SO.18 – Elective Seminar
SKIN2
Tutors: Manuel Kretzer, Anastasia Pistofidou

What will the human of the future be like? Ray Kurzweil predicts the ‘Singularity’, the progressive amalgamation of the human brain and machine intelligence. Aubrey de Grey understands aging as a disease that can be cured and may lead to infinite life extension. And Zoltan Istvan, who with his ‘Transhumanist Party’ is currently running for US presidency, advocates -among other things- the technological enhancement of the mind and body through robotics and smart devices. Within the context of ‘Humanity +’ we want to explore the possibilities and potential effects of augmenting the self and extending the body. Focusing on the human skin, as a means for protection but also a mediator of our senses and the environment we want to look into ways of creating novel interactions and bodily experiences.  We will work with raw materials and recipes to create thin membranes and surfaces, which will be supplemented through embedded electronics. Besides developing advanced material systems a crucial task will be to think about the practical applications and implications of a second skin.
The first phase of the seminar will focus on creating new materials or combining existing materials into advanced composites. During the second part of the course we will investigate the augmentation and actuation of our material systems through means of electronics and physical computing. The final phase is reserved to developing a functional application, working prototype and speculative future scenario.

Keywords
Soft fabrication / Textiles  / Lightweight materials / Structural digital fabrication /
/ Composites  /    Bio plastics  / Bio couture  / Embedded electronics / Haptic wearables