Despite its dazzling, hyperbolic rhetoric, the third Istanbul Design Biennial largely delivers on its assertions.
Contemporary life seems to allow, even require, a stretch beyond human capacity. Think of the limits we seek to surpass, through daily fitness goals and body-honing machines, age-defying toxins and artificial insemination, interplanetary travel and supersonic speed.
And yet, as shown by the kaleidoscopic responses to Are We Human?, the title of this year’s Istanbul Design Biennial, there is no such thing as an authentic human condition, unless it is understood to be synonymous with the act of design itself. So say the event’s curators, the architectural academics Mark Wigley and Beatriz Colomina, who maintain that the human is a “totally designed” being. It’s a position that demolishes any notion of professional siloism; indeed, every facet of life demonstrates the human intellect shaping and forming conditions to suit itself.
This explains the biennial’s carnivalesque range of participants—not only bona fide designers but also artists,architects, scientists, filmmakers, historians, theorists, choreographers, and even archaeologists—and works, from installations to panels to near-ubiquitous video. All together, they ask whether it is even possible to consider being human without also considering the way we “design” our lives, and how these products of design have in turn “designed” us. In a way, this could be seen as an ultimate catchall—a cop-out as a polemic theme—but the constellation of works possess rather profound implications for, within, and outside the design field.
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة December 2016 من Metropolis Magazine.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
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هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة December 2016 من Metropolis Magazine.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك? تسجيل الدخول
No New Buildings
The energy already embodied in the built environment is a precious unnatural resource. It’s time to start treating it like one.
The Circular Office
Major manufacturers are exploring every avenue to close the loop on workplace furniture.
Signs of Life
Designers, curators, and entrepreneurs are scrambling to make sense of motherhood in a culture that’s often hostile to it.
Interspecies Ethic
In probing the relationship between humans and nature, two major exhibitions question the very foundations of design practice.
Building on Brand
The Bauhaus turned 100 this year, and a crop of museum buildings sprang up for the celebration.
Building for Tomorrow, Today
Radical change in the building industry is desperately needed. And it cannot happen without the building trades.
Strength from Within
Maggie’s Centres, the service-focused cancer support network, eschews clinical design to arm patients in their fight for life.
Next-Level Living
The availability of attractive, hospitality-grade products on the market means everyday consumers can live the high life at home.
Mi Casa, Su Casa
Casa Perfect creates a memorable shopping experience in lavish private homes.
Enter The Culinarium
AvroKO imagines the future of residential amenities—where convenience, comfort, and sustainability meet.