In Freud’s vision a tool or prosthetic is an enhancement through which imperfect man becomes more and more godlike, not a replacement for something missing–
Excerpt from:
Enwheeled: Two Centuries of Wheelchair Design, from Furniture to Film
Penny Lynne Wolfson, MA History of Decorative Arts & Design ’14
which may also provoke a discourse on what the normative body is, and open the door to bionic humans, cyborgs, and the endless ability to transform or better ourselves through technology; in that world biodeficient and bionic become merely points along a continuum.
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But all objects can be seen anew when depicted in art; there the object can have a power it does not possess in real life. Art narrates and elucidates design not only because it documents history, but because it frames focuses the object.
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If aggression is one emotion that can be observed through the performance of user and wheelchair, so are joy, confusion, anxiety, and solidarity. Those in manual chairs, especially, often lift up their front wheels to signal happiness
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Little has been written on the relationship of human to wheelchair. Yet what has been often reveals the most profound attachment and kinship,… an extraordinary, interdependent relationship of object and person, wherein the wheelchair merges with or extends the user
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This thesis looks at the development of the wheelchair and examines the relationship of the user and his or her machine.
I am a writer who has written and taught memoir writing as well as academic work; each informs the other. I have a family member who sues a wheelchair and this influenced my choice of material and my outlook.
