last weeks’ human 2.0 conference at the media lab was astonishing: hugh herr and john hockenberry banded together to paint a picture of a future where disability can be leveraged as a way to gain super-human capacities. i highly recommend watching the streaming video; both the morning and afternoon broadcasts are available. the most amazing part was a talk by aimee mullins, an athlete, a model and an actress with both legs amputated below the knees. she compared prosthetic legs to eyeglasses, and in the same way that we wear designer eyeglasses she has designer legs (she was wearing her 4-inch heel legs for the talk). she made it clear that with enough attitude you could pull off anything as she left the crowd dumbstruck with her presence. probably the reason she was featured in matthew barney’s cremaster cycle:
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While no disrespect is intended to Aimee or others who manage to come up with the “amazing legs” the REST of us amps are LUCKY when our insurance co’s pony up ANYTHING at all for legs— a BASIC leg can cost as much as a car- and it is not one per lifetime either, you generally need new ones every few years—and the arguments to get the simplest help from ins co’s is much more distressing than the loss of a limb. Why do we allow this in this country???? I have heard that the COVERINGS alone- the “Cosmesis”– that make Aimee’s Fashion Legs look soooo nice and lifelike— can cost up to $20,000 EACH and are subject to rips etc. The rest of us have to muddle thru with either the “high tech look” i.e. the naked metal look or with badly designed loose covers that can sag and bag like elephant skin, interfere with the ankle area flex, and “feet” that may or may not allow you to wear ANY kind of heel, sneakers included. And in some cases the ins co’s will pay for more than one leg in your lifetime ONLY if you are NOT diabetic! IF you ARE diabetic and need a replacement tough luck! Isn’t this a form of DISCRIMINATION? Shouldn’t the ADA cover this sort of thing legal-wise? While most of us do not aspire to the heights Aimee has reached and just want to walk properly we all admire her! jl
Insurance is the wrong model for healthcare. It needs to be publicly run. My wife has an artificial leg and can only get spare parts through health insurance. Try telling them that one leg isn’t intended to last for life, and she’s NOT diabetic. They all have different rules that amount to what they can get away with.
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[...] this has been an ongoing theme in design for the body ever since the human 2.0 conference, in which aimee mullins described the joys of fashionable prosthetics. although her dream legs are still far from the norm, [...]
[...] this has been an ongoing theme in design for the body ever since the human 2.0 conference, in which aimee mullins described the joys of fashionable prosthetics. although her dream legs are still far from the norm, [...]