Upon entering the section dedicated to the pursuit of performance at the "Superpower Design" exhibition at the Centre d'Innovation et de Design (CID) in Hornu, Belgium, visitors are greeted by a peculiar hybrid figure.
Its upper body resembles that of a woman, while its legs are a blend of human and ostrich. The creature, that also seems to have pointed ears and a marsupial pouch carrying a baby, may appear unsettling at first glance.
However, this creature effectively sets the tone for the exhibition's main theme: the pursuit of enhancing our bodies and capabilities, whether physical, intellectual, or emotional. In our era, various avenues exist for such enhancements, and they also come with doubts, dilemmas, and questions – medical, ethical, social, and philosophical – as we constantly push boundaries in the quest not just for beauty but for self-improvement.
"Superpower Design" (until 25th August) explores how design can facilitate physical and emotional metamorphosis, potentially turning individuals into superheroes.
Design in this exhibition serves as an ideal medium for exploring bodily modifications, acting as a platform for experimentation: numerous designers have proposed products and tools across various sectors – sports, prosthetics, healthcare – that push boundaries and improve lives. Examples include bionic prostheses, exoskeletons, bioprinting, nanotechnology, and biotechnology, which can restore health to traumatized or diseased bodies.
Industrial design's application to "human body repair" has progressed significantly in the 20th and 21st centuries. Since Charles and Ray Eames' iconic splint design in 1942, design has played a crucial role in transforming the healthcare landscape. Beyond aesthetics, design influences ergonomics, functionality, and user experience of therapeutic equipment, impacting patient care and wellbeing. 
The exhibition showcases various design suggestions, ranging from the poetic to the functional. Francesca Lanzavecchia and Hunn Wai's 3D printed finger extensions, inspired by vegetation, metaphorically transform the wearer into a plant, evoking Bernini’s statue of Daphne being transformed into a laurel tree by her father Peneus as she flees from Apollo.
Conversely, Natalie Kerres' Scaled wrist guard, inspired by the scales of lizards and fish, offers a practical wearable system aiding in joint injury rehabilitation.
Collaborating with medical professionals, MHOX and CRP Group designed a series of custom generative hand and leg orthoses, ensuring perfect adaptation to patients' anatomies, aiding in rehabilitation from fractures or surgical operations.
Additionally, Circleg offers functional design solutions, providing affordable lower limb prosthetics for amputees through their Swiss-Kenyan social enterprise.
Design can indeed play a crucial role in replacing mutilated limbs, correcting malfunctions, and discovering lost capabilities, essentially enhancing the human body or even transforming individuals into cyborgs. For instance, the Third Eye, designed to guide and protect the safety of individuals distracted by their smartphone screens, illustrates this concept.
On the other hand, Susanna Hertrich's Jacobson's Fabulous Olfactometer may resemble a restraining device, like a dog's muzzle, but it's actually a wearable device extending the sensorial abilities to detect airborne chemicals and cope in this way with extreme environments.
When a dangerous threshold is exceeded, gears are set in motion and the top lip is pulled upwards to modify the wearer’s face, a facial modification similar to the "flehmen response" observed in animals.
Some design projects are conceptual or purely for pleasure, drawing inspiration from the medical profession. Kuang-Yi Ku's Fellatio Modification Project, for example, is inspired by dentistry yet aims to provide pleasure through innovative design.
Fashion enthusiasts may ponder how fashion can contribute to enhancing human abilities by taking into consideration several projects on display. Iga Węglińska's Emotional Clothing, for instance, explores technological garments acting as sensory prosthetics, utilizing biofeedback to signal psychophysiological changes in the wearer's body such as body temperature, heart rate, electrodermal activity or proprioception (it is interesting to see how early experiments in behavioral garments à la Cinzia Ruggeri have today progressed thanks to new materials).
In a similar way, Jasna Rok's Trypophilia collection introduces sensitive clothing enabling the visualization and communication of emotions (3D printed elements on the designs were created in collaboration with Stratasys).
Serving as augmented, intelligent skins, these garments offer an expanded perception of oneself and the surrounding world, facilitating emotional communication and tangible connections between individuals.
Laura Deschl also worked between fashion and healthcare developing The Healing Imprint, a therapeutic garment that looks like activewear but is made to help heal trauma.
