While You Were Sleeping

June 21, 2009

I have a girl crush. Her name is Revital, she’s from Israel and she’s a designer.

Revital, on top of being a lovely sight, is sharp as a tack. She is also soft-spoken and eloquent. But more importantly, she is thoughtful.

Following up on the transgenic and stem cell arts that were discussed the day before, Revital presented her most controversial project, one that had the public up in arms.

Revital thought about cyborgs. After visiting patients who were hooked to dialysis machines, she figured we weren’t that far off from science fiction. She then thought about blind people who depend on labradors to guide them. And wondered, with all the genetic research around, whether if instead of a machine, we could hook people with kidney failure to transgenic lambs, lambs with human blood, during the night. The lamb’s healthy kidneys could clean up the blood so it could “urinate the patient’s toxins” in the morning. During the day, the lamb would be free to play in the garden while the patient goes about his or her business.

She then developed another idea. What if we used greyhounds as respiratory devices? She wrote about her process and it is good read.

Needless to say, this caused an uproar. “Sick bastards doing what they do best,” was a comment left on a blog post about her.

So, as she considered the item exhibited next to hers at the RCA - a “perfect” red umbrella - and the idea that people are normally happy to eat lamb or watch genetically engineered dogs race for their gambling, she pondered on her role: “There is a notion that design is about what is true. I’m not saying my proposal should become real. But to me, designers have to get people into the story and suspend disbelief.”

I think Revital is fooling no one. She’s an artist, and a very good one at that.