1. Aimee Mullins 12 Pairs of Legs
I was speaking to a group of about 300 kids, ages six to eight, at a children's museum, and I brought with
me a bag full of legs, similar to the kinds of things you see up here, and had them laid out on a table for
the kids. And, from my experience, you know, kids are naturally curious about what they don't know, or
don't understand, or is foreign to them. They only learn to be frightened of those differences when an
adult influences them to behave that way, and maybe censors that natural curiosity, or you know, reins in
the question-asking in the hopes of them being polite little kids. So I just pictured a first grade teacher out
in the lobby with these unruly kids, saying, "Now, whatever you do, don't stare at her legs."!
!子ども博物館で６∼８才の 子供300人と話す機会があって ここにあるような義足を カバンいっぱい持っ
て行き 机の上に並べたの 子供は本来見知らぬものや 異質なものに対して 好奇心旺盛 大人が恐怖心を植
えつけたり 失礼がないようにと 子供の好奇心を押さえ込んだり 質問を遮ったりするから 子供は異質な
ものを恐れてしまう 実際先生がはしゃぐ子供たちに言ったわ 「間違ってもエミーさんの足を」 「じろじ
ろ見ないこと」!
!But, of course, that's the point. That's why I was there, I wanted to invite them to look and explore. So I
made a deal with the adults that the kids could come in without any adults for two minutes on their own.
The doors open, the kids descend on this table of legs, and they are poking and prodding, and they're
wiggling toes, and they're trying to put their full weight on the sprinting leg to see what happens with that.
And I said, "Kids, really quickly -- I woke up this morning, I decided I wanted to be able to jump over a
house -- nothing too big, two or three stories -- but, if you could think of any animal, any superhero, any
cartoon character, anything you can dream up right now, what kind of legs would you build me?"!
!でも大切なのはそこ 義足に触れてもらうのが目的 そこで私は先生にこう持ちかけた 「２分間だけ子供た
ちと話がしたい」 「大人抜きで」 扉が開き、子供たちは義足に群がった つついたり、つま先を動かし
たり 短距離走用の義足に 全体重をかけてみたり 私は尋ねた「今朝ふと思ったの」 「家を跳び越えてみ
たいって」 「２、３階建ての家よ」 「動物、スーパーヒーロー、アニメキャラ」 「何でもいいの」 「ど
んな足なら跳べるかしら」!
!And immediately a voice shouted, "Kangaroo!" "No, no, no! Should be a frog!" "No. It should be Go Go
Gadget!" "No, no, no! It should be the Incredibles." And other things that I don't -- aren't familiar with. And
then, one eight-year-old said, "Hey, why wouldn't you want to fly too?" And the whole room, including me,
was like, "Yeah." (Laughter) And just like that, I went from being a woman that these kids would have
been trained to see as "disabled" to somebody that had potential that their bodies didn't have yet.
Somebody that might even be super-abled. Interesting.!
!「カンガルー！」と誰かが叫んだ 「だめだめ！カエル！」 「ガジェット警部がいいよ！」 「ちがうよ！
Mr.インクレディブルだよ！」 私が聞いたことのないものまで すると８才の子が 「ねえ、空を飛びたい
とは思わないの？」 みんな口をそろえて言ったわ「もちろん！」 (笑) しつけられた子供の目には 障害者
として映ったであろう私は 今や未知の可能性を秘めた体の持ち主 超人にだってなれる おもしろいでしょ!
!!!!!!!!

2. Aimee Mullins 12 Pairs of Legs
So some of you actually saw me at TED, 11 years ago. And there's been a lot of talk about how life-
changing this conference is for both speakers and attendees, and I am no exception. TED literally was the
launch pad to the next decade of my life's exploration. At the time, the legs I presented were
groundbreaking in prosthetics. I had woven carbon fiber sprinting legs modeled after the hind leg of a
cheetah, which you may have seen on stage yesterday. And also these very life-like, intrinsically painted
silicone legs.!
!私は11年前もこの場に立ちました TEDで人生が変わったという声を 何度も耳にしますが、私もそのひと
り TEDはその後の人生探求の出発点だった その時紹介したのが当時画期的とされた義足 チーターの後肢
をモデルに 炭素繊維で作った 短距離走用の義足です そしてこの本物さながらのシリコンの足!
!So at the time, it was my opportunity to put a call out to innovators outside the traditional medical
prosthetic community to come bring their talent to the science and to the art of building legs. So that we
can stop compartmentalizing form, function and aesthetic, and assigning them different values. Well,
lucky for me, a lot of people answered that call. And the journey started, funny enough, with a TED
conference attendee -- Chee Pearlman, who hopefully is in the audience somewhere today. She was the
editor then of a magazine called ID, and she gave me a cover story.!
