How can technology transform the human body Lucy McRae
I call myself a body architect I trained
in classical ballet and have a
background in architecture and fashion
as a body architect I fascinate with the
human body and explore how I can
transform it I worked at Philips
Electronics in the far future design
research lab looking 20 years into the
future I explored the human skin and how
technology can transform the body I
worked on concepts like an electronic
tattoo which is augmented by touch or
dresses that blushed and shivered with
light I started my own experiments these
were the low-tech approaches to other
high-tech conversations I was having
these are q-tip stuck to my roommate
with wig glue I started a collaboration
with a friend of mine bot Hess he
doesn’t normally look like this and we
used ourselves as models we transformed
our apartments into our laboratories and
worked in a very spontaneous and
immediate way we were creating visual
imagery provoking human evolution whilst
I was at Philips we discussed this idea
of a maybe technology something that
wasn’t either switched on or off but in
between and maybe that could take the
form of like a gas or a liquid and I
became obsessed with this idea of
blurring the perimeter of the body so
you couldn’t see where the skin ended in
the near environment started I set up my
studio in the red-light district and
obsessively wrap myself in plumbing
tubing and found a way to redefine the
skin and create this dynamic textile I
was introduced to robin the swedish pop
star and she was also exploring how
technology coexist with raw human
emotion and she talked about how
technology with these new feathers this
new face paint this Punk the way that we
identify with the world and we made this
music video I’m fascinated with the idea
of what happens when you merge biology
with technology and I remember reading
about this idea of being able to
reprogram biology in the future away
from disease and aging
and I thought about this concept of
imagine if we could reprogram our own
body odor modify a biologically enhancer
and how would that change the way that
we communicate with each other or the
way that we attract sexual partners and
would we revert back to being more like
animals more primal modes of
communication I worked with a synthetic
biologist and I created a swallowable
perfume which is a cosmetic pill that
you eat and the fragrance comes out
through the skin surface when you
perspire it completely blows apart the
way that perfume is and provides a whole
new format it’s perfume coming from the
inside out it redefines the role of skin
and our bodies become an atomizer I’ve
learned that there’s no boundaries and
if I look at the evolution of my work I
can see threads and connections that
make sense but when I look towards the
future the next project it’s completely
unknown and wide open I feel like I have
all these ideas existing embedded inside
of me and it’s these conversations and
these experiences that connect these
ideas and they kind of instinctively
come out as a body Architects I’ve
created this limitless and boundless
platform for me to discover whatever I
want and I feel like I’ve just got
started so here’s to another day at the
office