Living with your own ideas¶
TO JUDGE AND BE JUDGED
SUBJECT - HEBA ELIDRISI¶
My idea on how I wanted to be perceived changed many times while we were supposed to be brainstorming.
Initially I wanted to be perceived as chill, unserious and nonchalant. But then as time went by I decided I wanted to be playful, careless, almost child-like. (all of this was before my time as a subject began)
I used the tape as a prosthetic to play with - I was wearing it on my wrist, waving it around, toying with it. At some point I almost forgot the act and the prosthetic, but I realized something - I did not have to try hard to be perceived in that light because I think I sometimes naturally do it when I’m in a certain mood.
I knew who my detective was within the first five minutes of my time as a subject. They tried to approach me subtly but I instantly knew what their intention was.
DETECTIVE - SUBJECT: MELISSA¶
12:10 PM subject says they are going to chill on the terrace
12:15 PM subject lays on the bench in what looks like an attempt to chill, headphones and sunglasses were used as a means of disconnecting herself from everyone
12:24 PM subject lifts head and removes headphones to listen and speak, engaging in conversation again
12:39 PM the subject has been laying on the bench for the past 20 minutes, connecting and disconnecting from the conversations happening
12:42 PM the subject moves their headphones over their face and away from their ears to look at other people speaking and listen to what they are saying, then looks at me. I thought she noticed me taking a picture but she didn’t
12:51 PM subject asks me if I am following someone or being followed. I tell her I am being followed in this round and she believes me, doesn’t seem suspicious
12:55 PM subject asks me what time it is, I tell her it’s 12:55PM and that we need to head back to class. She lays back on the bench, takes a while to get up then starts moving
12:57 PM on the way to the stairs subject discusses who she thinks is following who, but does not suspect me at all, I think to myself mission successful.
FINAL REFLECTIONS
Oftentimes, when hearing the word ‘prosthesis’, our minds immediately think of externally added parts used to replace or support body parts that are missing or not functioning properly. While the term itself is neutral in clinical contexts, in everyday language it often carries negative connotations, implying disability, artificiality, or weakness. However, what we rarely consider is the potential of a prosthesis as a tool of transformation, a way to explore desired changes to our humanly appearance. Must prostheses always be purely functional? And if the common answer is yes, then who decided that? As humans living in an age of rapidly developing technology and bodily innovation, we should be able to challenge the standards that society has set around the idea of what a prosthesis can be.
When we approach the prompts “to become the best version of yourself”, “to become something else”, and “to judge and be judged” as frameworks for exploring prosthesis, it becomes apparent that the potential purposes of a prosthesis are far broader than we typically assume. If we think of prosthetics as tools for “becoming better versions of ourselves”, then their application can extend to both physical and intangible change. We might create tools that improve posture, enhance concentration and support any other aspect of our lives that we feel need improvement. A prosthesis designed to help us stand more aligned and upright may physically help us fix our posture, yet if it is visibly noticeable, other humans may perceive us as a “worse” version of ourselves while we are wearing it. This raises an important question: when we design tools for self-improvement, should we consider only how well they serve us, or must we also account for how they influence others’ perceptions and behaviors toward us? The human reactions and confusion directed at cyborg figures like Manel Aguas, who wears cybernetic exo-organs, remind us that society is not yet fully open to visible departures from typical human body appearance. “Becoming something else” may therefore be more complex to achieve through the use of prostheses, yet the prompt still pushes us to imagine what it would truly require to transform into something else beyond our current state.
If we begin thinking of prosthetics as devices that influence how others perceive us, we enter an entirely new realm of possibilities. Observing human behavior reveals that, despite our attempts to shape how we are seen, people often perceive us in ways that differ from our intentions. Even when we combine a prosthetic tool with deliberate behavioral changes to guide perception, others may still interpret us completely differently. This leads to yet another question: regardless of whether we use prostheses, how much control do we actually have over the way other humans perceive us? Should we simply submit to the idea that people will never perceive us exactly as we hope? Perhaps. Yet this does not mean we cannot redefine what a prosthesis is or expand our understanding of what it has the potential to do.