Konami has been working hard to put two very special people in the spotlight as they weave a real-life tale of perseverance and ingenuity. The star of this story is James Young, a 25-year-old man who lost an arm and a leg in an unfortunate railway accident. I say unfortunate, and not tragic, because Young has determined that the harrowing experience and the loss of limbs will not define his life moving forward; travelling and playing video games are two passions that he refuses to give up because of his temporary limitations. People who play great video games, like people who read great stories, know that with imagination and will anything is possible.
Enter the engineering mastermind: Sophie De Oliveira Barata. Sophie is in the business of making the impossible possible. She started out making incredibly lifelike prosthetic limbs for amputees, which she did happily for over a decade. She realized in the course of her work that a little creativity on her part and a little imagination on the part of her clients could go a long way, working together to design limbs that amputees wouldn’t want to disguise or conceal; limbs that her clients could be proud of and excited by.
This led to the creation of The Alternative Limb Project in 2011. The project was inspired by a little girl, Polyanna Hope, who had lost her leg in an accident at the age of 2. Polyanna would come to Sophie every year as she grew to receive a new, bigger prosthetic leg. After a while, she started requesting some fun flourishes to make the whole process less of a somber errand and more a treat. This brought life and freedom to both recipient and creator, and Sophie began seeking out more candidates who might like to make their prosthetics an expression of their creativity. The Alt Limb Project received international media attention when Viktoria Modesta, a singer / songwriter and model, showed off her dazzling “Crystal Leg” in the closing ceremonies of the 2012 Paralympics.
“The first time I wore a limb that was so obviously bionic, it gave me a total sense of uniqueness and feeling mutant human in the best way possible,” Modesta said regarding Sophie’s work. This is a sentiment shared by many who have participated in the alt limb project over the years. Sophie has observed that advancements in technology have made clients much more open-minded in their consideration of prosthetic designs, often eager for the coverings on the outside to appear as futuristic and sleek as the tech inside. James Young is one such client, and there’s an awesome project in the works to give him an arm that Solid Snake himself would covet.
Konami has instigated “The Phantom Limb Project,” working with Sophie to design and produce a highly functional, bespoke bionic arm for Young based off of Snake’s bionic arm in Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain. “The Phantom Limb Project was born out of a desire to create something innovative, on the cusp of future technology, which would explore the themes present within the series and more specifically, the themes and ideas referenced in the latest incarnation: Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain . We also wanted to tell an uplifting human story of what it means to be an amputee, to feel phantom pain, to overcome loss and how technology can change our perceptions of ‘disability.’” As far as charitable initiatives go, this is the most badass sounding project I’ve ever heard of.
To read more about The Phantom Limb Project you can visit the official blog . The blog will keep you up to date with the project until the release of a documentary detailing the creation and production of the bionic arm.