On the prosthesis

DESIGN:  Magdalena Baranowska

Poland

make me! 2015

The project “On the prosthesis” is primarily an open source license in the form of instructions (presented as a website) on how to move from an idea and a desire to personalized cover on the lower leg prosthesis? Using both, their own skills and locally available craftsmen? It turns out that with a bit of desire a lot can be achieved while fully controlling costs. The entire instruction is based on the universal fastening system for a prosthesis, made from commonly available materials. The base materials are selected because of their ease of processing and availability while maintaining low weight and impact strength. The materials used to finish the respective covers are a result from the aesthetic tastes and their compatibility. A cover for the prosthesis is a product on a border of fashion and gadget and it is made with the assumptions of both. Thus, each cover is a response to the tastes of a particular person. It is very important for a designer to control manufacturing costs of such cover. Being aware of financial outlays of maintenance the prosthesis, in the first edition the focus was on materials favorable to the individual products, easily accessible in terms of technology. Therefore, the first cover was done by manual thermoforming of HIPS or bending of beech veneer. It was only later when the author started to work on 3D printing, which required a lot of trial and error.