosthetic body in contemporary fashion
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DENATURALISED, TRANSGRESSIVE, NONHUMAN: THE PROSTHETIC BODY IN CONTEMPORARY FASHION ______________________________________________________________________________________ Aims: • To bridge the gaps between the discourse of fashion and prosthetics, via the discourse of body modification • To develop a framework that applies fashion principles of pleasure and expression to prosthetics, and prosthetics’ principles of fusion and mutual becoming of the body and the object to fashion Objectives: • To establish similarities and differences between the discourses of prosthetics and extreme body modification through in-‐depth interviews • To analyse recent fashion practices through the prism of these discourses
This dissertation will aim to establish connections between the discourses of prosthetics, extreme body modification and contemporary fashion. Through interviews with prosthetics makers and wearers and with practitioners of extreme body modification, as well as designers who take inspiration from the ideas of body augmentation, it will attempt to explore the subject of non-‐ normative, artificially enhanced bodies and the ways 21st century fashion negotiates this topic. A documentary analysis of secondary sources, such as key texts on prosthetics, body modification and fashion, will be carried out, as well as an examination of visual materials such as fashion shoots, shows and exhibitions from the last 5 years. The prosthetic body that this dissertation is concerned with is a body that has been altered, whether out of necessity or purely for the sake of pleasure and expression, and incorporates denaturalized, non-‐human elements that change both its appearance and capacities. It is, as literature scholar Yoshiki Tajiri puts it in his book on the prosthetic body in Samuel Beckett’s work, “a body that has the inorganic other or the outside within it” (Tajiri 2007: 6). Although the themes of wearable technology, robotics and cyborgs would fit logically into this narrative, the scope of this dissertation will not allow me to
explore them in full. For the same reasons, this work will focus primarily on prosthetics that are created and worn partly as fashion garments (i.e. whose functions include individual expression, among other things), leaving out some of the more technologically advanced, but less aesthetically charged prostheses that would most likely attract the attention of researchers coming from a medical or biomechanical perspective. As a dress scholar, I am interested in how augmented bodies operate as vessels of identities and meanings, not in the technological side of the phenomenon that is worthy of a separate body of work. Context and Rationale The recent years have seen bridges being established between fashion and prosthetics on a number of levels. Earlier in 2014, Canadian fashion label Vawk sent a model wearing a prosthetic leg down the catwalk at their Fall-‐Winter show at Toronto Fashion Week (Fig. 1). Although amputee models have previously appeared in other fashion shows and campaigns (e.g. Michalsky Spring-‐Summer 2012, and a number of advertising shoots for North American retailer Nordstrom), this was the first time since Figure 1 Vawk Fall-‐Winter 2014 show (2014) [Online image] Available at < http://www.msfabulous.com/2014/03/toronto-‐fashion-‐week-‐ vawk-‐and-‐alleles.html> [Accessed 27 November 2014]
Alexander McQueen’s Spring-‐ Summer 1999 show (Fig. 2) when
the prosthesis was specifically designed to match the dress and thus approached as a fashion garment and part of the outfit.
In 2013, SHOWstudio, an online fashion hub conceptualised by photographer Nick Knight, ran a special issue on prosthetics featuring works of avant-‐garde designers such as Dai Rees, Naomi Filmer, Una Burke and Bethony Vernon. In 2011-‐12, several prominent fashion magazines published shoots referencing body modification and prosthetics; Love
Figure 2 Mert & Marcus (2012) Shine and Skull. Love Magazine, Issue 8, Autumn-‐ Winter 2012. London: Conde Nast
Magazine’s Fornication shoot Figure 3: Aimee Mullins in Alexander McQueen SS’99 show (1998) [online image] Available at < http://blog.metmuseum.org/alexandermcqueen/i mages/McQ.840a–d_mcq.840.AV1.JPG> [Accessed 11 November 2014]
(Fig. 3) and Vogue Italia’s September 2011 issue with a story on the early 20th century body modifier Ethel Granger (Fig. 4) had a
particular resonance. In 2011, The Alternative Limb Project was founded by St Martins graduate Sophie de Oliveira Barata, creating visually expressive prosthetics that are regarded and marketed as fashion accessories, as well as assistive technology items (Fig. 5); several similar enterprises followed suit. Just like prosthesis makers are dipping into fashion, apparel labels are beginning to enter the prosthetics territory: in 2010,
