ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Aimee Mullins - Athlete and actor
A record-breaker at the Paralympic Games in 1996, Aimee Mullins has built a career as a model, actor and advocate for women, sports and the next generation of prosthetics.

Why you should listen

Aimee Mullins was born without fibular bones, and had both of her legs amputated below the knee when she was an infant. She learned to walk on prosthetics, then to run -- competing at the national and international level as a champion sprinter, and setting world records at the 1996 Paralympics in Atlanta. At Georgetown, where she double-majored in history and diplomacy, she became the first double amputee to compete in NCAA Division 1 track and field.

After school, Mullins did some modeling -- including a legendary runway show for Alexander McQueen -- and then turned to acting, appearing as the Leopard Queen in Matthew Barney's Cremaster Cycle. In 2008 she was the official Ambassador for the Tribeca/ESPN Sports Film Festival.

She's a passionate advocate for a new kind of thinking about prosthetics, and recently mentioned to an interviewer that she's been looking closely at MIT's in-development powered robotic ankle, "which I fully plan on having."

More profile about the speaker
Aimee Mullins | Speaker | TED.com
TED2009

Aimee Mullins: My 12 pairs of legs

Aimee Mullins og hennar 12 par bein

Filmed:
4,380,008 views

Atlet, skodespelar og aktivist Aimee Mullins snakkar om beinprotesane hennar - et dusin fasinerande par - og superkreftane dei gir ho: fart, venleik, 15 cm ekstra høgde ... Ganske enkelt, redefinerar ho kva menneskekroppen kan vere.
- Athlete and actor
A record-breaker at the Paralympic Games in 1996, Aimee Mullins has built a career as a model, actor and advocate for women, sports and the next generation of prosthetics. Full bio

Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.

