This text by Bart Lootsma was originally published in the accompanying catalog of the exhibition. You can find the full catalog here.
Haus-Rucker-Co works on the Mind Expanding Program from 1967 to 1971. The program aims to expand human consciousness and man-made environments on different levels.
Haus-Rucker-Co, Mind Expander II, 1969. Photo: Peter Tijhuis, Design Museum Den Bosch.
This starts with the Flyhead, Viewatomizer and Drizzler helmets. Then they make the prototypes Mind Expander I, Mind Expander II, Ballon für Zwei and Yellow Heart. Ultimately, this resulted in the urban concept of Pneumakosmos. The Electric Skin clothing range is also part of the project.
The Mind Expanders are considered by Haus-Rucker-Co as a mind-expanding program. The idea is that the expanded minds will ultimately form the basis of a new urban order. Haus-Rucker-Co proposes a city and a society that are entirely formed by individual bodies and expanded minds in the (inflatable) structures designed by them.
Haus-Rucker-Co, Gelbes Herz, 1967–68. Courtesy Günther Zamp Kelp.
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