Writing in the [UK] Times, film director Ken Russell (Women in Love, Tommy) offers his admiration for a digital art installation by Simon Mckeown called Biodiverse: MotionDisabled.

Mckeown uses technology to create 3-D animations of performers who are living with conditions such as spina bifida, cerebral palsy, missing limbs, brittle bones and short stature. By converting the performers to robotic images, Mckeown allows audiences to examine their movements without “the impertinence of staring,” and to explore ideas of normality and difference.

… The result is brisk, captivating and oddly charming. These figures are now virtual 3-D avatars whose heroic superpowers are utilized in their daily tasks, such as writing with their feet, or pitching a phone from foot to shoulder like a football, or kickboxing using only a torso to balance.

Russell says the project addresses concerns that scientific enhancements could eliminate the physical diversity that is celebrated by McKeown’s work.

Will these installations be the template for a lost world of diversity? What does human imperfection mean in a world where nature itself is wondrously diverse? Will we model ourselves on these figures for our own internet avatars when we cruise Second Life? After witnessing the vitality and grace of the actors in Mckeown’s videos, I am in awe of the ingenious and witty ways that they adapt.

In Sweden, the differently abled have been integrated into society by educating people to consider that the so-called able are actually “temporarily abled”. Everyone will have an experience in their lifetime of being differently abled. Infancy, old age disabilities, illnesses and accidents will be the passport for everyone at some time into the world of the physically challenged. It makes sense to treat ourselves and those who begin their journeys from that country as fellow travellers, with simplicity, honesty, camaraderie and assistance for the physical challenges and shapeshifting we will all face in our lives.

Biodiverse: MotionDisabled is at the Wolverhampton Art Gallery in Wolverhampton, England.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 28th, 2009 at 5:47 pm and is filed under arts/music, body image, NOT2BEMISSED, public attitudes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.