00:12
I was speaking to a group of about 300 kids,
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Eg var å presenterte for om lag 300 born,
00:15
ages six to eight, at a children's museum,
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alder seks til åtte, ved eit museum for born,
00:17
and I brought with me a bag full of legs,
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og eg hadde med meg ein bag full av bein,
00:21
similar to the kinds of things you see up here,
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liknande dei tingene dykk ser her oppe,
00:23
and had them laid out on a table for the kids.
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og hadde spreidd dei ut på eit bord, for borna.
00:25
And, from my experience, you know, kids are naturally curious
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Mi erfaring er at born er naturleg nysgjerrige
00:29
about what they don't know, or don't understand,
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om det dei ikkje kjennar til, eller ikkje forstår,
00:31
or is foreign to them.
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eller det som er framand for dei.
00:33
They only learn to be frightened of those differences
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Dei lerer kun å vere redde for desse forskjellane
00:35
when an adult influences them to behave that way,
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når ein vaksen påverkar dei til å oppføra seg slik,
00:38
and maybe censors that natural curiosity,
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og kanskje sensurerar den naturlege nysgjerrigheita,
00:41
or you know, reins in the question-asking
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eller som du veit, legg band på det å stille spørsmål
00:44
in the hopes of them being polite little kids.
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i håp om å få høflege små born.
00:46
So I just pictured a first grade teacher out in the lobby
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Så, eg berre førestelte meg ei fyrsteklasselærar ute i lobbyen
00:50
with these unruly kids, saying, "Now, whatever you do,
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med desse kavande borna, som seier, "Nå, kva enn dykk gjer,
00:53
don't stare at her legs."
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ikkje stir på beina hennar."
00:55
But, of course, that's the point.
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Men, selvfølgeleg, det er jo poenget.
00:57
That's why I was there, I wanted to invite them to look and explore.
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Det var derfor eg var der, eg ville invitera dei til å sjå og utforske.
01:00
So I made a deal with the adults
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Så, eg gjorde ei avtale med dei vaksne
01:04
that the kids could come in without any adults for two minutes
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at borna kunne koma inn, utan vaksne, i to minuttar,
01:07
on their own.
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på eiga hand.
01:09
The doors open, the kids descend on this table of legs,
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Dørane opnar seg, borna samlar seg ved dette bordet med bein,
01:13
and they are poking and prodding, and they're wiggling toes,
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og dei prikkar og trykkar, dei bevegar tærne,
01:16
and they're trying to put their full weight on the sprinting leg
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og dei prøver å leggja all vekta si på sprintbeinet
01:18
to see what happens with that.
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for å sjå kva som skjer då.
01:20
And I said, "Kids, really quickly --
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Eg sa, "born, veldig kjapt --
01:22
I woke up this morning, I decided I wanted to be able to jump over a house --
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eg vakna opp denne morgonen, og eg bestemde meg for at eg ville vere i stand til å hoppa over eit hus.
01:26
nothing too big, two or three stories --
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ikkje noko for svært, to eller tre etasjar --
01:28
but, if you could think of any animal, any superhero, any cartoon character,
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men, om dykk kunne kome på eit eller anna dyr, superhelt, eller teikneserie figur,
01:33
anything you can dream up right now,
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kva som helst som du kan drøyma fram nett no,
01:35
what kind of legs would you build me?"
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kva for bein ville dykk ha lagd til meg?
01:37
And immediately a voice shouted, "Kangaroo!"
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Og straks var det ei stemme som ropa, "kenguru!"
01:40
"No, no, no! Should be a frog!"
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"Nei, nei, nei! Burde vere ein frosk!"
01:42
"No. It should be Go Go Gadget!"
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"Nei. Det burde vere Go Go Gadget!"
01:44
"No, no, no! It should be the Incredibles."
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"Nei, nei, nei! Det burde vere De Utrulege."
01:46
And other things that I don't -- aren't familiar with.
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Og andre ting som eg ikkje -- er kjend med.
01:49
And then, one eight-year-old said,
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Og med eitt sa ein åtteåring,
01:51
"Hey, why wouldn't you want to fly too?"
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"Hey, ville ikkje du likt å fly også?"
01:56
And the whole room, including me, was like, "Yeah."
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Og heile rommet inkludert meg var berre, "ja."
01:59
(Laughter)
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(Latter)
02:01
And just like that, I went from being a woman
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Og ganske enkelt, gjekk eg frå å vere ei kvinne
02:04
that these kids would have been trained to see as "disabled"
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som desse borna ville vore trent til å sjå som "funksjonshemma"
02:08
to somebody that had potential that their bodies didn't have yet.
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til nokon som hadde eit potensial som kroppane deira ikkje hadde enno.
02:13
Somebody that might even be super-abled.
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Som kanskje t.o.m kunne vere "funksjons-sterk."
02:15
Interesting.
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Interessant
02:17
So some of you actually saw me at TED, 11 years ago.
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Så, nokre av dykk såg meg faktisk på TED, 11 år sidan,
02:22
And there's been a lot of talk about how life-changing this conference is
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og det har vore mykje snakk om kor mykje konferansen endrar liva
02:26
for both speakers and attendees, and I am no exception.
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til både foredragholderar og publikum, og eg er ikkje noko unntak.
02:30
