After my first blog which is about my own understanding of love, the main focus of our future scenario switched to biotechnology especially in bodily enhancement for aesthetic. This is a literature review to explore one of the most popular applications of biology related to platelet in cosmetic surgery from its original potential and outcomes.

Originally platelet is functioning for haemostasis and wound healing. It constantly exists inside our blood vessel and fluid with blood circulation. The process of tissue healing contains complicated events from both intercellular and extra extracellular which is difficult to be comprehended entirely. However, it can be divided into three overlapping phases which are inflammatory, proliferative and remodelling. The inflammatory is triggered by tissue injury which leads platelet to gather and release growth factor to change its form, which can be described as activation (Eppley, Pietrzak & Blanton 2006). Then the blood in wound area becomes platelet-rich to covered the exposed vessel then initiate blood clotting to prevent blood loss. Then the living tissue could work to replace damaged tissue and reshape itself to resemble the original tissue, which is the last two phases during a wound healing. Thus, platelet is not the key in tissue healing but a protection for further process.

Before the introduction of platelet gels the development of artificial tissue sealing has already begun. Fibrin glue is one of the successful tissue sealants. Its original concept is combining fibrinogen and thrombin which effectively fixed skin grafts by Cronkite et al. and Tidrick and Warner. There is a number of sources to obtain fibrinogen from donors but it also carrying the risk of viral transmission. One reported case is a HIV transmission caused by using homologous product (Bhanot & Alex  2002). Platelet gel, which apheresis from platelet-rich plasma, is easier to produce than high concentration fibrinogen and has both the benefits of fibrin glue and the growth factor for wound healing to reduce infection, pain and blood loss. Man et al. who claimed that combining fibrin glue and platelet gels results numeral benefits in cosmetic surgical procedure including ‘the elimination of the need for drains, a reduction in postoperative pain and swelling, and improved wound healing’ during his study of 20 patients (Eppley, Pietrzak & Blanton 2006, p. 155e).

In conclusion the original function of platelets which is the capability to produce large amount in a short time to help injury healing by assembling clot. Such enhancement provides the evidence of the fact that using autologous platelet-rich plasma could accelerate soft- and hard-tissue healing in some particular situations. Yet the information from my research and the public in present still doubt about the risk of platelet gel injection and fibrin glue especially for facial cosmetic surgery since the entire process of wound healing and haemostasis is not be decrypted. However, this literature review has great inspiration on complete our future scenario in 2040.

Reference

• Bhanot, S. & Alex, J.C. 2002, ‘Current Applications of Platelet Gels in Facial Plastic Surgery, Facial Plastic Surgery, vol. 18, no. 1, pp. 27-33.
• Eppley, B.L., Pietrzak, W.S. & Blanton, M. 2002, Platelet-Rich Plasma: A Review of Biology and Applications in Plastic Surgery,  Plastic and Reconstrictive Surgery, vol. 118, no. 6, pp. 147e-159e.

This interview was start after we had built our future scenario in 2040. A world which its social structure has divided into two main class. The higher class enjoy the healthy and natural life style while the living condition lower class is terrible. People in lower class use artificial method especially plastic surgery to match the appearance in higher class in order to gain more opportunity for better life although it is dangerous and even life threatening.

The aim of the interview is to investigate the social evaluation of plastic surgery as a common procedure in the field of artificial bodily enhancement. The type of my interview is semi-structed which contains a little number of constrains and examples. The interviewees are around Ultimo since it is close to my accommodation. Thus, the demographic was concentrating more on teenagers and young adults. I believe the interview can help us for our further development on future scenario and the concept for responsive prototype.

The questions in my interview are:

• What do you think of plastic surgery, is it good or bad?
• If the people close to you have done the plastic surgery how will you react?
• Would you like to have plastic surgery when it becomes safe and costs less?
• If yes, for which part of your body?

For the first question the distribution became almost fifty-fifty since it is a ‘yes or no’ question. For ‘yes’ part participants have positive or neutral opinion towards plastic surgery. While on the opposite side the most common reason is they want to be natural, so they can be ’more confident with their true self’. Others include traditions and living environment. However, in second question most of them will not against it as a respect of others choice. Apart from the interviewees who hold negative opinion for plastic surgery, most of them are willing to have it under the precondition of ‘cheap and safe’. Some of them claimed that they only accept the procedure if it is in low risks or cost. It is interesting to find out the part they want to improve can be roughly sorted by gender. The results from females are vary form lips, nose, breast and hip while males focus more on their face.

According to the result of this interview, the acceptance of plastic surgery is various to different person. And the concern about reliability is still exist even around the interviewees who hold positive attitude toward plastic surgery. During the interview some of the female participant explained the reason for breast and hip surgery as ‘looks better’. It is hard to judge their true purpose such as being confident or attracting others. In the meantime, males consider less on their body since they are likely to enhance it by physical training yet supplements are always included for nutrition plan. It seems we can hardly avoid all the artificial factor for bodily enhancement at present, which give us an opportunity to create a dystopian future in our scenario.

*All participant agreed to be recorded during the interview to publish their answer and analysis in public media.

As in our future scenario in 2040 lower class is suffering from dense population, polluted environment and high cost of quality resource like fresh water & powered electricity. In the meantime, they still keep using artificial bodily enhancement method with high risk. The most common method is plastic surgery which already abandoned by higher class. Some of them even obsessed with the artificial manipulation to match the appearance of higher class which is natural and healthy.

To introduce my prototype better in our scenario I was imagining a group of people wants to alter the situation under such distinct social structure. They come from higher class and founded a company called Cube. The company would like to share the water and electricity with lower class in order to improve their living quality. However, the company will not let the lower class just sit in their room abd receive the resources with no action. Then they designed a home workout system Life Cube to let them ‘earn’ the resources they provide.

I would like to set the Life Cube as a part of those resource trading system which the clients can directly interact with. How the system work is: Cube is testing the system in a certain area near the storage location so that they can connect the power and water to buildings with lower cost. Then they send out a team to apply the Life Cube to each room inside the building. The clients have to finish certain amount of training during a session to get the credit then use it trade water and electricity. All the features of Life Cube such as aluminum cube shell, the high durability spiral iron, remote track and multi-purpose ‘Pyramid Handle’ are aiming to create a complete workout experience for clients in order to enhance each part of their body in a physical way. Cube Display is a built-in operation system for resource trading and personal information. As I mentioned in the presentation the material for the display is low resolution to reduce the cost for each product. The only feature I did not show in the presentation is the corners of Life Cube is covered with cover for safety reason. Yet there are some issues I have not consider including the repairing and a tutorial for clients to introduce the function of Life Cube.

The purpose of my prototype is using the love of sharing to promote self-love. Resident in lower class will enjoy high quality resources shared by higher class while in a self-motivate way although it looks like they are forced to do so. Then let them understand the sense of healthy life style. Another reason I set my prototype in a pre-set background of company and the stage of testing is that the prototype itself is not a revolutionary concept under the scenario we create and the rate of success is unpredictable. This final outcome was the combination of my previous idea which carrying the concept of modularity, low profile and motivation.