History has show us that there have been some unique body modification trends symbolizing cultural traits. In China, for example, feet binding in women was extremely common due to the fact that petite feet were considered an extreme form of beauty. Similarly, lip plates in certain African cultures symbolized oratory excellence and often times many chiefs of high standing would have larger plates to signal respect and command. And in Samoa, their traditional tattooing process called Pe’a, had stood for a symbol of courage, signifying the degree of pain a man must go through during the tattooing process.Today, several of these historical and cultural trends have influenced the way we use and change our bodies.
Examples of Present/Cultural Body Modification Trends:
For my projected future, I created a world where similar body modifications trends occur in the future. I envisioned that there is a trend in the future where people will modify their bodies to implant technology in a clearly visible fashion. In this world in the 2030s, technology has become increasingly compact and flexible to the point where microprocessors and computers are small enough to fit into our contact lenses. Having computer aided technology integrated into the human body can be unobtrusive and barely visible to the outside world. Things like health detection sensors and adrenaline processor chips can be implanted into the human body to notify any detection of illness or even boost up immune systems on demand. All such technology remain unseen to the outside world. Contrastingly, in the 2030s, a new trend has emerged where visibly revealing the technology within people’s body has become a popular body modification style.
The following is the world I have created of Vizi-Trans:
In the 2030s, there is an embrace of the chunky technology of the past. This style initially started as a DIY movement in the 2020s, when those who could not afford such seamless trans-human technology, would build processors on their own and implant them into their own bodies. Underground “implanters”, would scalpel and sew older and larger non-flexy processor chips right underneath people’s skin. This DIY underground computer implementation was at times dangerous as some would die of infections or in-proper procedures. Eventually, trans-human technology became affordable and more and more people could seamlessly integrate micro-computers and sensors with little modification and easy body integration. However, the initial DIY trans-human movement then grew and developed to an style that has now embodied a standard of beauty known as Vizi-Trans. Vizi-Trans (visible trans-human technology enthusiasts), is the style where computer parts are integrated underneath the skin but made intentionally visible though the skin. This outward expression of technology has come to mean a symbol of technological pride. Several Vizi-Trans parlors have emerged in the recent years and a great majority of the younger demographic have adopted this look. The shock factor of this aesthetic is something that is very important to Vizi-Trans as they openly desire to pay homage to the initial DIY trans-human enthusiasts, but more importantly they desire the visual association that Vizi-Trans has with technology in the human form.
“Vizi-Trans is a statement. A statement telling the world that we aren’t afraid to reveal our technology, that we love being human but we embrace our technological attributes. Why hide our boosters, why hide our equal brethren of computer aided technology. Those who prefer Seamless are ashamed, ashamed to be trans-human.”
This is a declaration of a proud Vizi-Trans who was getting her third Vizi-Trans installation on her stomach. Whether or not this trend will last remains uncertain, however it is undoubted that it has certainly become a noticeable style.
Design Fiction 2015 