Are We Human" Notes on an Archaeology of Design
by Beatriz Colomina and Mark Wigley
Lars Müller Publishers, January 2017

Paperback | 4-1/4 x 7 inches | 288 pages | 181 illustrations | English | ISBN: 9783037785119 | $20.00

PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION:
The question Are We Human" is both urgent and ancient. Beatriz Colomina and Mark Wigley offer a multi-layered exploration of the intimate relationship between human and design and rethink the philosophy of design in a multi-dimensional exploration from the very first tools and ornaments to the constant buzz of social media. The average day involves the experience of thousands of layers of design that reach to outside space but also reach deep into our bodies and brains. Even the planet itself has been completely encrusted by design as a geological layer. There is no longer an outside to the world of design. Colomina?s and Wigley?s field notes offer an archaeology of the way design has gone viral and is now bigger than the world. They range across the last few hundred thousand years and the last few seconds to scrutinize the uniquely plastic relation between brain and artifact. A vivid portrait emerges.
Design is what makes the human. It becomes the way humans ask questions and thereby continuously redesign themselves.
Mark Wigley is professor and Dean Emeritus at the Columbia Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation. As an architectural theorist and historian, Wigley explores the intersection of...