Welcome to the Deep Dive, where we take the themes explored in our exhibitions to a new level. Do you wear glasses? Do you have contact lenses or a pacemaker? Do you use DigiD? If so, you’re already part-cyborg and have taken your first steps in the ‘posthuman’ era. Discover how designers, artists and scientists are thinking about the future of the human body.
Researcher and curator Lua Vollaard wrote an exclusive article for the Third Floor about her findings from the archival research on the Philips semiconductor factory in Nijmegen. How did the “neat girls” with “manual skills,” who played a crucial role in making microchips in Nijmegen,...
Tim Gouw is a writer and stay-at-home dad. He writes and speaks about (equal) parenthood and the division of roles that comes with it. Exclusively for the Third Floor, he wrote an essay within the framework of the subtheme Women as Homemakers from the exhibition Women as Technology. He wonders: if...
Sex historian and journalist Hallie Lieberman explores a Dutch design legacy of sextoys. In this exclusive article for the Third Floor, she writes how Jandirk Groet, designer of Fokker airplanes, partnered with American feminist porn director Candida Royalle to create Natural Contours.
Thijs Gras is a historian and ambulance paramedic. He has published several books on the history of ambulance care, but he also maintains a particular interest in the history of incubators. Exclusively for the Third Floor, he wrote an article on the phenomenon of the ‘incubator as...
In an age where our lives are inextricably tied up with new techniques and technologies, it’s important to pause from time to time to reflect on how these things are influencing both us and our society.
Heera Shin researched the development of metaverses and avatars and asked herself: how do we care for this growing number of avatars, our digital identities?
As not to get left behind as digitalisation rapidly develops, FashionUnited has compiled a selection of terms and words that are imperative to understanding this vast new realm.
The short history of digital fashion.
Afgerukte ledematen, ontbindende lijken en afstotelijke monsters. Net als in het posthumanisme staat in gothic het lichaam centraal. Toevallig? Volgens curator Tomas van den Heuvel niet.
In what is also known as 'the Inflatable Era', inflatable architecture was manufactured as a prerequisite for a new, nomadic way of life. Space travel served as the inspiration for these capsules. However, are these high-tech hide-outs post-human or not?
Posthuman; once your eyes are opened to it you see it everywhere. But what is it? In this recurring series, curator Fredric Baas explains. In the first column, Baas focuses on the changing human body, something Austrian designers were already investigating in the 1960s.
The works in the part 'Beyond The Body' of the exhibition BodyDrift have left the human body behind. They show how manipulable we have become both physically and mentally, and ask us to consider how much ‘self’ we still retain.
The body is becoming increasingly analysed and digitized, with and without our knowledge, steadily blurring the boundary between the private and public sphere. Explore ‘The Biometric Body’ in the exhibition BodyDrift – Anatomies of the Future.
Fredric Baas, curator of BodyDrift – Anatomies of the Future, spent two years researching the ‘posthuman’ theme. He shares the fruits of that research in this series of articles.
The works shown in the part 'Better Bodies' of the exhibition share a fundamental belief in the human body. The body is extended, embellished, defended or armed, ready to face the future.