Her custom-knit garments incorporate small massage balls that can be inserted and moved onto specific acupressure points on the body, feet, hands and head. The project was developed to explore the potential of combining acupressure – a non-invasive practice originating in traditional Chinese medicine – with yoga-like movement to treat psychological trauma.
There are some intriguing ideas also for what regards accessories, from Sruli Rech's Venice Heel, imaginary footwear to walk in deep water inspired by Venetian calcagnini.
Filippo Nassetti and Vincenzo Reale focused instead on accessories for the head, creating masks inspired by marine organisms, particularly underwater coral forests. Viewing masks as interfaces between the body and the environment, they use additive manufacturing to produce personalized and artistically designed medical devices, exploring new visual languages for this technique.
The fusion of body and technology, of human enhancement or anthropotechnics, poses complex ethical, social, and cultural questions that demand careful consideration. Concerns about social disparities, unequal access to technology, data protection, and non-consensual human genetic modification arise when discussing enhanced humans. These issues touch upon fundamental moral values such as liberty, autonomy, equality, and human dignity.
Philosophically, the concept of enhancing the human body raises intriguing questions: can our brains adapt to additional appendages, for example, like an extra eye, a third thumb (Dani Clode's project, The Third Thumb, consists in a 3D printed thumb moved by wires connected to motors in the wrist controlled by sensors fitted in the user’s shoes and explores this relationship between body movement and technology control, offering insights into enhancing motor function and understanding neural representation – could it be used for the study of neuropathies or to help people suffering from peripheral neuropathy?), or a robotic tail extending our spine?
Designers bear indeed the responsibility of creating tools that improve lives, but they should do so while respecting fundamental rights. But there's more to consider: amidst concerns about hybrids and societal disparities, further questions emerge about the future of humanity.
If we enhance our humanity, will we be more socially responsible, and therefore more fundamentally human? Instead of solely focusing on physical enhancements, could we prioritize capabilities like empathy, inclusion, and creativity? Isaac Monté's Prosthetic X collection illustrates this idea by using prosthetics as aesthetic indicators of social, mental, and physical health, non-invasive health-monitoring tools, capable of reinforcing empathy, reacting to the threat of solitude and isolation and the health problems of an ageing population.
Time will tell if we will be better versions of ourselves one day, but, for the time being, we can witness the significant revolutions in different disciplines and in design and ponder about the profound implications of this exhibition.
This quest for perfection or for enhancing oneself can indeed be viewed from different perspectives: it reflects our acknowledgment of imperfection and the desire to overcome our bodily fragility. Besides, it serves as a proactive response to avoid being surpassed by the technology we've created. Improving ourselves is indeed essential to staying ahead of technological advancements, as demonstrated by the imperative of developing better skills and critical judgment to employ Artificial Intelligence effectively, for example.
Image credits for this post
1. Installation view, "Superpower Design" @ CID, Hornu, Belgium
2. Francesca Lanzavecchia and Hunn Wai, Metamorfosi Vegetali, Copyright Davide Farabegoli
3 and 4. MHOX, Generative Orthoses Hand 1, 2014, Copyright MHOX
5. Minwook Paeng, The Third Eye, Copyright Minwook Paeng
6. Susanna Hertrich, Jacobson's Fabulous Olfactometer, 2014, Copyright Susanna Hertrich
7. Iga Weglinska, Emotional Clothing, 2021, Copyright Mila Lapko
8. Iga Weglinska, The Sense of Taking Part – short video, 2021, Copyright Mila Lapko
9. Jasna Rok Lab, Trypophilia collection, 2022, Copyright Myrthe Diepeveen Ton Toemen and Stratasys
10. LauraDelsch, The Healing Imprint. Credit: Iris Rijskamp
11. Sruli Recht, Venice Heel HiTide. Credit: Marinó Thorlacius
12. Filippo Nassetti and Vincenzo Reale, Thalassic Masks, 2021, Copyright Paul Farnham
13. Dani Clode Design, The Plasticity Lab, The Third Thumb, 2019, Copyright Dani Clode Design
14. Circleg CirclegOne – Circleg Ambassador 05, 2023, Copyright Henry Robinson