"My second skin ?" and Proposal 2

My second skin ?

Today all around us, in our society, the entire population is hiding behind what we can call a “second skin”. By second skin, I mean, at different levels, clothes, houses, cars, companies, cities, communities, in fact everything that links us to society and social relations. We are hiding behind ideas that society and our culture have created such as social status, power of the genders, wealth. Our social relations are all depending on what we express through our belongings that can be seen as a second skin too. For example, being wealthy but dressing poorly will erase the real representation of your social status so we can note that everything is based on the outside appearance of our body. As mentioned before, it is not our being that counts but what we own and what we are covered with that means something to our surrounding.
The meaning of a second skin that I would like to emphasize is more related to the touchable apparel than the ideological meaning of it. To me, a second skin is literally something that covers your whole body of even just a part of it. A second skin not only covers your body but has also features that will provide you with extra capabilities. These capabilities can change in degrees of importance depending on the sophistication of the second skin you are wearing. The second skin should be a layer on you body almost imperceptible that must appear transparent and not be a burden to your social interaction.
The kind of capabilities that your second skin can provide really depends on what the person wearing it wishes to do with it. For example, a person wishing to record conversation with people that he or she meets during the day will wear a cloth that will integrate a microcomputer and a recording device. If a person wants to have the capability to see up to 1 mile away, he/she will wear microelectronic zooming or magnifying devices that will be integrated in a contact lens for example if the advances of the technology permit it.
A second skin should not be a burden to social interactions as mentioned earlier but also should not encumber you in your actions and movements. Thus, a second skin worn as a cloth should be integrated to your body as a natural element that would appear almost invisible. To do so, I guess the best way to make this cloth would be to make it as organic as possible to fit perfectly to our body’s shapes. Nevertheless, the design of the second skin can also depend on the use of it and the purpose of it. Therefore, some people may want their clothes to be noticeable and they will wear something that will maybe display colors, lights or spray scents, liquids, smokes, powders, etc. But the previous definition of a second skin was more my personal idea of it.
In order to make my second skin as organic and suitable for our body as possible, I thought that hypoallergenic materials would be appropriate. Thos materials should have non-obstructive properties in order to let the skin breathe and let the air circulate. Also, it should be stretchable and should not influence our body’s temperature. Regarding to the texture and pattern of the second skin, it should be as invisible as possible and therefore be transparent or skin color tone, as well as being also mat preventing any reflection that would make it look plastic.
As for our proposal concerning a “second that is not what it seems to be”, I would say that the second skin is a way for a person or for an object to show another appearance and express a different idea than what his original form communicated. For example, a man would dress like a woman to maybe express a certain idea or social position and he will totally change his outside appearance in order to do so. The same thing can be applied to an object on which we could put a layer of a specific fabric in order to give it a second meaning or use. We could with different materials and fabrics totally transform the look of an object in order to change the original purpose that was applied to it when it was created.

Proposal 2:

For our project, we would like to explore the use of a common object through the use of an unusual material. Therefore we have decided to make a stool out of condoms and some kind of fur. The concept behind this idea is to deal with our society’s taboos and to push people to be more open and familiar with sexual topics. This chair/stool will in fact look like a big fur mass out of which hundreds of condoms will spring, but it will represent more than what it looks. The object will have a certain esthetic but will also express a general message to our society. At first sight the stool will maybe look repulsive because of its gross or shocking look so it will push people to forget about their inhibitions and just have fun sitting on this original stool. This way people will get accustomed to playing with this object that usually is only used in privacy. Also, by using those uncommon materials for the construction of this stool, we will change the concept that people have of a device intended to be sit on; we will transform the appearance of a common stool and make people think about what really can be defined as a stool, since actually a stool could just be anything that we can sit on.