The Body is a Battlefield The Body is a Battlefield

Our body is both our strength and our weakness. It is the thing with which we express and live our notion of 'self', but also what confines us: the body is the instrument through which society, politics and the state define us and impose identity. With, among others, Jos de Mul, professor in Philosophical Anthropology at the Erasmus University, designer Simone C. Niquille and artist Philippine Hoegen. Read the report of this evening.

'How are digital information technologies transforming personal and cultural identity?'
Jos de Mul

'Online data can produce a set of identifications that are more 'you' than the real 'you'.
Simone C. Niquille

Within the context of the exhibition _The Life Fair. New Body Products_ this evening explored with several experts how we can claim the right to define our (changing) selves and how cultural, technological and legislative frameworks can both limit or permit this. The discussion between philosopher Jos de Mul and designer Simone C. Niquille was moderated by Philippine Hoegen.

Design team SulSolSal provided a special Thursday Night Dinner that puts us back in charge of our own body. Featuring five menus including the 'brain boost' and 'anti-inflammatory,' this dinner throws a whole new light on the traditional food pyramid.

Simone C. Niquille is a Swiss designer and researcher. Her practice Technoflesh investigates the representation of identity without a body, the digitisation of biomass and the increasingly omnipresent optic gaze of everyday objects. She received a BFA in Graphic Design from Rhode Island School of Design in Providence USA in 2010 and graduated with a Masters in Visual Strategies from the Sandberg Institute Amsterdam in 2013. She has written a column on technology, body modification and privacy for Sang Bleu, is part of design research collective Space Caviar and Tutor at the Architectural Association London. From June until December 2016 Niquille is part of the fellowship programme of Het Nieuwe Instituut.

Jos de Mul is professor in Philosophical Anthropology and its History and head of the section Philosophy of Man and Culture at Erasmus University Rotterdam. Moreover, he is the Scientific Director of the research institute Philosophy of Information and Communication Technology. De Mul's research focuses on the (partly overlapping) domains of philosophical anthropology, philosophy of art and culture, and the philosophy of information and communication technologies. In 2010 he supervised the NWO-research project 'Playful Identities'. The aim of this program was to investigate to what extent and in what way, digital information and communication technologies are transforming the (construction of) personal and cultural identity. Publications are_ Artificial by Nature_. Plessner's Philosophical Anthropology. Perspectives and Prospects (2014) and Homo ludens 2.0. Play, Media, Identity (2015).

Philippine Hoegen lives and works in Brussels and Amsterdam. Her work consists primarily of performance and (video) installation, her practice is research-based and multi-stranded, engaging with issues of display, objecthood and personhood. In Brussels she recently completed the post-master performance and artistic research program a.pass, and with artist Carolien Stikker she runs Brew, irregularly organizing and hosting events in the field of contemporary art. She is a tutor of fine art at the AKV St Joost academy in Den Bosch and Breda and with artist Banu Cennetoglu she conceived, produced and edited Bent, a series of artists' books from Turkey. She is active in the politically engaged open platform State of the Arts, Belgium, and since February 2016 she is conducting a practice-based research commissioned by the lectorate of Avans Hogeschool (through AKV St Joost) entitled The Self as a Relational Infrastructure in Process: a practice-based inquiry into personhood and subjectivity. She regularly acts as moderator in debates and conferences, most recently at Marres, Maastricht, and the Fine-Arts Museum, Brussels.