Superpower Design
Ever faster, stronger, more beautiful, more intelligent, the cult of individual performance has taken hold in a technological society where the body seems increasingly to be seen as an improvable tool. Can design turn us into superheroes? That is the topic of the brand new exhibition at CID - Le Grand Hornu.
Francesca Lanzavecchia and Hunn Wai Metamorfosi Vegetali - Copyright Davide Farabegoli
In the contemporary technological and digital world, design is a tool for thinking and creating about improving our physical, intellectual and emotional capabilities. But this involvement raises a series of medical, ethical, social and philosophical questions. Indeed, this desire to go beyond one's biological limits is part of a cultural and social context and reflects a way of making society that it is important to question. After having shaped the world around us, what is the role of the designer in a society that wants to make us super-human?
The pursuit of performance, the drive to be faster, stronger, more beautiful and more intelligent, established itself as a model for social behaviour in the 1980s. Sporting prowess, mass consumption and professional ambition have become the dogmas for a society committed to constant growth.
As a species, humans have always adapted to their environment, but the demands we face when it comes to performance continue to grow, and are evolving fast. Associated both with success and with excess, this culture of striving for “more, more, more” drives us towards a new way of adapting so that we aren’t left behind: enhancement. These days, we don’t just try to repair a body, we attempt to perfect it. A kind of body design, the “art of non-medical transformation” to improve individual performance by scientifically or technologically tweaking the body.
Can design turn us into superheroes?
Albert Camus once said: “Man is the only creature who refuses to be what he is”. This observation takes on its full meaning in the current quest for a perfect being blessed with “super powers”. However, this notion of an enhanced human makes us more aware of our own fragility. Technology seems to be the solution to this quest for standardised perfection. But couldn’t this technology be used to serve less individualistic ideals than human performance?
Thanks to design, could the superhuman of the future be more empathetic, more social, more environmentally responsible, in other words: more human?
Human Repairs
Our body is the result of some amazing evolutionary engineering. However, this phenomenal machine is still fragile, and will probably have to undergo some repairs and tweaks during the course of its existence. Bionic prostheses, exoskeletons, bioprinting, nanotechnology and biotechnology: our modern world has managed to develop a whole arsenal of solutions that make it possible to repair a traumatised or diseased body. We can replace mutilated limbs, correct malfunctions and discover capabilities that have been lost.
The application of industrial design to repairing the human body has come on in leaps and bounds during the 20th and 21st centuries. Indeed, ever since the famous splint designed by Charles and Ray Eames in 1942, design has been involved in the transformation of the healthcare landscape. Technological progress, scientific discoveries and social changes have created a growing need for innovation in healthcare environments. Design is not limited to aesthetics: it plays an important role in ergonomics, functionality and the user experience of therapeutic equipment, which can have a significant impact on patient care and wellbeing.
However, the dizzying speed of technological advances demands constant adjustments to designs in order to meet society’s growing needs. In future, there might be a change in perspective in the field of medicine and medical technology. Indeed, repairs could go even further than just correcting existing damage, improving an individual’s natural capabilities, above and beyond their standard levels.
Human Improvements
From the economy to technology, via the world’s population, we live in an environment where growth is everywhere we turn. The concept of improved humans, carrying out day-to-day tasks more efficiently, but also capable of going beyond their own limits, is one of the consequences of this unstoppable growth.
The body seems increasingly to be perceived as a tool that can be improved. By sport, by medicine or by cosmetic surgery, but also by the use of psychostimulants that boost cooperation and cognitive performance.
In reality, we are already new and improved humans!
Wearable technology like watches and smart clothes, or intelligent earbuds, are all devices that help to analyse, calculate and adjust our bodies. Measuring sleep, health and physical activity, this technology adapts in real time, to our morphology as well as to our everyday tasks. These new objects have emerged, driving forward the transformation of our day-to-day lives, changing the way we communicate, work, have fun, and even take care of our health. This discreet, yet potent revolution has profound ramifications in many different aspects of our lives, redefining the way we interact with the world around us.
In sport, these devices have broadened the realms of possibility: monitoring performance, customisation, managing recovery, preventing injury and honing training strategies. As technology continues to progress, it is likely that its impact on the world of sport will only get bigger, opening up new possibilities for athletes and sports fans. But there are some ethical questions regarding the influence of this technology on the integrity of sport.
We are witnessing a fusion between technology and the body. But future developments could lead to more radical enhancements and raise some much more complex questions. Indeed, it is vital that we consider the ethical, social and cultural implications of these advances. The term “enhanced human” may trigger concerns about the creation of social disparities, unequal access to technology, data protection and non-consensual human genetic modification.