Figure 4: Meisel, S. (2011) Avant-‐garde: cover shoot for Vogue Italia, September 2011. [online image] Available at < http://www.vogue.it/en/magazine/cov er-‐story/2011/09/avantgarde> [Accessed 28 November 2014]
Adidas launched its first prosthesis, Adidas Symbiosis. As well as the industry, academia, too, has lately been showing interest in bridging the gaps between
Figure 5: A prosthesis by The Alternative Limb Project. Epstein, C. (2012) Grace Mandeville wearing feather armour. [Online image] Available at < http://www.thealternativelimbproject.com/#/feather-‐armour/4580492879> [Accessed 11 November
prosthetics and fashion. Last year, Fashion Practice journal published an article on “expressive prosthetics” (Hall and Orzada 2013) that discussed how fashion principles could be applied to artificial limbs. Around the same time, an article in Women’s Studies Quarterly (Seely 2013) investigated the phenomenon of “affective fashion” that centres on the “prosthetic incorporation of the object into the body” and “nonhuman becoming” of the bodies as a result of their “fusion” with the garments in the collections of Alexander McQueen, Rei Kawakubo, Hussein Chalayan and Gareth Pugh. Fashion Theory published an article on “proAesthetics”, a term coined by prosthesis designer Damien O’Sullivan and signifying aesthetically valuable prosthetics, in 2012 (Vainshtein 2012). This is not the first time fashion industry and academia have addressed the issue of prosthetics and “artificial” bodies. The 1990s were characterized by designers’ interest in various forms of body alteration. In 1996, Jeremy Scott’s first collection, aptly titled Body Modification, featured heels attached to feet with the help of medical bands, resulting in a hybrid “stiletto-‐foot” bodypart (Fig. 6). In 1997, The Face ran a shoot referencing scarification and flesh hanging. In 1998, photos of amputee model and athlete Aimee Mullins with prosthetic limbs, taken by Nick Knight, were published in Dazed and Confused magazine (Fig. 7); that same year Mullins appeared in the aforementioned Alexander McQueen show wearing carved elm wood legs and a stiff leather corset Figure 7: Madhavi, A. (1996) Jeremy Scott’s Body Modification. [online image] Available at < http://maliciousglamour.tumblr.com/ post/1610948122/jeremy-‐scott-‐body-‐ modification-‐1996> [Accessed 27 november 2011]
resembling, in her own words, a neck-‐brace (Bolton 2011). When writing about these motifs in 1990s
fashion, Caroline Evans (2007) approached them from the perspective of deathliness and alienation, characterizing the bodies in the fashion imagery of the era as abject and Figure 6: Knight, N. (1998) Fashion-‐able. Dazed & Confused, September. London: Dazed Group
brutalized. The aim of this dissertation is to investigate the underpinnings of the aforementioned resurgence of the augmented body theme in fashion in the recent years. I will argue that, unlike the disempowered artificial bodies of the 1990s, the denaturalized body of the 21st century fashion is a body of agency, pleasure and potential, striving to transcend and to “extend beyond – and not just accentuate and subvert -‐ its (hetero)normative, (re)productive and human functions” (Seely 2013: 248). To do that, I will analyze the discourses of body modification practitioners and of body-‐positive prosthetics wearers and then examine the recent fashion imagery that features non-‐normative, “denaturalized” bodies through the prism of these discourses. Methodologies As outlined above, this dissertation will be primarily concerned with relationships between wearers, their bodies and objects/garments/prostheses; shifting and blurring boundaries between these bodies and objects; and representations of these new affiliations in fashion imagery. The phenomenon of such prosthetic bonds has been discussed by Vivian Sobchak (2006: 25). As a prosthesis wearer as well as a feminist critic, she points out that most theorists who approach the theme of prostheses without having the physical experience of wearing one tend to describe the relationship between the wearer and the prosthesis as “metonymic”, i. e. as that of “two absolutely separate wholes”, whereas the wearers tend to view it as synechdochic, i. e. see the prosthesis as an inextricable part of their bodies and selves. This idea can Figure 8: Vacuum-‐packed models at Iris van Herpen FW2014 couture show (2014) [online image] Available at < http://www.clths.nl/fashion/say-‐what-‐vacuum-‐modellen/> [accessed 27 November 2014]
be correlated with Stephen Seely’s concept of affective fashion that rejects the idea of “the garment as a
