Lucy McRae is a Body Architect exploring the relationship between the body, technology and the grey areas of synthetic and organic materials. She invents playful, imaginary worlds steered by complex scientific challenges to create portals of possibility that provoke the way people embody the future.
Trained in classical ballet and interior design, Lucy staked her claim as the world’s premier Body Architect during her formative years at Philips Design. Working in the far future design research lab she developed stretchable electronics, an electronic tattoo and a range of emotional sensing dresses awarded Time’s Best Fashion Invention in 2007.
On a search for beauty in the biological Lucy invented the Swallowable Parfum a scented capsule that releases a genetically unique fragrance through the skins surface. A serendipitous encounter with Swedish pop icon Robyn, resulted in a colour changing liquid textile for her Indestructible single; echoing their shared thinking that 'Technology are feathers for the body'. Set on challenging the limits and borders of the body Lucy was then invited to join the TED Fellowship programme in 2012 and spoke at TED Long Beach about How Technology will Transform the Body.
Operating on the fringes of magic, emotion and intuition her projects use speculative storytelling to evoke and catalyse innovation and transformational shifts within the art, biotech, beauty, healthcare and life sciences. Interfacing the body with the spheres of architecture and science Lucy seeks to discover the unexpected, convinced epiphany is a crucial link in creativity and innovation.
As she frays the edges of science and technology, she has received commissions from Nick Knight, Vogue, Aésop, Johan Renck, Channel 4, Nowness, Robyn, Architecture In Helsinki, Hyper Island and Bernard Willhelm, exhibiting at the Pompidou and Palais de Tokyo. Clients call on the innate way she examines the future of technology, likely to yield new business for brands. Through her artistic lens she has consulted with Swarovski, Proctor & Gamble, Intel and Frank Gehry.
Perhaps partly because of the intriguing ambiguity of her job description or the unconventional duality of her artistic study of technology Lucy is listed as one of the fifty people shaping the future.
CLIENTS Aésop Bernhard Willhelm Broached Commissions Centre Pompidou Channel4 Design Academy Hyper Island Johan Renck Levi's Miss Chu Nick Knight Palais de Tokyo Philips Design Robyn RMIT Swarovski Vogue
Awards 2013 Advance Global Australian Award nominee 2013 Channel 4 ‘Random Acts’ Film Commission 2012 TED Fellow, Long Beach TED Conference 2012 Fast Company ‘50 people shaping the future’ 2012 Venice Biennale architecture jury member 2012 Australia Unlimited Global 50 2012 ‘Morphe’ film awarded ‘Advertising prize’ at Centre Pompidou at ASVOFF5 2010 VIMEO ‘Staff Pick’ 2007 Time Magazine’s Fashion Invention Award