The Next Big Thing is Not a Thing, 2016

teaser for the exhibition ‘The Next Big Thing is Not a Thing’

The Next Big Thing is Not a Thing is informed by the past modalities of anthropological methods — the belief in progressivism, unilinear cultural evolution, colonial expansion and the idea of progress as a scientific explanation of social phenomena. Whereas these methods could be characterised by a view of the human at the centre, Mind Design embarked on a study of the evolution of optical technologies capturing how they reflect our changing position in relation to the world.

The design studio mapped the progression of tools and systems that began to shift agency outside of direct human control: machine vision has giving rise to technological capacities such as autonomous representation, intelligence, behaviour, interpretation and life.

The development of the visual identity for this exhibition began by 3D scanning the human body. By stacking the multiple scans, visions are overlaid in order to evoke and explore the body as an information rich landscape. Some kind of technological afterthought and a site that explores the central question of human and technological agency: who is watching whom?

video editing: Edgar Savisaar; scanning: Roel Backaert; model: Tycho Hupperets; music: Laura Dilettante