Kelly Knox

Project

Kelly Knox

Kelly Knox is a model and body confidence advocate who believes everybody deserves to feel beautiful, happy and worthy in their own skin. Born without her lower left arm, Kelly chooses not to use prosthetics as an aid, but instead prefers to use them as an accessory to express her personality and explore aspects of her identity.

“I want to change the way society perceives disability – showing disability can be cool, fashionable, beautiful and powerful… it’s like my body is a canvas and when wearing an Alternative Limb, I become the art”
Kelly Knox

The arm with a pulse.

‘Synchronised’ is a re imagining of the prosthetic arm as a piece of jewellery: a gestural, kinetic addition to the body.

Made from electroplated gold carbon fibre, the arm is covered in clear acrylic layers that form a mirror of Kelly’s right arm. The internal electronics take a reading of her pulse, and the wrist then ticks in time to her heartbeat. It can continue to tick when she is not wearing the arm. The current model has two hands that can be changed by the wearer, in clear and blue resin.

A collaborative design by Sophie de Oliveira Barata & Dani Clode
For Kelly Knox
Photography by Omkaar Kotedia
2017

The Materialise arm comes in two halves: the underside is highly realistic, expertly crafted in skin-like-silicone, to represent Kelly’s physical body; the upper half is designed with interchangeable sections, each relating to different emotional and spiritual aspects of her personality.

The two halves create a visual connection between the physical and metaphysical.

The arm was created by a combination of 3D printing, CNC routing, hand carving and sculpting, using steel, rock, earth, wood, moss, oil, cork, wool, bronze, rhodium and gold. 

The upper elements attach with magnets

A collaborative design by Sophie de Oliveira Barata, Dani Clode & Jason Taylor
For Kelly Knox
Photography by Simon Clemenger

A collaborative design by Sophie de Oliveira Barata, Dani Clode, Jason Taylor & Hugo Elias

A botanical tentacle and flora/fauna hybrid, The Vine explores Kelly’s interest in the extraterrestrial.

An alien structure lies beneath verdant armour with 26 individual vertebrae allowing subtle, organic movement to curve, curl and caress, resulting in an otherworldly extension of the self.

Photography by Omkaar Kotedia
2017

Movement of the Vine is enabled by the four degrees-of-freedom within the arm, controlled by force sensors embedded in Kelly’s shoes.

Using her toes, Kelly can flex four individual sections or combine two at a time to create dynamic curves that react in real-time, allowing Kelly precise control.

Project manager: Sophie de Oliveira Barata:
Concept creation, silicone sculptor and casting

Product designer: Dani Clode
Concept creation and design / mechanical engineering /material resourcing.

Multidisciplinary designer: Jason Taylor
Design / mechanical engineering / 3D modelling / rapid prototyping / CNC / lasercutting / vac forming.

Robotics engineer: Hugo Elias
Design / Build of Electronics

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