supplement added to a discrete and bounded body” and instead “engages the body in a mutual becoming in which [the] differentiation [of body and dress] is no longer significant” (Seely 2013: 250). To investigate the nature of these symbiotic relationships I will conduct in-‐depth interviews with prosthesis wearers (focusing, where possible, on those who use prosthesis for expressive as well as practical purposes, in order to make the themes of identity and individual expression more relevant for the conversation) and with members of another group that incorporates inorganic objects into their bodies: extreme body modifiers. I expect to find the discourses of these two groups to have similarities, insomuch as they are both concerned with non-‐ normative bodies whose boundaries are fluid, but also significant differences, as one comes from a place of necessity (as in the case of amputees who require their prostheses for practical reasons) and the other one, from the place of choice and pleasure. Drawing on these narratives, I will attempt to formulate how those with “denaturalized”, artificially altered bodies perceive the prostheses in relationship to their bodies and to their identities. This will constitute the first part of my dissertation. The second part will contain analysis of secondary sources on fashion: recent fashion imagery (shoots, shows and exhibitions) that addresses such denaturalized, prosthetic bodies and texts in the relevant media – fashion criticism in the press, interviews with designers and academic essays. I expect to focus on the new generation of designers who explore shifting boundaries between body and dress, non-‐human qualities of the body and organic, body-‐like qualities of dress: Gareth Pugh (renowned fashion critic Tim Blanks (2011) recently remarked that “[Pugh’s woman] has shed her humanity [in order] to find her power”), Iris van Herpen (Fig. 8), Leon Emmanuel Blanck (Fig. 9) and others. Where possible, open interviews with these designers will also be conducted. Figure 9: Leon Emanuel Blanck pattern (2013). Image courtesy of Leon Emmanuel Blanck
Limitations The first part of this study, which will include interviews with prosthesis wearers and extreme body modifiers, is likely to present multiple research challenges. Accessing segregated, potentially circumspect communities like these that are used to alienation will be difficult for an outsider. Some preliminary work identifying gatekeepers and stakeholders has been done at the preliminary research stage; however, attempts to contact them have so far been unsuccessful. This will hopefully be resolved by establishing contact via individuals who possess a bigger social capital within the communities, such as the author’s personal contacts who have relationships with some members of each group. Researching disabled communities poses a number of ethical issues, too. There is a concern in the social sciences about whether it is ethical to research a community with which the researcher cannot fully emphasize (Simmons and Usher, 2000: 88). There is a danger, for the outside researcher, of “misrepresent[ing] disabled people's experiences or desires, or distort[ing] the evidence to provide an account which is unduly negative or positive” (Shakespeare 1997: 179). There is also a risk of research perpetuating the marginalisation of disabled people (Rioux and Bach 1994) -‐ and, for that matter, of those involved in non-‐mainstream extreme bodily practices too. There is no obvious way of alleviating these risks, other than applying reflexivity in the analysis of the data (Punch 2014: 51). Another key limitation is the scope of the dissertation (timeframe and word limit) that will most likely not allow to secure a diverse sample of respondents in the amputee and body modification communities: the amount of interviewees will probably not exceed 5-‐6 in each of the two groups. Therefore, the narratives that will be obtained as a result of the interviews will need to be regarded, to a certain extent, as personal histories, rather than general discourses representative of the whole community. To mitigate this, I will supplement them, where possible, with accounts gathered by other researchers that have studied similar communities (Pitts 2003, Lemma 2010 etc.) and with narratives from
TED talks given by prosthetics wearers and advocates such as Hugh Herr, Aimee Mullins and Amy Purdey. Key texts Aiming to be an interdisciplinary project, this dissertation will draw on theoretical works from a variety of specialties, including social theory, disability studies, cultural studies, philosophy, art theory and fashion studies. Some of the key concepts it will operate include Gilles Deleuze’s (1987) view of body as assemblage; Anthony Giddens (1991) ideas of body as a project in constant flux; and Victoria Pitts’ (2003) term “denaturalized bodies”, signifying “deconstruction of the body’s [natural] limits” and “post-‐human vision... post-‐ ideological relativism in which the norm is one’s individual freedom to choose a body and an identity” (152-‐153). A large amount of literature on all things prosthetic has emerged within cultural studies in the last three decades. However, the majority of theorists (Derrida 1998, Lury 1998, Armstrong 1998, Foster 2005) use the notion of “prosthesis” as a metaphor for contemporary cultural condition, rather