Superhuman exhibit about human augmentation at London's Wellcome

Yesterday, London's Wellcome Collection opened the doors to a fascinating new exhibition about the future and past of human augmentation, titled Superhuman. It runs until October 16 and there is some incredible imagery and other materials available online as well. I'm particularly intrigued by the way artists push on the cultural and psychological complexities of human augmentation by creating work that blurs the line between our technology and ourselves. Above is an image from artist Floris Kaayk's 2006 faux documentary Metalosis Meligna, about a disease in which implants become parasitic, devouring their host bodies.

Glasses, lipstick, false teeth, the contraceptive pill and even your mobile phone – we take for granted how commonplace human enhancements are. Current scientific developments point to a future where cognitive enhancers and medical nano robots will be widespread as we seek to augment our beauty, intelligence and health.

Superhuman takes a broad and playful look at our obsession with being the best we can be. Items on display range from an ancient Egyptian prosthetic toe to a packet of Viagra, alongside contributions from artists such as Matthew Barney and scientists, ethicists and commentators working at the cutting edge of this most exciting, and feared, area of modern science.

Superhuman

• [Malachi Wolfe]

  Wasn’t there a short film about this?
  EDIT: Disregard that, I sew socks. Video was linked in the article. Very powerful, though. I’m glad to see there’s an actual exhibit!

• [royaltrux]

  eww that picture is uncanny…

• [BombBlastLightingWaltz]

  Resistance is futile.  

  Looked like Star Trek’s Borg when first seeing this.

  Woot! On the SuperHuman Quiz I scored 550 points more then the average SuperHuman Quiz taker and a bonus 1 second faster then the average time.
  Try it, it is fun.

  http://www.wellcomecollection.org/whats-on/exhibitions/superhuman/superhuman-quiz.aspx

  • [Dan Hibiki]

    The normal British completion is pale, but not pale enough to look like a borg.

• [Visceral Vixen]

  Oh ok, because nobody has said it yet:
  “I never asked for this.” 

  *ducks the rotten fruit*

• [Spitty Sumo]

  wasn’t metalosis first diagnosed in japan in the late 8os?

• [macegr]

  Floris Kaayk, of course, being the “Jarno Smeets” of the Birdman hoax this March.

• [Chris]

  It is inevitable that robots will change our world and we will all probably become cyborgs. We can work with the change or fight against it… 
  On another matter, hopefully the robots won’t then rise up and destroy us all – that would suck.  http://technyou.edu.au/2012/07/thinking-robots/