Norman Cherry

School of Jewellery, University of Central England

Grow Your Own – Angiogenetic Body Adornment

The perceived distinction between an Anglo Saxon and a Continental approach to research suggested in the call for papers for Sensuous Knowledge 2 is an interesting one. While I can see how the distinction can be made between the two traditions I am inclined not to concur with it entirely, in that I believe there is often actually a much more complex approach to research, often something of a composite methodology.

As an example I might offer a parallel in the world of Jazz. Contemporary jazz practice in North America, being a continuum of an indigenous popular art form, is still very much based on scales, modes, and specific structural forms. The Continental practice, although it must of necessity have originally been influenced by the American model, is nonetheless much freer, expressive, intuitive, creating layers of interrelated sound rather than a more easily definable counterpoint. Until recently UK practice was very much at one with the transatlantic model but increasingly Continental influences have become much more manifest in performance and teaching.

Perhaps my own approach to recent research exemplifies this “Anglo-Continental” approach. I have examined a technology very much different to that which I would normally be knowledgeable of (or even comfortable in), considered how it might be developed by an Art and Design specialist such as myself, and how it might then be open to subversion by a specific subculture. Consequently, further research and comment is invited by yet another group of professionals – sociologists, anthropologists, philosophers, and psychologists.

Abstract:

This paper examines aspects of body adornment which for some time have been of interest to crafts practitioners and which have certainly been influential on the creative practices of many of those working in the jewellery and fashion arena. Tattooing, piercing, and scarification have often been used as source material by this constituency and actually practised, relatively speaking, by a minority.

Contemporary refinements in cosmetic surgery, competitive bodybuilding, implants, and the recent history of organ transplant and technology, are all woven together.

Recent developments in the biomedical discipline of Tissue Engineering may well provide a viable opportunity for permanent body modification via deliberate and planned growth of one’s own tissue.

Tissue Engineering can be described as a discipline which applies the principles of biology and engineering to the development of viable substitutes which restore or improve the function of human tissues. Cells from a patient’s own body are cultured in vitro, then inserted in a biodegradable three dimensional matrix which is reintroduced to the subject’s body where the cells multiply and new tissue grows, via the natural process of Angiogenesis, in effect replacing that which has been lost through disease, accident, or surgery. So far skin, cartilage, and bone have been produced successfully and throughout the world biomedical teams are making strenuous efforts to develop neo-livers, breast tissue, and even hearts.

During and immediately after the Second World War, teams of surgeons refined the discipline of plastic surgery as a means of providing some alleviation of the horrific injuries suffered by many military veterans. Within a very few years this had developed commercially to become what we know today as Cosmetic Surgery. In the USA two of the commonest graduation presents from parents are apparently nose or boob “jobs”. I believe it is quite likely that in a not dissimilar fashion Tissue Engineering will grow into a commercial opportunity, enabling some people to have implants which over a period of months will grow as subcutaneous cartilage or even new bone formation to form new, living body adornment.

The performance practices of Mme. Orlan, The Lizard Man, and the somewhat extreme (and perhaps surprising) activities of the international body modification subculture, indicate this most strongly.

The paper reviews up-to-date Tissue Engineering developments and current body modification practices, postulates likely forms of Angiogenetic body adornment, and informs the ethical debate within an intelligent constituency sensitive to the creative possibilities of the human body.