TED literally was the launch pad to the next decade of my life's exploration.
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TED var bokstaveleg talt oppskytningsrampen for det neste tiåret av mitt livs utforsking.
02:36
At the time, the legs I presented were groundbreaking in prosthetics.
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På den tiden, var beina eg presenterte banebrytande innanfor proteser.
02:41
I had woven carbon fiber sprinting legs
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Eg hadde vovne karbonfiber sprintbein
02:43
modeled after the hind leg of a cheetah,
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modellert etter bakbeina på ein gepard.
02:45
which you may have seen on stage yesterday.
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som dykk kan ha sett på scenen i går.
02:47
And also these very life-like, intrinsically painted silicone legs.
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Og også desse veldig naturtro, elegant måla silikon beina.
02:53
So at the time, it was my opportunity to put a call out
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Så på den tida, var det sjangsen min til å kome med ei oppfordring
02:57
to innovators outside the traditional medical prosthetic community
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til innovatørar utanfor den tradisjonelle, medisin bransjen for proteser
03:01
to come bring their talent to the science and to the art
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til å tilføre deira talent til vitskapen og kunsten
03:05
of building legs.
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med å byggje bein.
03:07
So that we can stop compartmentalizing form, function and aesthetic,
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Sånn at me kan slutta med å standarisera form, funksjon og estetikk,
03:12
and assigning them different values.
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og i staden gje dei forskjellig betydning.
03:14
Well, lucky for me, a lot of people answered that call.
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Vel, heldigvis for meg, svara mange folk på den oppfordringa.
03:18
And the journey started, funny enough, with a TED conference attendee --
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Og reisa byrja, pussig nok, med ein besøkande på TED konferansen --
03:23
Chee Pearlman, who hopefully is in the audience somewhere today.
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Chee Pearlman, som forhåpentlegvis er i salen idag.
03:26
She was the editor then of a magazine called ID,
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Ho var redaktøren for eit magasin den gong kalla ID,
03:29
and she gave me a cover story.
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der ho gav meg eit forside oppslag.
03:32
This started an incredible journey.
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Dette starta ei forykande ferd.
03:35
Curious encounters were happening to me at the time;
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Merkverdige møter hendte meg på den tiden;
03:37
I'd been accepting numerous invitations to speak
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eg hadde drive å akseptert fleire invitasjonar til å snakka
03:40
on the design of the cheetah legs around the world.
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om designet av gepard beina, rundt omkring i verda.
03:43
And people would come up to me after the conference, after my talk,
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Folk kom opp til meg etter konferansen,
03:46
men and women.
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menn og kvinner.
03:48
And the conversation would go something like this,
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Og samtalen ville gå om lag slik,
03:50
"You know Aimee, you're very attractive.
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"Du veit Aimee, du er veldig attraktiv."
03:54
You don't look disabled."
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Du ser ikkje funksjonshemma ut."
03:56
(Laughter)
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(Latter)
03:57
I thought, "Well, that's amazing,
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Eg tenkte, "Vel, det er fasinerande,
03:59
because I don't feel disabled."
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fordi eg føler meg ikkje funksjonshemma."
04:01
And it really opened my eyes to this conversation
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Og det opna verkeleg augene mine for denne dialogen
04:06
that could be explored, about beauty.
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som kunne utforskast, når det gjaldt skjønnheit.
04:08
What does a beautiful woman have to look like?
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Kva treng ei vakker kvinne å sjå ut som?
04:11
What is a sexy body?
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Kva er ein sexy kropp?
04:13
And interestingly, from an identity standpoint,
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Og verdt å merkje seg, frå eit synspunkt om identitet,
04:15
what does it mean to have a disability?
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kva vil det seie å ha ei funksjonshemming?
04:18
I mean, people -- Pamela Anderson has more prosthetic in her body than I do.
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Eg meinar, folkens -- Pamela Anderson har fleire proteser i kroppen hennar enn meg.
04:21
Nobody calls her disabled.
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Ingen kallar henne funksjonshemma.
04:23
(Laughter)
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(Latter)
04:29
So this magazine, through the hands of graphic designer Peter Saville,
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Så, dette magasinet, gjekk frå grafisk designar Peter Saville,
04:33
went to fashion designer Alexander McQueen, and photographer Nick Knight,
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til mote designar Alexander McQueen, og fotograf Nick Knight,
04:38
who were also interested in exploring that conversation.
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som også var interessert i å utforska den dialogen.
04:40
So, three months after TED I found myself on a plane
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Så, tre månader etter TED var eg på eit fly
04:43
to London, doing my first fashion shoot,
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til London, for å gjere min første mote jobb,
04:48
which resulted in this cover --
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som resulterte i dette omslaget --
04:49
"Fashion-able"?
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Funksjons-mote?
04:52
Three months after that, I did my first runway show for Alexander McQueen
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Tre månader etter det, gjekk eg første gong på catwalk for for Alexander McQueen
04:56
on a pair of hand-carved wooden legs made from solid ash.
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på eit par håndlagde, utskorne bein av tre lagd av solid ask.
05:01
Nobody knew -- everyone thought they were wooden boots.
