HUMAN DESIGN or EVOLUTION?

Now on video! Sissel Tolaas : The world from the perspective of the nose

beloffl1 — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 18:05:54 +0000

Video: Sissel Tolaas: The world from the perspective of the nose

Now on video! Auger & Loizeau talking at Aalto Media Factory 2012

beloffl1 — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 14:44:02 +0000

Video: James Auger & Jimmy Loizeau: Speculative Futures and Alternative Presents

Jimmy Loizeau

James Auger

Now on video! Unfixing Biology; Rethinking Mortality by Natasha Vita-More

beloffl1 — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 14:17:30 +0000

“Wei Po-yang called his students together and said,
‘I think I have succeeded in making the pill of immortality,
but before we take it, we should test it on the dog’” (Mantak).

The palatability of human enhancement may be in its therapeutic aim to heal the sick, mend the injured, and append the lame. Outside these valuable qualities, the extent of enhancement can also seek to regenerate degenerating cells, implement methods for increasing cognition, design sensory systems for a broadening array of perceptual experiences, and to draft, model and implement prototypes for alternative whole body systems. The crux of human enhancement is to integrate with emerging and speculative technologies in order to change the terms of death. In sort, the human, is unfixing its biology and rethinking its mortality.

Yet there is a tension: How can we be both human and otherwise—a transhuman, a concept that is linked to morphological freedom and substrate-independent minds (uploads).

This talk turns to the issue of human enhancement, its origination, and the topic of therapeutic vs. selective enhancement, highlighting trepidation of the species-typical division, and marks out the tools of artistic, design-based approaches that seek to extend life and expanding persons beyond biology (and protect the dog).

Natasha Vita-More

Artist/Designer/Theorist

PhD Researcher, Planetary Collegium, University of Plymouth

Director H+ Lab for Transhumanist Approaches to Artistic, Design-Based Enhancement

Chairman, Humanity+

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Video: Natasha Vita-More : Unfixing Biology; Rethinking Mortality

Natasha Vita-More discussing with Auger & Loizeau

Erich Berger

beloffl1 — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 08:21:49 +0000

Austrian-born Erich Berger is an artist and cultural worker based in
Helsinki/ Finland. His interests lie in information processes and
feedback structures, which he investigates through installations,
situations, performances and interfaces. Berger’s work has been shown
and produced internationally, and received a number of awards.
Currently Berger is lecturing at the Fine Art Academy in Vienna/ Austria
and working as coordinator for the Finnish Society of Bioart in
Helsinki/ Finland. randomseed.org

Andy Best

beloffl1 — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 17:15:49 +0000

Andy Best is an artist, researcher and educator based in Finland. He was born in the South of England in 1963. He studied Fine Art (Sculpture) in Cardiff, Wales, before coming to Finland with a study scholarship in 1988. He studied sculpture at Kuvataideakatemia, Helsinki, for two years. His first one person exhibition in 1989 was also the first exhibition to be held at the now defunct Vapauden Aukio gallery in the centre of Helsinki, which was on the site of the new Music House.

Andy has participated in numerous group and one person exhibitions in Finland and internationally. Andy has run the Digital Arts degree programme at Turku University of Applied Sciences since 2002 and gives lectures and workshops at other art academies and universities. He is a researcher and PhD candidate in the Crucible Studio, Media Lab, Aalto University School of Art and Design, Helsinki.

http://www.andyandmerja.com/

Alastair Fuad-Luke

beloffl1 — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 17:11:08 +0000

Alastair Fuad-Luke is a sustainable design consultant, facilitator, lecturer and writer. He is a contributor to the international debate about design and sustainability, and author of The Eco-Design Handbook. He works with diverse clients in Denmark, France and the UK. Currently he is Project Manager for DEEDS (Design Education & Sustainability, www.deedsproject.org) supported by the EU Leonardo da Vinci programme. He is also a visiting lecturer at the University of Plymouth, University College for the Creative Arts, University College Falmouth, and Royal College of Arts in the UK, and has also lectured in the Europe, USA, New Zealand and Australia. http://www.fuad-luke.com/

Sam Inkinen

beloffl1 — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 16:50:34 +0000

Dr. Sam Inkinen is a well-known Finnish media scholar, lecturer, writer, journalist and consultant. He lectures regularly in various European universities and acts as an advisor for several R&D projects. Sam Inkinen also writes columns and articles for several magazines. His areas of expertise include e.g. the media and information society, the experience economy, creativity and innovation management, networks, tribes, identities, new media technologies, content production, electronic aesthetics. http://inkinen.org/cgi-bin/sam.pl?sid=1&kid=2

Consequent Outlooks; wearable devices with artistic objectives by Laura Beloff : video

beloffl1 — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 16:41:56 +0000

Instead of considering wearable technology devices as prosthetic tools that aim to aid and enhance the human body, the presentation investigates the impact of wearable technology to an individual’s perception of reality. The talk concentrates especially on projects that are emerging within the arts and which have more conceptual and holistic approach in comparison to projects that aim at developing purposeful tools for particular tasks.
The author considers wearable technological devices as newly constructed human faculties, which impact our perception of the world and of a human (body). The focus is in projects that are networked and which, in a sense, construct a new network faculty for a human. The talk also presents some of the author’s wearable technology works.

Video: Laura Beloff: Consequent outlooks

Design for Evolution by Professor Andy Miah : now on VIDEO

beloffl1 — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 18:05:46 +0000

How should we imagine the future of humanity in order to permit the utilization of human enhancement technologies, while remaining mindful of the risks that could arise from tampering with evolutionary processes. How can humanity design *for* its evolution, taking into account the range of capacities that humans may require in the future and considering the kinds of lives people wish to lead in the present? This talk will address the interface of design and evolution, so as to approach a responsible approach to human enhancement.

Video: Andy Miah: Design for evolution 2012

at Aalto Media Factory, Helsinki Jan 2012

Stelarc

beloffl1 — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 09:48:13 +0000

Stelarc is a world-famous performance and robotics artist who has visually probed and acoustically amplified his body. Between 1976-1988 he completed 25 body suspension performances with hooks into the skin. He has used medical instruments, prosthetics, robotics, Virtual Reality systems, the Internet and biotechnology to explore alternate, intimate and involuntary interfaces with the body.

He has performed with a THIRD HAND, a VIRTUAL ARM, a STOMACH SCULPTURE and EXOSKELETON, a 6-legged walking robot. His FRACTAL FLESH, PING BODY and PARASITE performances explored involuntary, remote and internet choreography of the body with electrical stimulation of the muscles. His PROSTHETIC HEAD is an embodied conversational agent that speaks to the person who interrogates it. He has surgically constructed anEXTRA EAR on his arm that will be internet enabled, making it a publicly accessible acoustical organ for people in other places.

http://stelarc.org/?catID=20232