My first prototype: a sub-dermal haptic device that detects the registered wireless signatures of other people’s electronic devices, delivering a slight vibration when the source is nearby.

My first prototype concept was envisioned to be an illegal body modification, the hacked version of a mandatory employee surveillance implant, repurposed to serve an individual’s desire to know when important eyes may be on them. In the context of my group’s speculative society, where personal image and lifestyle greatly influence one’s access to opportunity, this would be one of many unscrupulous methods to keep ahead of one’s peers and superiors.

In contemporary society, ‘body hackers’ employ a similarly subcutaneous method to implant themselves with RFID chips (Duarte 2014). The desire to control information using their body as a medium is a concept that I referenced in the conception of this prototype design.

My second prototype: a ‘smart skin’ made from electroactive polymers that feature a system of pigment sacs. This artificial skin is activated remotely to expand and contract the density of pigment across the skin’s surface.

My second prototype concept was inspired by contemporary studies into ‘smart clothing’ technology, which mimics the flexible colour-changing capabilities of squid and octopus skin. While material scientists researching cephalopods seek to develop ‘cloaking suits and dynamic illuminated clothing’ (Staaf 2015), my design concept envisions a more transhuman fusion of science and technology.

Retaining the technology’s origin as a transformative epidermal tool, my human ‘smart skin’ reflects the superficial values of my group’s future social hierarchy. The pattern-making capabilities of this artificial organ would serve the cosmetic function of ‘tanning’ and contouring the body, giving the illusion of natural wellness that is so sought after. Additional functions include the flexible adjustment of pigment for protection against ultraviolet rays.

Citation

Duarte, B.N. 2014, Entagled agencies: new individual practices of human-technology hybridism through body hacking, Springer Science+Business Media, Dordrecht

Staaf, D. 2015, New ‘smart’ material mimics color-changing squid skin, KQED Science, California, viewed 21 September 2018