Furniture, website. Commissioned by the 11th Gwangju Biennale and Lafayette Anticipations, Paris. Now installed as museum furniture in Centre Pompidou, Paris; Museum of Man, Paris; Art Sonje Center, Seoul; and the Seodaemun Museum of Natural History, Seoul

Ergonomic Futures is a multi-part project which asks questions about contemporary “fitness” through the lens of speculative evolution. This work comes out of my research into the field, as well as my interviews with paleoanthropologists, ergonomists, evolutionary biologists, and genetic engineers. To each I asked: is it possible to imagine a future scenario when our bodies experience such a degree of evolutionary change that the biological, ontological, and legal criteria of the human come undone? In the present, could this thought experiment put pressure on humanism, the humanities, and the frameworks and norms that maintain them?

Practically, this project takes two forms. Working from my research and interviews, I collaborated with New York architects Bureau V to design functional ergonomic seating for different future bodies. By exploiting a problematic tendency in the field of ergonomics—the production of body typologies—and imagining those typologies don’t yet exist, he creates a scenario where no contemporary user has the proper, intended, normative body for the furniture. As it might take a while for those typologies to come into being, the seats can currently be used in art and natural history museums like Centre Pompidou, Paris; Museum of Man, Paris; Art Sonje Center, Seoul; and the Seodaemun Museum of Natural History, Seoul. They parasitize institutional time capsules for sake of their survival. The bodies the seats are designed for are never disclosed, so museumgoers, using their knowledge of ergonomics, can engage in a tactile form of speculation.

Accompanying the seats, I worked with designers Luke Gould and Afonso Martins on a website of short stories which will evolve over the years. New stories may appear, and existing stories may be edited or deleted. A given story can have one or several versions that continue to change in quantity.

Stills of of the website

Installation View: The 11th Gwangju Biennale, curated by Maria Lind. This seat, made of walnut and composite wood veneer, was fabricated by Yong Chul Kim

This veneer is made out of recycled wood, so the wood patterns are entirely fictional.

Installation View: Faisons de l’inconnu un allié (Joining Forces with the Unknown), Lafayette Anticipations, Paris

This seat, made of cast fiberglass and Soft Touch coating, was produced by Dirk Meylaerts and Aude Mohammedi Merquiol of Lafayette Anticipations—and manufactured by Creaform, France

Installation View: Centre Pompidou, Paris

Video documentation of a lecture about the project at e-flux, New York

An essay version of the lecture, published in e-flux journal #98

A conversation about Ergonomic Futures with Anna Colin, Dis

Chimeras in drag, a conversation with Adam Gibbons on Schlosspost