Conjoined Illusion
Autumn Winter 2014
`The world is only so much real as the image of a person in a mirror ́.
What is real? What is illusive? Visual illusions and mirroring do exist, but they are arduously to understand
for our brain. They are not touchable. Our cognitive faculty gets irritated. If we look at objects
from different perspectives they seem to change their shape, but they are still the same. Also mirroring
or reflection can distort and create different images of objects. But does this at the same time mean
that they are not real? Is an illusion a falsehood or just an unexpected point of seeing objects, lines
and shapes? Are the images at the moment, when they get realised by a person, as real as the object
itself? They exist in our visual perception.
Sometimes our visual perception can be dazzled, because of optical illusions. Carolin Holzhuber‘s aim
was to create a design for footwear that transforms this disturbance of our understanding into real,
touchable objects. Some meant to be as sculptures and others as wearable shoes.
Furthermore Carolin was looking at medical areas and did research about conjoined twins.
Conjoined twins are identical twins joined in utero. Fascinated by the different types of conjoined
twins Carolin concentrated on three types to evolve designs for the heels and uppers of the collection
Conjoined Illusion. Parasitic twins: Twins that are asymmetrically conjoined, resulting in one twin that is
small, less formed, and dependent on the larger twin for survival.
Craniopagus: Fused skulls, but separate bodies. These twins can be conjoined at the back of the
head, the front of the head, or the side of the head, but not on the face or the base of the skull.
Craniopagus Parasiticus: Like Craniopagus, but with a second bodiless head attached to the
dominant head.
This research helped to develop the idea of the conjoined soles and also to find different solutions
and ways how to connect them.