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London-based designer Sophie de Oliveira Barata creates some of the most jaw-droppingly awesome prosthetics we’ve ever seen.
Sophie comes from an art background, with a first class honours degree at London Arts University where she studied Special Effects prosthetics for film and T.V. She then went on to work for 8 years, as a sculptor making realistic looking, bespoke prosthetics for amputees at one of the leading prosthetic providers. She worked in all areas sculpting fingers, toes, partial feet , partial hands, bespoke liners and leg and arm covers for amputees. In her spare time she made more experimental art work in this medium, before setting up her own studio.
Known as The Alternative Limb Project, Sophie works as a specialist consultant with other prosthetists and produces both artificial limbs that look completely realistic as well as limbs created using imaginative ideas provided by the clients themselves. “She can interpret your ideas and create a unique design that will reflect your interests and personality.”
As you can see here, Sophie’s work is truly astonishing. As well as being completely functional prostheses, these amazing limbs are also unique works of art.
Each of her designs offer a sense of individuality, allowing the customer to express their personality through their synthetic appendages. The artist says, “Having an alternative limb is about claiming control and saying ‘I’m an individual and this reflects who I am.’”
Visit The Alternative Limb Project website to learn more about Sophie’s awesome work and check out more of her creations.
[via My Modern Metropolis]
Wow. Form and function.
WE SAY GOODBYE TO THE GREATEST VISUAL EFFECTS ARTIST THE MOVIES HAVE EVER KNOWN
Is it unreasonable to suggest that, for better or worse, special effects just don’t seem quite as special now as they were when Ray Harryhausen made them? It’s not even so much that he was a master of the form—though he was certainly that—as the fact that his mastery was the product of a purely physical labor. Harryhausen’s special effects were real, hard work, accomplished as much through technical ingenuity as by sheer dedication to a craft; when you see his work brought to painstaking life on screen, even now, the immense effort is visible in every frame.
Cherishing Harryhausen’s now antiquated stop-motion animation techniques isn’t a matter of mere nostalgia for some outdated facet of movie history—the quality of the work speaks louder than that. It’s true that many of the fantastic creations for which Harryhausen was responsible have aged and look dated, maybe even quaint, but they don’t look dated in the same way that, say, the early computer effects plastered throughout “Tron” do. Digital effects have a tendency to fall into what seems like instant obsolescence, where even the most-cutting edge images are outpaced the moment they arrive, making year-old blockbusters seem clunky and decade-old ones to look practically archaic; the advances are so sudden, the achievements so fleeting, that what’s once-revelatory rapidly becomes an antique. But Harryhausen’s effects never had that problem: their style was so singular, their presence on screen so wonderful and strange, that even today they don’t appear old-fashioned so much as otherworldly.
EVERY GLASS STERILIZED.
Big Chief root beer stand in Vancouver, Washington, 1930s.
I lived in Vancouver, WA for two years and I definitely would have remembered this if it were still there. Jesus. It’s probably the site of Pollo Loco now.
(Source: anotherstateofmind67)
Dear Unthinkable Mind Class,
Song of the day brought to you by Janelle Monae and ‘Badula Oblongata’
Message of the day: ‘The booty don’t lie’
all of it brought to you by Frontal Lobe.
See you in class,
Professor Old Skull
Say, why aren’t you listening to Janelle Monae? Have fun being yourself, live your life, etc. etc.
I’m Sorry - Inflatable Boy Clams
This high school senior from Indiana who draws rad comics and has excellent taste in music posted this on her blog. This band is from MY youth, 1000 years ago. How did this amazing girl find this, and all the music from my youth, for that matter? She is a vast and wondrous mystery to me. Kudos.