Augmented Bodies - Technologies and Aesthetics of the Future
How do design and aesthetics influence the connections between humans and technology?
The fusion of human beings and machines is already part of everyday life. Technology-based body augmentations are increasingly turning into lifestyle objects which modify naturally given senses and abilities. These developments enable new approaches to design and aesthetics that go beyond already familiar cyborg fantasies.
Design in particular plays a central role in the ‘cyborgisation’ of the human being. The design and aesthetics of future body augmentations will be crucial to the cultural acceptance of technical aids and those who wear and use them. It is therefore of great importance to create new aesthetics in order to demonstrate alternative futures.
Augmented Bodies expands the perspective on close-to and in-body technologies by means of a design-oriented trend study, providing insights into current object worlds and concepts. The speculative product series of the fictitious brand ODO conveys an aesthetic alternative for the design and representation of future body extensions, inviting us to experience technologies as lifestyle and to rethink the future.