than studying the actual, physical experiences of prosthetics wearers, such as amputees. The texts that this dissertation will draw on the most are the rare ones that combine the views of prosthesis as an abstract cultural metaphor and a real physical object, such as David Wills’ (1995) Prosthesis, two anthologies edited by Joanne Mora and Marquard Smith (the special issue of New Formations journal from 2002 and The prosthetic impulse from 2006), and a cultural history of the prosthesis edited by Katherine Ott et al (2002). The chapter of the dissertation concerned with body modification has been informed by the aforementioned study of the subject by Victoria Pitts (2003) and the special Body Modification issue of Body and Society journal edited by Mike Featherstone (1999). I will also work with texts by feminist theorists, such as Elizabeth Grosz (1994). Finally, the fashion analysis chapters will be drawing on Caroline Evans’ (2007) classic work Fashion on the edge, Joanne Entwistle’s The
fashioned body (2000) and the book accompanying Harold Koda’s (2001) exhibition Extreme beauty: the body transformed, as well as by the recent articles in academic journals (Hall and Orzada 2013, Seely 2013, Vainshtein 2012). BIBLIOGRAPHY Armstrong, T. (1998) Modernism, technology and the body: a cultural study. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Blanks, T. (2011) Gareth Pugh Spring 2012 ready-‐to-‐wear review. [Internet] Style.com. Available from < http://www.style.com/fashion-‐shows/spring-‐2012-‐ ready-‐to-‐wear/gareth-‐pugh> [Accessed 27 November 2014] Bolton, A. (2011) Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press Deleuze, G. and Guattari, F. (1987) A thousand plateaus: capitalism and schizophrenia. Vol. 2. Translated from the French by Brian Massumi. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press Derrida, J. (1998) Monolinguisation of the other; or, The prosthesis of origin. Translated from the French by Patrick Mensah. Stanford: Stanford University Press Entwistle, J. (2000) The fashioned body: fashion, dress and modern social theory. Cambridge: Polity Press Evans, C. (2007) Fashion at the edge: spectacle, modernity and deathliness. New Haven: Yale University Press Featherstone, M. ed. (1999) Body Modification. Body & Society, Vol. 5: 2-‐3. London: Sage Foster, H. (2004) Prosthetic gods. Cambridge, MA: The MIT press Giddens, A. (1991) Modernity and self-‐identity: self and society in the late modern age. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press Grosz, E. (1994) Volatile bodies: toward a corporeal feminism. Indianapolis: University of Indiana Press Hall, M. L. and Orzada, B. T. (2013) Expressive prostheses: meaning and significance. Fashion Practice, Vol. 5, Issue 1, pp. 9-‐32. London: Bloomsbury Koda, H. (2001) Extreme beauty: the body transformed. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art Lemma, A. (2010) Under the skin: a psychoanalytic study of body modification.
Hove: Routledge Lury, C. (1998) Prosthetic culture: photography, memory and identity. London: Routledge Mora, J. and Smith, M. eds. (2002) The prosthetic aesthetic. New Formations, Number 46. London: Lawrence & Wilshart Mora, J. and Smith, M.eds. (2006) The prosthetic impulse: from a posthuman present to a biocultural future. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press Ott, K., Serlin, D. and Mihm, S. (2002) Artificial parts, practical lives: modern histories of prosthetics. New York: New York University Press Pitts, V. (2003) In the flesh: the cultural politics of body modification. New York: Palgrave Macmillan Punch, K. F. (2014) Introduction to social research: quantitative and qualitative approaches. London: Sage Rioux, M. and Bach, M. eds (1994) Disability is not measles: new research paradigms in disability, Ontario: L’Institut Roeher Seely, S. D. (2013) How do you dress a body without organs? Affective fashion and nonhuman becoming. WSQ: Women's Studies Quarterly, Volume 41, Numbers 1 & 2, pp. 247-‐265. New York: The Feminist Press Sobchak, V. (2006) A leg to stand on: prosthetics, metaphor, and materiality. In: Morra, J. and Smith, M. eds. The prosthetic impulse: from a posthuman present to a biocultural future. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press Shakespeare, T. (1997) Researching disabled sexuality. In: Barnes, C. and Mercer, G. eds. Doing disability research, pp. 177-‐ 189. Leeds: The Disability Press Simmons, H. and Usher, R. eds (2000) Situated ethics in educational research. London: RoutledgeFalmer Tajiri, Y. (2007) Samuel Beckett and the prosthetic body: organs and senses in modernism. Houndsmills: Palgrave Macmillan Vainshtein, O. (2012) “I have a suitcase just full of legs because I need options for different clothing”: accessorizing bodyscapes. Fashion Theory, Vol. 16, Issue 2, pp. 139–170. London: Berg Wills, D. (1995) Prosthesis. Stanford: Stanford University press
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