Speculative designer Agi Haines' work imagines the human body as an everyday material that can be shaped and refashioned. "Are we ready to take on the God-like ability to manipulate the plasmas of life?” asks Haines, a Royal College of Art graduate. "How far can we push our malleable bodies while still being accepted by society?”
Haines’s presentation at Design Indaba Conference 2014 delved into her research as a student in the Design Interactions programme at RCA in London.
A lot of my work is about the weird and wonderful things that exist inside our bodies and the potential for design around those things, she says.
In Haines' hands, the 3D printer is a modern-day tool of Frankenstein’s laboratory. She investigated its potential to print human cells to produce complex constructions of tissue or organs. This, in turn, led her to look at the human body as a system of interchangeable parts. “Could bioprinting allow us to create body parts which are better than the parts we have now?” asks Haines.
This year for the first time, the Design Indaba Conference talks make their premiere on our app, conveniently packaged in one place and available for free download. To watch Agi Haines’s full conference talk download the app here or keep watching designindaba.com for updates.
Watch the Talk with Agi Haines
