The exhibution ‘BodyDrift – Anatomies of the Future’ consists of three parts: Better Bodies, the Biometric Body and Beyond the Body. Find out more about the part Beyond the Body here.
Technology does not have to relate directly to the body in order to affect our relationship with it. Digitalization and the way we interact with data have also fundamentally altered society. Activities that were previously the preserve of human beings, such as driving, providing care, trading stocks or analysing data are now performed by devices and software. The killing of human beings by autonomously operating drones could soon be added to the list. The body seems slowly to be disappearing from the stage.
In economic terms, capital has traditionally amounted to human labour and raw materials: nowadays it’s data. As a result, the physical world has been made subordinate to the digital and our bodies to the information that can be gathered on them. Algorithms can use that information to predict our behaviour with great accuracy, meaning that they know us better than we know ourselves.
Some people applaud this development, arguing that it is time for humans to make way for a new entity, artificial intelligence. The works in this group have therefore left the human body behind. They show how manipulable we have become both physically and mentally, and ask us to consider how much ‘self’ we still retain. Some of them manifest themselves in that other, digital world we have created, where not even death needs to be the end any more.
More Articles
Posthumanism: nowadays we get to decide for ourselves who we will become
In an age where our lives are inextricably tied up with new techniques and technologies, it’s important to pause from time to time to reflect on how these things are influencing both us and our society.
Avatars, your wardrobe of wearable identities
Heera Shin researched the development of metaverses and avatars and asked herself: how do we care for this growing number of avatars, our digital identities?
A complete guide of metaverse terms you need to know
As not to get left behind as digitalisation rapidly develops, FashionUnited has compiled a selection of terms and words that are imperative to understanding this vast new realm.
So Posthuman (3): Monstrous humans and human monsters
Afgerukte ledematen, ontbindende lijken en afstotelijke monsters. Net als in het posthumanisme staat in gothic het lichaam centraal. Toevallig? Volgens curator Tomas van den Heuvel niet.
So Posthuman (2): Capsules: the ‘bubbles’ of the Sixties
In what is also known as ‘the Inflatable Era’, inflatable architecture was manufactured as a prerequisite for a new, nomadic way of life. Space travel served as the inspiration for these capsules. However, are these high-tech hide-outs post-human or not?
So Posthuman (1): Open your eyes
Posthuman; once your eyes are opened to it you see it everywhere. But what is it? In this recurring series, curator Fredric Baas explains. In the first column, Baas focuses on the changing human body, something Austrian designers were already investigating in the 1960s.
What is it like to be posthuman? (part 1)
Fredric Baas, curator of BodyDrift – Anatomies of the Future, spent two years researching the ‘posthuman’ theme. He shares the fruits of that research in this series of articles.
BodyDrift part 1: Better Bodies
The works shown in the part ‘Better Bodies’ of the exhibition share a fundamental belief in the human body. The body is extended, embellished, defended or armed, ready to face the future.
BodyDrift part 2: The Biometric Body
The body is becoming increasingly analysed and digitized, with and without our knowledge, steadily blurring the boundary between the private and public sphere. Explore ‘The Biometric Body’ in the exhibition BodyDrift – Anatomies of the Future.