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Ingen visste -- alle trudde dei var treaktige støvlar.
05:04
Actually, I have them on stage with me:
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Eg har dei faktisk med meg her:
05:07
grapevines, magnolias -- truly stunning.
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Vinranker, magnoliaer, verkeleg imponerande.
05:12
Poetry matters.
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Poesi er viktig.
05:15
Poetry is what elevates the banal and neglected object
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Poesi er det som hevar det banale og forsømde objektet
05:20
to a realm of art.
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opp til eit kunstnarleg plan.
05:22
It can transform the thing that might have made people fearful
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Det kan transformera tingen som kunne ha gjort folk redde
05:28
into something that invites them to look,
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til noko som inviterar dem til å sjå,
05:30
and look a little longer,
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og sjå litt lengre,
05:33
and maybe even understand.
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og kanskje t.o.m. forstå.
05:35
I learned this firsthand with my next adventure.
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Eg fekk førstehands kjennskap til dette på mitt neste eventyr.
05:39
The artist Matthew Barney, in his film opus called the "The Cremaster Cycle."
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Artisten Matthew Barney, i sitt film opus kalla Kremaster Syklusen.
05:43
This is where it really hit home for me --
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Det var då det verkeleg traff meg --
05:46
that my legs could be wearable sculpture.
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at beina mine kunne vere kledeleg kunst.
05:48
And even at this point, I started to move away from the need to replicate human-ness
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Allerede då, byrja eg å bevega meg bort frå behovet om å kopiera det menneskelege,
05:55
as the only aesthetic ideal.
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som det einaste estetiske idealet.
05:57
So we made what people lovingly referred to as glass legs
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Så me lagde det som folk elskverdig refererar til som kalla glass bein
06:01
even though they're actually optically clear polyurethane,
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sjølv om dei eigentleg er optisk klar polyurethane
06:05
a.k.a. bowling ball material.
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også kalla bowling ball materiale.
06:07
Heavy!
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Tungt!
06:08
Then we made these legs that are cast in soil
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Så lagde me desse beina, forma av jord.
06:10
with a potato root system growing in them, and beetroots out the top,
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med eit system av potet røter veksande igjennom, og raudbetar ut toppen.
06:14
and a very lovely brass toe.
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og ein yndig tå av messing.
06:16
That's a good close-up of that one.
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Det er eit godt nærbilete av den.
06:18
Then another character was a half-woman, half-cheetah --
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Og så er det ein annan karakter som var halvt kvinne, halvt gepard --
06:20
a little homage to my life as an athlete.
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ei lita heidring av livet mitt som sportsutøvar.
06:22
14 hours of prosthetic make-up
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14 timar med sminke meint for protesar.
06:25
to get into a creature that had articulated paws,
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for å bli til eit dyr med artikulerte potar,
06:29
claws and a tail that whipped around,
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klør og ein hale som vifta rundt,
06:33
like a gecko.
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som ein øgle.
06:35
(Laughter)
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(Latter)
06:37
And then another pair of legs we collaborated on were these --
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Og så eit anna par bein me samarbeidde på var desse ...
06:41
look like jellyfish legs,
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ser ut som manet bein.
06:43
also polyurethane.
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Også av plast.
06:45
And the only purpose that these legs can serve,
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Det einaste føremålet som desse beina kan tene
06:48
outside the context of the film,
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utanfor ein film kontekst,
06:51
is to provoke the senses and ignite the imagination.
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er å provosera sansane våre og tenna fantasien.
06:54
So whimsy matters.
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Så, det å vimse er viktig
06:57
Today, I have over a dozen pair of prosthetic legs
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Idag har eg over eit dusin par bein protesar.
07:03
that various people have made for me,
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som diverse personar har laga for meg,
07:05
and with them I have different negotiations of the terrain under my feet,
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og med desse har eg forskjellige opplevingar med underlaget.
07:09
and I can change my height --
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Og eg kan endre høgda mi --
07:11
I have a variable of five different heights.
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eg kjem i fem forskjellige høgder.
07:13
(Laughter)
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(Latter)
07:15
Today, I'm 6'1".
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Idag er eg 1,85m.
07:17
And I had these legs made a little over a year ago
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Og eg fekk lagd desse beina litt over eit år sidan
07:20
at Dorset Orthopedic in England
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ved Dorset Ortopedisk i England
07:22
and when I brought them home to Manhattan,
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og når eg brakte dei med meg heim til Manhattan,
07:24
my first night out on the town, I went to a very fancy party.
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hadde eg mi første natt ute på byen, på eit veldig fancy party.
07:26
And a girl was there who has known me for years
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Og det var ei jente der som hadde kjend meg i fleire år
07:29
at my normal 5'8".
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med mine normale 1.73m.
07:31
Her mouth dropped open when she saw me,
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Ho måpa idet ho såg meg,
07:33
and she went, "But you're so tall!"
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og ho forsatte med, "Men du er så høg!"
07:36
And I said, "I know. Isn't it fun?"
