The Life Fair
11 June 2016 - 7 January 2017
1. Identity
Identity is who you are, your genes, your attitude, your tendencies. Identity is who you would like to be, your aspirations, the way you would like to look. Identity is something you can craft, or what we can craft for you.
1.1 AVERAGE VISITOR
Become part of the average
Jasper van Loenen
The Face of The Life Fair This installation invites visitors to contribute to an evolving average face composite of all participating visitors to The Life Fair.
In studies of physical attractiveness, the averageness hypothesis states that averaging the facial features of people of the same gender and approximately the same age results in a beautiful face. An averaged face is not remarkable, but is, in fact, quite good looking.
1.2 PRESIDENTS PERFUME
A scent dedicated to Vladimir Putin
Vladislav Rekunov
Leaders Number One Leaders Number One by Vlad Rekunov is a fragrance for men inspired by Russian President Vladimir Putin. It was launched in late 2015 with a limited edition of 2000 bottles.
The perfumer describes Leaders Number One as 'soft but very firm' with notes of lemon, bergamot, blackcurrant and fir cones.
1.3 COSMETIC TRAVEL
The world’s finest surgery procedures and medical vacations
SOMNIO
Somnio offers cosmetic travel packages to Thailand and Australia, facilitating procedures such as thigh and arm lifts, tummy tucks, breast and buttock implants, liposuction, chin augmentation and nose surgery. Somnio is teamed with private hospitals and internationally accredited plastic and reconstructive surgeons and specialists within Thailand and Australia.
According to Research and Markets' Global Cosmetic Surgery & Services Market Analysis 2015-2019, the global market for cosmetic surgery is currently worth over $20 billion and is set to rise to over $27 billion by 2019.
1.4 BIOHACK
Enabling you to program your body
Dangerous Things
xBTi Dangerous Things is a company that believes in biohacking and the self-ownership of the body. The company offers kits for anyone to install RFID tags in their bodies. These sensors are paired with a number of security devices, including a Samsung Digital Lock, thus allowing a user to unlock a door by simply bringing his or her hand near it.
1.5 TRANS RESOURCE
Depicting situations for trans persons worldwide
Transgender Europe 2015
Transrespect Versus Transphobia Worldwide: Legal and Social Mapping Legal and Social Mapping provides an overview of existing laws, law proposals, and actual legal and health-care practices as well as diverse aspects of the social situation relevant to gender-diverse/trans people. It currently comprises 119 countries in six world regions including all 49 European countries.
The categories included in the mapping are legal gender recognition, anti-discrimination, hate-crime and asylum legislation, criminalisation, prosecution and state-sponsored discrimination, trans-specific health care, community and movement, good practices and reports of transphobic incidents.
1.6 SKIN RESURFACING
Breakthrough technology for smooth and youthful skin
Skincential sciences
Clearista Clearista is a complete skin re-texturising cosmetic solution, which uses advanced biotechnology to specifically target problems at the skin's surface. Clearista enables lasting benefits with results often thought to be achievable only with lasers, dermabrasion, and chemical peels.
As reported by investigative journalist site The Intercept, Skincential Sciences has attracted interest and funding from In-Q-Tel, the venture capital arm of the Central Intelligence Agency. The Intercept pointed out that the firm's patented technology that removes a thin outer layer of the skin, reveals unique biomarkers that can be used for a variety of diagnostic tests, including DNA collection.
1.7 COLOUR CREAM
Control the colour of your skin
Elisha Coy
Always Nuddy CC Cream Always Nuddy CC Cream is a tinted moisturiser with skin-whitening properties.
The Korean skincare brand, which sells its products mainly in Korea, China, Hong Kong and Japan, sparked backlash by posing controversial question 'Do you wanna be white?' on a billboard in New York. The billboard showed a Korean model with extremely pale skin.
It is well-established that pale skin is highly desirable for Korean women. South Korea is widely reported to have some of the strictest and most unattainable beauty standards in the world.
1.8 SEMI-HUMAN OBJECTS
Made of your tissue and genetic information
Hongjie Yang, In samenwerking met Dr. Patricia Dankers, Technische Universiteit Eindhoven
Semi-Human Vase In collaboration with Dr. Patricia Dankers, Eindhoven University of Technology
With human tissue growing in vitro on a three-dimensional scaffold, speculative designer Hongjie Yang envisions a new class of designed, semi-human objects.
Yang's vision is that humans will be able to derive objects from themselves and these objects will share the exact material properties and genetic codes of their bodies. By treating human cells as material for the production of things, the socially coded distinction between human and object will on some levels thus collapse.
1.9 GOAT PROJECT
What it might be like to be a goat
Thomas Thwaites
GoatMan With the aim of achieving a simpler life, speculative designer Thomas Thwaites began an investigation of what it might be like to live as a goat. Wearing prosthetics that enabled him to walk on all fours, Thwaites spent three days living as part of a herd of grazing goats in the Swiss Alps.
GoatMan presents a view of how humans might augment themselves, according to their particular desires. The project suggests that technology could enable people to de-volve, instead of evolve.
1.10 FOUND PHOTOS
Someone's kid on your favourite mug
Yuri Veerman and Dimitri Tokmetzis
Koppie Koppie If you've ever put pictures of your children online, there's a chance that Koppie Koppie is selling them on one of their coffee mugs.
The selected images have been uploaded by the photographers on Flickr under a Creative Commons license, which allows for their commercial reuse. Therefore Koppie Koppie does not break any laws in making a profit from the sale of these mugs (approximately 90 cents from the sale of every item).
Koppie Koppie is a campaign intended to spread a serious message about the difficulty of controlling images once they have been posed online. Parents of children that appear on the mugs can request to have the image removed from their webshop. Koppie Koppie will comply within the same day.