- W O N D E R R O O M : H O M O A R T I F I C I A L I S -
For thousands of years, our technologies have been aimed outward, to control our environment. Now, however, we have started a wholesale process of aiming our technologies inward. We now experience the historic tipping point in which the distance between technology and ourselves rapidly decreases. Technology is nesting itself within us. In us: think of brain implants, bio-cultured heart valves.
With this photo series, I want to show you the technology that embeds itself in us. The way in which the new technologies are shown is based on an anatomy cabinet, what I call a Wonder Room. The anatomical cabinet of Frederik Ruysch (1638-1731) is a great source of inspiration for me. The preparations of Ruysch are located at the interface of art and science.
The new technology that becomes part of our bodies, has been photographed as contemporary still lifes. The photographs together constitute the ingredients of a Wonder Room, which gives the viewer a picture of the possibilities now and in the future.
