FeMANine

http://www.myspace.com/jeffreestar

feMANine
This posting refers to the men who are exploring and challenging gender representations. They use femininity as a masculine tool of self expression. Individuals such as Jeffree Star and J.T. Leroy who use in their image strong feminine and masculine elements and they play with them as a way to define a unique identity and self experimentation.

They are seen as freaks by some, but why using such term when disrupting gender's archetypes and challenging the inherent meaning of the body and its sexuality. Jeffree use his body as a modification temple, using plastic surgery and tattooing for crafting and branding himself.

We are in an era where we are embracing technology as a way to enhance our body features and therefore achieve the self realization we strive for. A sense of empowerment comes by understanding the limits of our bodies and self representations and pushing then to the limit, given the tools we have available today. Playing with our body and gender is just part of understanding the moment we live in.

http://www.greenfield-sanders.com/news/writer-jt-leroy

Blow Tech is posting about design solutions that involve simple principles and low tech approaches with striking outcomes.

Photos: http://www.dezeen.com/2009/07/17/ink-calendar-by-oscar-diaz/

Spanish designer Oscar Diaz has created an Ink Calendar that works with the aid of a highly absorbent paper, and ink that becomes visible as its gets sucked into the material over the course of time. The day of the month will timely appear on the surface allowing people to know the date.

Photos: http://www.muti.cx/

Another example is from Randolph Muti, Brazilian designer. Muti is well known for the permanent experimentation he carries out at the Melissa's shop facade in Sao Paulo.

He is also known by the lighting installations and recreation of experiences in spaces, yet one of my favorite ones is the Colcci Catwalk at a previous Sao Paulo Fashion Week.

He recreated for Colcci Summer Collection an ocean of Styrofoam wages along the catwalk, where the models were gracefully sliding through. The ocean was orchestrating the movement of the cloths and walk of the models. The plain color of the structure was tainted with red and blue lights sporadically.

Low tech solutions can be the way in today's branded experiences market to be remembered rather than overusing technology as a way to wow consumers.

Hyperhumans

Photos: http://www.lucyandbart.blogspot.com/

Hyperhumans

Hyperhumans is a concept that looks into the representations of the dialectic between men and technology and its outcome: mutation.

The concept explores the transformation from the fusion of the technology into the body, as an accessory. This transformation is providing a new meaning to the body. Its mass and structure have been affected so they inhabit the space differently, I call them living sculptures.

Lucy and Bart

The work of Lucy and Bart would help me to explain the concept of Living Sculptures, using the body as a tool to defy the body itself . It becomes a means to define humans mass, movement, gravity and spatial limits, as well as its purpose and potential.

Their work can be described as Hyperhumans, where extremities are prolonged, denoting gracious possibilities and mutations of the human body. Body as a tool of men to achieve, to become a faster performer, an adaptable specie, a volatile material.

Are men evolving into a transcendent force, acquiring machine and creatures’ attributes in order to succeed in a technological era?

Lucy and Bart are triggering us to think about spatial and body referents differently. Their work question creative disciplines’ boundaries, and transforms the space into body architecture, as a way to inhabit a context, with a more meaningful and adaptable presence.