Body Architecture

Body Architecture

TED Talks bring in many very educated individuals to speak about what they are currently working on, what it going on in the world, and many other fascinating things. One thing that isn't seen very often though, are speakers presenting about what we can look forward into the future when it comes to the way we will dress, and how our bodies will look. Lucy McRae, one of the featured TED Talks speakers, was talking about research that she has been doing for years, in order to see what is next in line for the human body and the fashion industry.

McRae worked using visual imagery, to provoke the future of human evolution. She created concepts like an electronic tattoo, which is augmented by touch, and dresses that blushed and shivered with light. McRae was also fascinated with what would happen when merging biology and technology. She became obsessed with the concept of if she were to reprogram ones own body odor, modify, and biologically enhance it; how would it change the way that humans interact with each other. Would it mean that attracting sexual partners would be different? Or that reverting back to primal modes of communication would be much more probable?  McRae then worked with a synthetic biologist, in order to create a swallow-able perfume to enable the fragrance to come out when one perspires. Her goal for this "perfume" is to completely blow apart  the way perfume is today and adds a whole new format-a fragrance coming from the inside out. It would redefine the role of skin and bodies would become an atomizer. When looking at the evolution of her work Lucy has scene threads and connections that make sense, and connect to the real world. She is determined to keep trying to redefine the human body, and will keep looking into the future until the end of her architectural career. 

This TED Talk was a very hard concept for me to grasp because it lacked very vital information, such as if anything is on the market right now, but it mostly mystified me because she was attempting to "revert us as back to our animal instincts". The fact that somebody is currently working on changing the way humans have been for thousands of years seems like a fairly impossible feat in my opinion. If McRae's research were to catch on, it would be outstanding to see what else those researches have the potential to create. 

The Innocence Project

The Innocence Project

The Innocence Project is a foundation that was created in 1992 by Barry C. Scheck and Peter J. Neufeld in order to exonerate innocent prisoners through DNA testing. To date, over 300 United States prisoners have been liberated from federal confinement. The Innocence Project is doing an amazing deed for all of the men and women who have had their lives robbed from them, due to faulty systems. 

One of the 300 prisoners that were exonerated was named Kirk Bloodsworth. He was convicted in March of 1985 for the brutal killing and sexual assault of a nine year old girl. She had been strangled, raped, and beaten with a rock at the time of her death. When the police received an anonymous call saying they had seen Bloodsworth at the scene, and a police sketch fit his description, he was automatically a suspect for the murder. Things continued to go downhill for Bloodsworth when, during trail, all five witnesses at the crime testified that they had seen him with the victim. Also presented during the testimony was that Bloodsworth had told his wife earlier that day that, "he had done something terrible that would affect their marriage". Even though he had people who testified against him, Kirk could easily have not been convicted, had the criminal justice system looked deeper into all of the evidence presented. For example, there was a shoe print found near the victim, but there were not any similar identifying features of the print that correlated. Also, the failure of the use of a Rape Kit, as well as not testing the DNA that could have been found on the blood surrounding the crime scene. 

In 1992 the prosecution agreed to DNA testing to be performed. The victim’s shorts and underwear, a stick found at the scene, and an autopsy slide were compared against the blood standards of the victim and Bloodsworth. .Bloodsworth was released from prison in June 1993 and pardoned in December 1993. He had spent over eight years in prison, two of those years facing execution.

After reading this specific case, it horrified me how unfair Kirk Bloodworths prosecution was. He was forced to spend eight years rotting behind bars, and waiting for his death penalty to be carried out. It is awful that innocence people, like Bloodsworth, are forced to spend time in jail, because the judicial systems don't carry out their job accordingly. And on the other end of the scale, when false prosecutions occur, it means that a criminal is walking on the streets, not paying for the act they committed, and have the potential to engage in more illegal behavior.