How free are we? Interview with Agata Jaworska and Giovanni Innella The Life Fair New Body Products

The exhibition The Life Fair takes the form of a grant which offers products and services that are associated with different aspects of life such as love, sex, birth, identity, work, health, safety and death. Compilers Agata Jaworska and Giovanni Innella give visitors the opportunity to familiarize themselves with the opportunities to improve their own body and life, but also confront them with the interests behind the products and services offered. The Life Fair. Picture John Schwartz Giovanni Innella " The Life Fair shows products and services for businesses, governments and organizations all claiming affect our bodies and our lives. We realize that our bodies and our lives are part of the playing our free will - the idea of the freedom of the individual - and also the shared interests of the collective, the society where the government monitors. At the same time constitute our bodies and our lives a market for companies where they offer their products and services that we can improve ourselves and help us to perform better. This leads to the essential question: how free are we? Agata Jaworska: "The exhibition is a search for the extent to which our bodies intertwine with technology. Technologies themselves have no say, but parties that they develop it. How affect the interests of those companies, organizations or governments intertwined with our bodies when we use these technologies to improve our bodies, monitor or monitors. What does this mean for our individual freedom and control over our bodies and our lives. So we look at the underlying economic and political intentions of the actors who provide these products and services. " Giovanni Innella: The Life Fair shows products and services for businesses, governments and organizations all claiming affect our bodies and our lives. We realize that our bodies and our lives are part of the playing our free will - the idea of ​​the freedom of the individual - and also the shared interests of the collective, the society where the government monitors. At the same time constitute our bodies and our lives a market for companies where they offer their products and services that we can improve ourselves and help us to perform better. This leads to the essential question: how free we are 'Agata Jaworska "? The exhibition is a search for the extent to which our bodies intertwine with technology. Technologies themselves have no say, but parties that they develop it. How affect the interests of those companies, organizations or governments intertwined with our bodies when we use these technologies to improve our bodies, monitor or monitors. What does this mean for our individual freedom and control over our bodies and our lives. So we look at the underlying economic and political intentions of the actors who provide these products and services. " Real Face Glamouflage Simone C. Niquille, 2013 Real Face Glamouflage Simone C. Niquille, 2013 How is this critical layer made visible or explained in the exhibition? GI: "That was exactly the reason for giving the exhibition the form of scholarships. We did not only exhibit projects. We also wanted to make the visitor aware of the fact that companies, governments and NGOs are behind these products and services and that this may have interests that are not always immediately visible. The model of the fair gives us the opportunity to show who is behind the offer is true. " Are all shown goods and services and really available? GI: 'Some are speculative. But there are also real projects speculate about wanting to sell their real purpose by us anything. You could say that the whole exhibition is speculative, but that is mainly because the world we live in is speculative. " AJ: "The most speculative content is interesting enough from commercial companies. One example is SwanLuv, a start-up that offered to pay for your wedding, for an amount up to 10,000 euros. The company would investigate the online contact between the prospective spouses to determine which candidates they would be financed. It then took an interest calculation based on the probability that would separate the couple in the future. If the marriage then would indeed beaches, the couple had to repay the amount with interest. This service would be launched on Valentine's Day, but the site is now no longer exists. " The Olympics are the reason for the New Institute to focus on the body. How playing the body of the athlete in the exhibition a role? GI: "Sport is about discipline, monitoring and quantification of the body, to make it perform better and more competitive. I think those terms are also applicable to the way we live now. Many of the products featured in the exhibition, helping you to discipline your body and improve your promise and therefore a successful life. " AJ: "The next step is the economization of your own body. The data that we collect may be of value during the movement and life for others. In the exhibition we present Bitwalking. This is a company that quantifies human movement and translates into a global currency. Your physical performance can be directly converted into monetary value. " "At the same time you arise oppose such developments. That resistance from one hand in strategies to avoid forms of monitoring and identification. And second, by stretching of social conventions. So shows a design for a deadly rollercoaster in the exhibition. During the ride to work there such extreme forces on your body, you will not survive this. This project is about euthanasia, whether you like people are free to choose your own death. " In what way are these different themes, such as love, work and death, presented in the exhibition? AJ: "The exhibition is divided into chapters, each one representing a universal life themes. Let's see to what extent these domains become intertwined with each other. Take for example the trend of corporate health programs for employees. Companies like BP offer their employees fitness yards and reward healthy behavior. In an effort to attract more women to Apple and Facebook were the first employers who gave their female employees the possibility to freeze eggs as part of their benefits package. Pregnancies are usually in the most productive period of life of man. One of the things we want to show is that employers, like the government, influence our health and family life. Photo Tim Bowditch Photo Tim Bowditch So the placement of a product or service in one of the chapters makes it inherits a particular meaning or context? GI: 'Because of the placement in a specific category or by combinations creates a critical discourse. " AJ: "As we make the tension between the body and the outside forces visible. A central question in the exhibition: how do individual choice and collective control to each other? GI: "The visitor will realize that he plays a triple role: he is an individual, but also citizens and consumers." AJ: "We show phenomena in our daily lives that influence who we are and could be, how free we are shaping our lives. In addition, we draw attention to the role of technologies, but also law and human rights play in it. One of the organizations in the exhibition Transgender Europe. This organization is committed to the rights of individuals who wish to change identity. They argue for a greater fluidity on gender. While governments in the interests of our safety, individuals want to right pin on a rigid identity, to know for sure who they have for themselves. The Life Fair introduces a number of such polarizing needs in our society. What role does design in The Life Fair ? GI: We focus not on the aesthetics of design, ease of use and its sustainability. We use design as a tool to understand what all those objects and services tell us about the world. Design as a manifestation of larger questions and needs. Interview by Lotte Haagsma share Curators Agata Jaworska, Giovanni Innella Spatial design Claus Wiersma Graphic design Kévin Bray, Thomas Buxó Project Ina Hollmann Thanks to Eliza Mante, Hongjie Yang, Rana Ghavami This project is part of the program line Years Themes and file Olympics . New Institute