Human Enhancements
As we have seen, rapid technological advances are opening up new possibilities when it comes to how we interact with our environment and, even more importantly, with our own body. Human enhancement - or anthropotechnics - is defined as any modification designed to improve human performance, permitted by bodily interventions based on scientific and technological principles.
This performance may be physical, intellectual or emotional. In his reflections on the development of an anthropotechnic environment, Jérome Goffette explores a whole array of extra-medical practices focusing on human enhancement including boosting strength, sharpening intelligence, managing procreation, modulating sexuality, adjusting aesthetics and altering emotions.
Enhancing the human body, which is often associated with advances such as smart prosthetics, virtual reality and even genetic modification, raises a whole host of ethical questions. Against this backdrop, design plays a key role in shaping these innovations responsibly, taking into account the social, psychological and philosophical implications of human enhancement. Could our brains cope with an extra eye, a third thumb, or a robotic tail that extends our spine? Designers have a responsibility when it comes to creating tools to improve the lives of individuals, whilst also respecting their fundamental rights. Responsibility, informed consent, social inclusiveness and the preservation of individual identity are the new challenges faced by the idea of “designing” the human body.
Human enhancement raises questions about the society in which we are living. Speculative design will give our society a new approach, dedicated to exploring and challenging potential futures.
Superhuman
This vision of our future that only considers an essentially technoscientific approach to human progress completely disregards the idea of social progress. However, if we consider the ideal of human perfectibility inherited from the humanism of the Enlightenment, the emancipation of human beings relies more than anything else on improving the conditions of their social and political lives. These techniques for improving our intellectual and physical capabilities are driving humans to feel imperfect and dysfunctional. Indeed, this race towards performance and perfection puts us in a situation in which the fragility of our bodies, associated with their status as living organisms, becomes an “illness” that needs to be treated.
Instead of imagining an efficient, flawless superhuman, couldn’t we come up with alternatives that could enhance other capabilities, such as empathy, inclusion or creativity? Instead of being stronger, faster, more attractive people, couldn’t we be better at communicating, more sociable and more environmentally responsible? For historian Yuval Noah Harari, the fragility of human beings is broadly offset by their capacity to work together with one another.
Being aware of this fragility could be an alternative to these technological improvements, allowing us to refocus on this need to be connected to one another. In his research project, Prosthetic X, Isaac Monté has come up with a collection of prosthetics that can be used as aesthetic indicators of whether (certain) body parts do or do not work. They change as they react to personal social data, health data and external measures. For the Belgian designer, Prosthetic X explores how non-invasive health-monitoring tools will give us an overview of social, mental and physical health. They will reinforce empathy, celebrate knowledge and combat the threat of solitude, isolation and the health problems of an ageing population.
Homo sapiens is also Homo faber, made of a combination of theory, technique and even “bricolage”. This “bricolage” offers design a key role. Indeed, since its very early days, design has focused on shaping the world around us. Over the last few years, this discipline has been involved in biomedical processes such as biotechnology, neuroscience and medical engineering.
The brainchild of Jasna Rok Trypophilia is a collection of sensitive clothing that allows us to make our emotions visible and facilitate their communication. It acts like an augmented, intelligent skin, enveloping the wearer in an intimate, expanded perception of themselves (health, emotions, thoughts) and of the world around them. Thanks to high-tech clothing, the Belgian designer creates empathetic objects that facilitate communication by offering humans the chance to forge more tangible connections between one another.
Designers
Alan Hook et la Ulster University, Amoena Medizin-Orthopädie-Technik GmbH. Bruno Aubert – SoleCooler, Cerhum, Charles et Ray Eames, Cheng Chang, Circleg, Dani Clode, Didier Fiùza Faustino, Dyson, Filippo Nasetti, Freyja Sewell, Govert Flint, Iga Węglińska, IOL Design, Isaac Monté, Jann Choy, Jasna Rokegem, Kuang-Yi Ku, Lanzavecchia + Wai (Francesca Lanzavecchia and Hunn Wai), Laura Deschl, Marc Sapetti, MHOX - Filippo Nassetti et Alessandro Zomparelli, Minwook Paeng, Morgan Chen, Nike, Orthopédie Protechnik, Paul Gong, Pleun Van Dijk, Professeur Alice Roberts, Sruli Recht, Rafael Gil Corderio, Rosie Broadhead, Sascha Nordmeyer, Scaled Tech, Susanna Hertrich, Wisear, Zygintas Papartis
Superpower Design at CID Le Grand Hornu: 24.03.24 → 25.08.24
