#HTE

Patricia Piccinini Redesigned A Human To Survive Car Accidents

What would it take to make car travel safe? Rather than waffle over where to put airbags, sculptor Patricia Piccinini redesigned a human who can withstand a standard road collision. 

Piccinini’s project yielded “Graham,” an otherwise normal guy grotesquely reconfigured for maximum durability on the road. Conceived with input from trauma surgeon Christian Kenfield and road safety engineer David Logan, this concept human is intended as a PSA about the seriousness of auto accidents and our bodies’ delicate mortality.

With our whole soft, squishy bodies controlled by an even softer, squishier brain, a better designed human would double down on the dome protection. Graham’s horrifying upper half is heavily muscled and padded to stabilize against brain and neck injuries caused by whiplash. His face is flattened and fattened to hold its own against nuisances like windshields and steering wheels. His skull is also designed to dissipate impact, breaking away under force like a bike helmet, or supremely gory tearaway pants.

His torso is also thickened, both in bone and muscle. Ribs are already well-designed to withstand the compression and force of impact, but the rest of the stuff in there could use some beefing up. Graham’s final trunk is more sacklike than ours, with airbags placed between the ribs and around vital organs. More efficient than relying on that 3-point seatbelt!

His legs and feet are a bit more articulated than normal, with joints added to help him spring away from oncoming vehicles while on foot. The result is…off putting, and may be the most thought-provoking of the body-mods, since increasing victim accountability is almost always the least efficient way to solve a serious issue. 

All in all Graham is a beautiful specimen of creative and technical thinking. We’re probably evolving in his image already.

See all of Graham’s design features here, and check out more of Patricia Piccinini’s beautiful and unsettling art here.