While this video appears only to be a conceptual project from Phillips, it speaks volumes about the potential of this fascinating technology. Envision a kaleidoscope of color exploding across your skin as you laugh at a meme for the umpteenth time. Imagine subtly adjusting makeup that will never smear and disappears at will, or simply adjusting your tattoos to fit the costume of the day.
I wait with eager anticipation for the second generation of this tech, the first generation having ghoulishly dispatched early adopters by way of unintended side effects.
When I was little I used to read a book of Chinese folktales that belonged to my mother. Between each tale was interspersed the day to day lives of two children, brother and sister, of a fairly wealthy feudal Chinese household. One of these little interludes dealt with the sister hiding in order to avoid her daily foot binding. I never could quite imagine just what the ancient Chinese were going for when the lotus foot was described but this image leaves no doubt. In case you choose not to view the rest of the set realize that the shoes she wears are only about an inch longer than a pack of cigarettes.
Truly, this is one nightmare that Brownlee and I share: a pixie-headed girleen, gracile of limb and sleek of shape, decides to undergo a series of twenty surgeries that turn her into a putty-colored, basketball-breasted, fish-lipped hag.
The infinite tragedy of such a decision, undoubtedly backed with heaping doses of body dysmorphia, depression, and just plain bad taste, is that her career didn’t take off until she did it.
Anyone who finds this actually attractive, this Thing that she has twisted herself into, should be weeping with shame…
In sheer defiance of the World Wide Web Consortium's will, Ectomo was designed using a non-web-standard font. Luckily, it is included in the excellent font pack released by the H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society, which can be freely downloaded in Mac and PC formats here. Ectomo should still look fine without it, though.