!!従来の医療の枠を越えて 革新者を集め、科学と技術を駆使した 義足作りを目指した 形、機能、美の価値
を 別々に追求するのをやめるには いいチャンス 幸い多くの人が賛同してくれて TED参加者のチー・パー
ルマンを知ったのもこの頃 今日も会場にいるはずよ チーは当時『ID』誌の編集者で トップ記事で私を紹
介してくれた!
!This started an incredible journey. Curious encounters were happening to me at the time; I'd been
accepting numerous invitations to speak on the design of the cheetah legs around the world. And people
would come up to me after the conference, after my talk, men and women. And the conversation would
go something like this, "You know Aimee, you're very attractive. You don't look disabled." (Laughter) I
thought, "Well, that's amazing, because I don't feel disabled." And it really opened my eyes to this
conversation that could be explored, about beauty. What does a beautiful woman have to look like? What
is a sexy body? And interestingly, from an identity standpoint, what does it mean to have a disability? I
mean, people -- Pamela Anderson has more prosthetic in her body than I do. Nobody calls her disabled.
(Laughter)!
!これが大きなきっかけとなり 心躍る出会いが次々と生まれた チーター義足のデザインについて 世界中か
ら講演依頼が殺到 講演の後は男性も女性も みんな集まってきた そしてこんな風に言われるの 「エ
ミー 、すごく魅力的だよ」 「とても身体障害者に見えない」 私だって そんな風に感じたことないわ と
心の中で思いながら だけどこの会話で、美しさには探求の余地があることを 気づかされました 美しい女
性ってどんな姿？ 魅力的な体って？ アイデンティティという視点から 障害を持つことにはどんな意味が
ある？ パメラ・アンダーソンの体は人工的でも 障害者とは呼ばれないでしょ （笑）!
!!!!!!!

3. Aimee Mullins 12 Pairs of Legs
So this magazine, through the hands of graphic designer Peter Saville, went to fashion designer
Alexander McQueen, and photographer Nick Knight, who were also interested in exploring that
conversation. So, three months after TED I found myself on a plane to London, doing my first fashion
shoot, which resulted in this cover -- "Fashion-able"? Three months after that, I did my first runway show
for Alexander McQueen on a pair of hand-carved wooden legs made from solid ash. Nobody knew --
everyone thought they were wooden boots. Actually, I have them on stage with me: grapevines,
magnolias -- truly stunning. Poetry matters. Poetry is what elevates the banal and neglected object to a
realm of art. It can transform the thing that might have made people fearful into something that invites
them to look, and look a little longer, and maybe even understand.!
!『ID』の記事はグラフィックデザイナーのピーター・サヴィルから ファッションデザイナーのアレキサ
ンダー・マックイーンと 写真家のニック・ナイトに渡った TEDの３ヶ月後、初のモデル撮影を ロンドン
で行いました それがこの表紙 見出しは「ファッション化？」 ３ヶ月後にはマックイーンのショーでモデ
ルを務め トネリコ製の手彫りの義足を履いたら 観客は木のブーツだと勘違い これが実物です ブドウの
つるとモクレンの見事な美 詩も大切よ 詩は平凡でなおざりになったものを 芸術に変える 詩は人々が恐
れていたものを 興味深くし もう少しだけ見てみたい 理解したいものに変える!
!I learned this firsthand with my next adventure. The artist Matthew Barney, in his film opus called the "The
Cremaster Cycle." This is where it really hit home for me -- that my legs could be wearable sculpture. And
even at this point, I started to move away from the need to replicate human-ness as the only aesthetic
ideal. So we made what people lovingly referred to as glass legs even though they're actually optically
clear polyurethane, a.k.a. bowling ball material. Heavy! Then we made these legs that are cast in soil with
a potato root system growing in them, and beetroots out the top, and a very lovely brass toe. That's a
good close-up of that one. Then another character was a half-woman, half-cheetah -- a little homage to
my life as an athlete. 14 hours of prosthetic make-up to get into a creature that had articulated paws,
claws and a tail that whipped around, like a gecko. (Laughter) And then another pair of legs we
collaborated on were these -- look like jellyfish legs, also polyurethane. And the only purpose that these
legs can serve, outside the context of the film, is to provoke the senses and ignite the imagination. So
whimsy matters.!
