As part of the 3rd Istanbul Design Biennial, the newly created e-flux Architecture, a division of the online art publication e-flux, is curating a reading room exhibition and series of written works that will also be available online. Under the title Superhumanity, editors Beatriz Colomina, Nikolaus Hirsch, Anton Vidokle, and Mark Wigley have gathered over 50 writers, scientists, artists, architects, designers, philosophers, historians, archeologists, and anthropologists to comment on the biennial’s theme, Are We Human?. Since September, e-flux Architecture has been publishing essays that explore the relationship between design and humanity. Contributors to Superhumanity include Andrew Herscher, Keller Easterling, Joseph Grima, Sanford Kwinter, and Liam Young.
Co-editor Nikolaus Hirsch explained the driving inquiry behind the project, and the breadth of design that was being examined. “Our question is: What is design today? Who designed the lives we live today? How does one contribute to such a world in which design is almost everywhere, not only in the newest chair but in online identities, personal devices, new materials, interfaces, networks, infrastructures,
data, organisms, and genetic codes?”
e-flux Architecture will publish contributions to Superhumanity, on the web, and through email dispatches. The Superhumanity reading room at the Istanbul Biennial will be on exhibit from October 22 through November 20 at DEPO (Tütün Deposu Lüleci Hendek Caddesi No.12, Tophane 34425 Istanbul).
