Celebrating the Spectacular: Discovering the New Enabled Through Performance Art

Social exclusion is a common problem facing amputees, however, there has been a development in the sporting context that has begun to change how amputees are perceived with the help of new technologically advanced and designed prosthetics. Unfortunately, the availability and promotion of these prosthetics is limited to athletes and a selected few contexts. To build momentum around the development and diversification of social inclusion, this thesis focuses on extending the area of immersion to the public by targeting the discipline of performance art. Through the use of an iterative design process, the work produced is a physical reflection of the research that was explored and defined to be important factors that improve the visibility and acceptance of amputees and their devices. This research benefits designers who are entering this field of design by introducing a new method specifically targeting artistic performance prostheses and providing a physical example of the output that was formed using this method.