“Prototype” by Viktoria Modesta – A Singular Soundtrack by Decimononic

If do not know who Viktoria Modesta is, you might be interested to know that she was our first “Ambassador of Singularity’.

During The X Factor Final on ITV, on Sunday 14th December  2014, Channel 4 launched this video as part of the channel’s brand campaign, ‘Born Risky’. Channel 4 decided to give Viktoria this opportunity because she is different to any other contemporary pop artist: ‘She treats her amputeeism as empowering, as part of her artistic expression which can thrill and influence – not an accident of nature which demands sympathy. Viktoria’s Prototype shines a light on stigma, questions normal ideas of sex and beauty and celebrates being different’.

Some words about Prototype video

As Viktoria Modesta said: ‘For a long time, pop culture closed its doors on me as an amputee and alternative artist. I think people have always found it hard to know what to think or feel about an amputee who wasn’t trying to be an Olympian. In sports, ‘overcoming’ a disability makes you a hero, but in pop there is no place for these feelings,” she adds. “I have never felt comfortable thinking of myself as disabled and this has inspired me to actively challenge old-fashioned views and create a platform in mainstream pop-culture, with other artists, where I have always known I belonged. The time for boring ethical discussions around disability is over. It’s only through feelings of admiration, aspiration, curiosity and envy that we can move forward’.

Saam Farahmand, Video Director, stated: ‘Through this video, pop culture had to engage the physical reality of amputation as a poetic concept rather than a medical procedure. The video had to create an unapologetic and less ‘morality-riddled’ forum for someone like Viktoria to exist in the mainstream. Like Viktoria, it bores me that the only way an amputee can be relevant is to achieve something that people easily understand. Culture currently dictates that we view disability from a position of wholesome admiration and empathy. This video challenges that convention’.

The video goes… ‘Forget what you know about disability. Some of us were born to be different. Some of us were born to take risks’. Well, we believe that we all are born different, and entitled to be. However, not we all dare to. Do you? If so, join us… #BeSingular

Prototype Video Credits

4Creative

• Creative Heads: Chris Bovill & John Allison
• Group Business Director: Olivia Browne
• Exec & 4 Creative Producer: Miketta Lane
• Producer: Nicola Brown

Video Production

• Production Company: Rogue Films
• Director: Saam Farahmand
• Rogue Producer: Kate Hitchings

Music Production

• Music Director: Pitch & Sync
• Written by Roy Kerr, Hero and Viktoria Modesta

Video making-of

• Director – Liz Unna
• Producer – Amy James
• Production Company – HSI London