Intervention II
The body as a device
Besides the intervention of creating a prostheses for an injury on my muscles and other wearables without necessarily thinking about their connection between them and my body, this second intervention I aimed to create a bridge that could make the body access external objects as devices, as new muscles, organs and tissues within a post-humanist approach. This artifact isn't necessarily a project with a functionality that affects someone or something directly, but it gives the possibility of influencing the body and the external environment by creating a new connection between them, something that could improve patients' lives with new post-surgery and recovery solutions, considering my deep interest in healthcare devices.
Creating an external nervous system
For creating a bridge that could reframe the body as a device, there wasn't better inspiration than our neural system and how it distributes its branches inside of ourselves by using the venation/fractal pattern as a logic to create an efficient network. Within this approach, the first step to understanding neurons was to comprehend its anatomy and how electric charges are being transmitted from one point to the other, which, according to the research explored in medical websites, seemed not so complex at first sight, considering the division of four main parts: Dendrites, Cell Body, Axon and Axon Terminal.
The dendrites serve as the distribution part of the neuron, resembling the roots of trees that spread in a fractal pattern, dividing each branch by half from the previous one. Their purpose is to connect one neuron to others and process signals received from associated axon terminals. Following this, the cell body is responsible for all metabolic processes, containing genetic information, maintaining neuron structure, and providing energy to drive the cell's activity.
In sequence, the axons act as channels, conducting electric impulses away from the cell body and surrounded by a lipid-rich layer called myelin, which insulates the cell and increases the speed of electric signals traveling through it. Finally, the axon terminal is a specialized region at the end of the cell body that connects, but doesn't touch, the dendrites of other neurons or effector cells, such as muscles.
Within this logic, it's perceivable that neurons don't act as a structure of "comes and goes" but rather as a battery with two sides (positive and negative) with a specific structure to receive signals and another one dedicated to transmitting information along its body.
Organ System Anatomy
Considering the understanding of the neuron structure, it was important in sequence to understand how an external layer would behave above the body skin and how it could distributes itself, considering not only the logical aspect to the structure itself, but how I could integrate this intervention with my previous one, where I aimed to attached "external" muscules into my jaw, and how I could extract electricity from the body to power the external nervous with my body itself. For this, I've made a simple prototype using folded paper stripes attached to my body and a mannequin to understand how this 2D surface shape could follow the fluid form of the body without any physical interferences as bendings and twistings.
To power up the the system at first sight, I imagine the idea of connecting the device through the levels of glicoses on my blood, however, to make this come true it would be necessary an almost parasitic system that would needed to be inserted in parts of my body to convert the electricity within my veins to an electrical current and sustain the exo-nervous-eskeleton. As a consequence of this tricky condition, and within some research around body "power supplies", the idea of converting heat on the body into electricity was chosen considering the easily achievable aim by using some actuators that could be attached to the device structure and my body without harm.
This way, it would be possible to understand where the "Cell's body" as the neurons would be located to extract higher levels of thermal activity and then distribute them over the body to create an auto-sufficient device that could be powered by myself. However, considering the low amount of time to deliver this intervention and achieve a certain level of the project, the next prototypes developed were focused on creating a specific pattern that would replicate the hierarchical connections between the "artificial neurons" and how they could follow the idealized patterns tested with paper folded stripes.
As a sequence, a modular structural system was developed to emulate not only the connections observed but also the different types of neurons identified in nature and how they are distributed, considering the morphology and different capabilities of spreading themselves through within a specific space as a 2D surface plan. Between the morphological classification of the neurons, three specific morphologies were chosen to distribute the electricity efficiently through the body with flexibility and modulartity: the anaxonic type, which would be used to spread the electricity from different angles; the multipolar that would create a bridge between different spots; and the pseunipolar that follow the same functionaly as the multipolar but consider the cell body as a generator of electricity, that could stimulate the production of electrical current and stabilize the distribution along the body.
Summoning
To make it tangible, it was important to understand how the circuitry logic would work, where the ground and the positive would actuate, and how they would be distributed along the eskeleton to not touch each other and break the current along the device. But first, four specific shapes that emulate the fractal distribution pattern were developed considering the anatomy of neuron types that were selected, and inside each of them were developed simple channels of connections that would distribute the electricity through each module and how they would connect themselves by the extremities.
The result of this process is not necessarily a replica of the selected neurons but a shape with splited parts that, when assembled, construct the image of a neural network as if the four main parts were differently distributed with the same functional aim. This pattern gives the possibility to arrange the parts better and distribute each specific module according to the neccesities to generate electricity, considering the main balls as electrical generators using body temperature, medium ones to preserve the current, and small ones as connectors, like the Axions and Dendrites.
By understanding the distribution of modules, to make them come true, a 3D printer was used to produce molds where silicone was placed inside to fill the entire shape and create a first synthetic layer where the electricity channel developed in a zigzag shape to give flexibility could be placed without breaking considering the idea of using copper tape. Then, by creating the channels layout for each part, a vinyl machine was used to cut the copper in their specific shapes and then assembled all together by hand above the silicone layer already casted, something that required patience and more silicione to isolate the chanel embeded as the Myelin layers that surrounds the neurons to insulate electricity.
With the parts assembled and sticking together all over the mannequin, I perceived that, considering the time able to accomplish its physical form, it would be only possible to create the first positive layer to deliver at a time for the Design Dialogues at this second term. As a result, it was at least possible to check if the electric current could be distributed through the channels by using a multimeter and understand which connections were successful or not, considering the almost handcraft process to make the first positive layer of the nervous-exoeskeleton system.
Reflection
Making this invertion made me reflect about which kinds of modules could be attached to my body and their purpose considering my deep interest to develop medical devices, disconsidering the module I've developed for my TMJ disorder. It made me create questions about controlling something attached to my body as an object that integrates my whole system as a human being, and not necessarily an accessory separated from me, considering that it would only work if my body still behaves in the same way the technology was developed to sense it.
If my body is a device, what would be the lock that will restrict the access to other external interactions? My clothes will be enough to protect me from people who would like to hack this part of my body, considering a future where this technology would be normalized. If this technology relates my body to the external world, will my body be enough to charge the device, or will different bodies behave better or worse than mine?
Considering the difficulties to accomplish the aim and the scarce resources for making a second layer on time without compromising the facilities of the institution, maybe using an elastic gelatine biomaterial could work better for a bigger scale production. However, if I really would like to attach the jaw devices to this bridge, how are they gonna stick together? Maybe creating a more three-dimensional aspect to the interface could glue the models into my body in a more practical way.
References
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