!マシュー・バーニーの「クレマスター・サイクル」が 私にそのことを教えてくれた 私の義足は履く彫刻
なのだと 心から痛感した そのとき私は人間らしさの復元だけに美の理想を見出す視点から 解放されつつ
ありました 「ガラスの脚」として親しまれた義足は 実はボーリング玉の素材と同じ 透明なポリウレタン
製 重いのよ！ これは土の中で鋳造した義足 ジャガイモとテンサイが根を張ってるわ つま先は真ちゅう
これが拡大画像 次は上半身が女性、下半身がチーター アスリート人生への感謝の印 特殊メイクに14時
間かけ 本格的な足や爪としなやかな尻尾を持つ 生き物になりきりました ヤモリみたいに （笑） もう一
つ共同制作したのがこちら クラゲの足のよう これもポリウレタンです 映画以外での この足の使い道は
感覚に訴え想像力を刺激すること 奇抜さも大事よ!
!!!!!!!!!

4. Aimee Mullins 12 Pairs of Legs
Today, I have over a dozen pair of prosthetic legs that various people have made for me, and with them I
have different negotiations of the terrain under my feet, and I can change my height -- I have a variable of
five different heights. (Laughter) Today, I'm 6'1". And I had these legs made a little over a year ago at
Dorset Orthopedic in England and when I brought them home to Manhattan, my first night out on the
town, I went to a very fancy party. And a girl was there who has known me for years at my normal 5'8".
Her mouth dropped open when she saw me, and she went, "But you're so tall!" And I said, "I know. Isn't it
fun?" I mean, it's a little bit like wearing stilts on stilts, but I have an entirely new relationship to door jams
that I never expected I would ever have. And I was having fun with it. And she looked at me, and she said,
"But, Aimee, that's not fair." (Laughter) (Applause) And the incredible thing was she really meant it. It's not
fair that you can change your height, as you want it.!
!私は義足を12足以上持ってます 多くの人が手がけ それぞれが違った感覚を足もとに与えてくれる 身長
だって変えられる 私の身長は５種類 （笑） 今日は185cm １年前、英国ドーセット州の整形外科で 作っ
てもらったものを マンハッタンに持ち帰り パーティーに行った時のこと 普段173cmの私を知る 長年の
友人が 私を見てビックリ 「すごい背が高いじゃない！」 私はすかさず「ねぇ！面白いでしょ？」 竹馬
に竹馬で乗る感覚よ 想定外だったのは ドア枠に頭を打ってしまうこと それすらも楽しかった しかも友
人が言うの 「でも、エミーそんなのずるいわ」 （笑） （拍手） ウソみたいだけど友人は本気だった 自
由に身長を変えられるなんて ずるいでしょ!
!And that's when I knew -- that's when I knew that the conversation with society has changed profoundly in
this last decade. It is no longer a conversation about overcoming deficiency. It's a conversation about
augmentation. It's a conversation about potential. A prosthetic limb doesn't represent the need to replace
loss anymore. It can stand as a symbol that the wearer has the power to create whatever it is that they
want to create in that space. So people that society once considered to be disabled can now become the
architects of their own identities and indeed continue to change those identities by designing their bodies
from a place of empowerment. And what is exciting to me so much right now is that by combining cutting-
edge technology -- robotics, bionics -- with the age-old poetry, we are moving closer to understanding our
collective humanity. I think that if we want to discover the full potential in our humanity, we need to
celebrate those heartbreaking strengths and those glorious disabilities that we all have. I think of
Shakespeare's Shylock: "If you prick us, do we not bleed, and if you tickle us, do we not laugh?" It is our
humanity, and all the potential within it, that makes us beautiful. Thank you. (Applause)!
!その瞬間―― 社会の反応がこの10年で 大きく変わったと 実感した もはやハンディは克服するものでは
なく プラスに増幅していくもの 社会は可能性に れている 義肢はもはや失ったものを補うのではない
新たに生まれた空間に 装着者が自由な創作を実現する 力の象徴 身体障害者とされてきた人々は 今や自
分の個性を演出できるんです 自分が秘めた可能性を信じ 身体をデザインすることにより 新たな個性を生
み出し続ける 今、私が心待ちにしているのが ロボットやバイオニクスなどの最先端技術と 昔からある詩
を 組み合わせることで 私たちが人類全体の人間らしさを理解し始めていること 私たちが持つ人間らしさ
に最大の可能性を 見出したければ 誰もが持っているすばらしい長所や 偉大な欠陥を褒め称える必要があ
ります 『ヴェニスの商人』でシャイロックが言ってるでしょ 「針で刺せば血が出る」 「くすぐられれば
笑いもする」 それが私たちの人間らしさであり そこに潜むすべての可能性が 私たちを美しくするのです
ありがとうございました （拍手）!
!!!