ARE WE HUMAN? : The Design of the Species : 2 seconds, 2 days, 2 years, 200 years, 200,000 years

The 3rd Istanbul Design Biennial announces the publication of Are we Human? Notes on an Archaeology of Design by Beatriz Colomina and Mark Wigley. This polemical book is a set of detailed field notes by the co-curators of the biennial that opens next week. It explores the ideas that initiated the project, guided it, grew during it and go far beyond it. These reflections reboot the conversation on design in the face of a planet and a species in unprecedented crisis.

The question “are we human?” is both urgent and ancient. Colomina and Wigley offer a multilayered exploration of the intimate relationship between human and design. Their field notes [flip video] offer an archaeology of the way design has gone viral and is now bigger than the world. They range across the last few hundred thousand years and the last few seconds to scrutinize the uniquely plastic relation between brain and artifact. A vivid portrait emerges. Design becomes the way humans ask questions and thereby continuously redesign themselves.

Are we Human? Notes on an Archaeology of Design is published by Lars Müller Publishers (Zurich) in collaboration with Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts (İKSV), and will be launched at the biennial and available soon in stores.

The 3rd Istanbul Design Biennial (preview October 20–21) is entitled:
ARE WE HUMAN? : The Design of the Species : 2 seconds, 2 days, 2 years, 200 years, 200,000 years

The curators initiated the biennial project by launching a manifesto in the Istanbul Archeological Museums on December 1, 2015 and inviting responses by over 70 artists, designers, architects, theorists, choreographers, filmmakers, historians, archaeologists, scientists, labs, collaborations, centers and NGOs.

Participating artists include Tacita Dean, Thomas Demand, Hito Steyerl, Martha Rosler, Tomás Saraceno, Madelon Vriesendrop, Armin Linke, Ali Kazma, Lucy McRae, Pierre Huyghe, Lu Yang, and Antoni Muntadas along with choreographer William Forsythe and film maker Jørgen Leth. Architects and designers include Diller/Scofidio, Rana Salam, Juan Herreros, MOS, Lesley Lloko, François Dallegret, New-Territories, and Territorial Agency. Theorists and historians include Eyal Weizman, Keller Easterling, Anselm Franke, Thomas Keenan, Zeynep Çelik Alexander, and Sohrab Mohebbi. Neuroscientists include Sebastian Seung and his lab at Princeton University and a team from the Zuckerman Institute at Columbia University.

An Open Call for two-minute videos produced 146 videos from more than 37 countries. The Superhumanity collaboration of the curators with Anton Vidokle and Nikolaus Hirsch of e-flux commissioned more than 50 writers to discuss “self-design” in a series of online dispatches. The biennial also initiated Turkey Design Chronology by Curious Assembly, 50 experts doing a major research into all dimensions of design in Turkey over the last 200 years.

Full list of core participants:
Bager Akbay; Atif Akin; Zeynep Çelik Alexander; Venessa Heddle, Elliott Sturtevant; Lucia Allais; Pedro Alonso; Hugo Palmarola; Stefano Boeri; Atelier Bow-Wow; Galina Balashova, Philipp Meuser; Marco Brizzi & Davide Rapp; Brown Institute for Media Innovation, Center for Spatial Research, Zuckerman Institute, Columbia University; Center for Land Use Interpretation; Revital Cohen, Tuur Van Balen; Common Accounts; François Dallegret; Tacita Dean; Thomas Demand; Diller Scofidio; Stéphane Degoutin, Gwenola Wagon; Daniel Eisenberg; Keller Easterling; estudioHerreros; Fake Industries Architectural Agonism; Forensic Architecture, FIBAR: Baltasar Garzón, m7red, Irendra Radjawali; William Forsythe; Anselm Franke; Globaïa; Stuart Grey; Mathew Hale; Nieuwe Instituut; Joyce Hsiang, Bimal Mendis; Natalie Jeremijenko; Lydia Kallipoliti, Andreas Theodoridis;  Ali Kazma; Thomas Keenan, Sohrab Mohebbi, with Charles Heller and Lorenzo Pezzani; Axel Kilian; Laura Kurgan; Jørgen Leth; Jose Lirá; The Living / Sculpting Evolution Group; Lesley Lokko; Marshmallow Laser Feast, Analog, FBFX, Duologue; m-a-u-s-e-r; McEwen Studio; Lucy McRae; Enric Miralles, Benedetta Tagliabue; Domi Mora; MOS; Antoni Muntadas; NEMESTUDIO; New Territories / M4 with Pierre Huyghe; Spyros Papapetros; Jussi Parikka, Ayhan Ayteş; PATTU; Martha Rosler; Rana Salam; Alfredo Thiermann, Ariel Bustamante; Tomás Saraceno; Sebastian Seung, Amie Sterling; SO?; Hito Steyerl; Studio Works; Paulo Tavares, Armin Linke; Orkan Telhan; Territorial Agency; Universal Space Program; Madelon Vriesendrop, Mark Wasiuta, Florencia Alvarez, Adam Bandler; Lu Yang; Annett Zinsmeister