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Og eg sa, "Eg veit. Er det ikkje morosamt?"
07:38
I mean, it's a little bit like wearing stilts on stilts,
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Vel, det er litt som å ha stylter oppå styler,
07:40
but I have an entirely new relationship to door jams
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men eg har eit heilt nytt forhold til dør karmar
07:43
that I never expected I would ever have.
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som eg aldri hadde forventa eg skulle ha.
07:45
And I was having fun with it.
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Og eg hadde det gøy med det.
07:48
And she looked at me,
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Ho såg på meg,
07:50
and she said, "But, Aimee, that's not fair."
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og så sa ho, "Men, Aimee, det er ikkje rettferdig."
07:52
(Laughter)
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(Latter)
07:55
(Applause)
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(Applaus)
07:57
And the incredible thing was she really meant it.
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Og det utrulege var at ho verkeleg meinte det.
08:01
It's not fair that you can change your height,
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Det er ikkje rettferdig at du kan forandra høgda di,
08:03
as you want it.
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som du berre vil.
08:05
And that's when I knew --
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Og det var då eg visste --
08:07
that's when I knew that the conversation with society
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det var då eg visste at dialogen i samfunnet,
08:10
has changed profoundly
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har endra seg fundamentalt
08:12
in this last decade.
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det siste tiåret.
08:14
It is no longer a conversation about overcoming deficiency.
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Det er ikkje lengre ei dialog om å koma over feil og manglar.
08:19
It's a conversation about augmentation.
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Det er ein dialog om forbetring.
08:21
It's a conversation about potential.
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Det er ein dialog om potensialet.
08:25
A prosthetic limb doesn't represent the need to replace loss anymore.
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Ein protese treng ikkje representera behovet for å erstatta eit tap lengre.
08:30
It can stand as a symbol that the wearer
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Det kan stå som eit symbol om at beraren
08:33
has the power to create whatever it is that they want to create
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har styrken til å få til kva enn dei vil
08:36
in that space.
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i det rommet.
08:38
So people that society once considered to be disabled
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Slik at folk som samfunnet ein gong tok for å vere funksjonshemma
08:41
can now become the architects of their own identities
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kan nå vere arkitektane av deira eigne identitetar
08:46
and indeed continue to change those identities
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og halde fram med å utvikle dei identitetane
08:48
by designing their bodies
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gjennom å designa kroppane deira
08:50
from a place of empowerment.
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frå eit myndiggjord ståsted.
08:53
And what is exciting to me so much right now
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Og det som verkeleg begeistrar meg no
08:58
is that by combining cutting-edge technology --
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er at ved å kombinera banebrytande teknologi --
09:02
robotics, bionics --
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robotikk, biomekanikk --
09:04
with the age-old poetry,
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med den eldgamle poesien,
09:06
we are moving closer to understanding our collective humanity.
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kjem me nærare ei forståing av vår kollektive humanitet.
09:12
I think that if we want to discover the full potential
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Eg trur at om me vil oppdaga det fulle potensialet
09:17
in our humanity,
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i vår humanitet,
09:19
we need to celebrate those heartbreaking strengths
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så treng me å feira dei hjerteskjerande styrkane.
09:23
and those glorious disabilities that we all have.
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og dei flotte funksjonshemmingane som me alle har.
09:26
I think of Shakespeare's Shylock:
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I tenkjar på Shakespeare's Shylock:
09:29
"If you prick us, do we not bleed,
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"Om du stikk oss, blør me då ikkje?"
09:33
and if you tickle us, do we not laugh?"
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"Og om du kitlar oss, ler me då ikkje?"
09:36
It is our humanity,
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Det er vår humanitet,
09:39
and all the potential within it,
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og alt potensialet i det,
09:41
that makes us beautiful.
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som gjer oss vakre.
09:44
Thank you.
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Takk så mykje.
09:45
(Applause)
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(Applaus)
Translated by Nils Norman Haukås
Reviewed by Martin Hassel

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ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Aimee Mullins - Athlete and actor
A record-breaker at the Paralympic Games in 1996, Aimee Mullins has built a career as a model, actor and advocate for women, sports and the next generation of prosthetics.

Why you should listen

Aimee Mullins was born without fibular bones, and had both of her legs amputated below the knee when she was an infant. She learned to walk on prosthetics, then to run -- competing at the national and international level as a champion sprinter, and setting world records at the 1996 Paralympics in Atlanta. At Georgetown, where she double-majored in history and diplomacy, she became the first double amputee to compete in NCAA Division 1 track and field.

After school, Mullins did some modeling -- including a legendary runway show for Alexander McQueen -- and then turned to acting, appearing as the Leopard Queen in Matthew Barney's Cremaster Cycle. In 2008 she was the official Ambassador for the Tribeca/ESPN Sports Film Festival.

She's a passionate advocate for a new kind of thinking about prosthetics, and recently mentioned to an interviewer that she's been looking closely at MIT's in-development powered robotic ankle, "which I fully plan on having."

More profile about the speaker
Aimee Mullins | Speaker | TED.com