These "Biopunk" Designs Are What the Future Human Will Look Like

Seems like no matter how you slice it, the future of human beings is, well, not very human at all. Sci-fi talks a lot about cyborgs and transhumanism and the myriad ways people are morphing with machines. But futurists are also exploring how the body can be augmented and modified by manipulating our own biology—thanks to advances in nanotechnology, biomaterials, genetic engineering, even cloning.

These are the concepts that’ll be tossed around at the upcoming art show Hybrid Skin, opening this week in the Netherlands. The exhibition features a series of projects from futurist designers who have expressed this "biohacking" ideology through fashion and art.

It's pretty creepy stuff, and that's coming from someone who covers things like third ears, spaceship bodies, and mind transfer for a living. But as the biotech and genetic science fields continue to advance, so do creative ways to hack the body, which has given rise to a "biopunk" movement—a DIY-minded philosophy that we should take back our own genetics and body and do with whatever we see fit.

Hybrid Skin definitely takes a page from the biopunk ethos. It's meant to raise the ethical questions that inevitably arise whenever you start talking about tinkering with life's building blocks. "Is your body and your genetic code your property that you may copy, remix and destroy?" the exhibition asks. "Is the use of biological material from a lab innocent, because no human or animal has died, or does it have its own memory and life? Can we change nature to the whims of fashion?"

The featured projects all question the limits of the human body. For example, one designer created a "bulletproof vest" by enforcing human skin with spider silk, which is even stronger than steel. The vest was made by implanting transgenic spider silk into human skin. I delves into the ethical implications of a future where we can modify ourselves beyond long-accepted ideals like human vulnerability.

Another piece, called "Like Living Organisms," is a technosensual skindress (yes, a dress that looks like skin) that moves and breathes as if it's alive. It's designed to express excitement like the kind two people sometimes feel when they first meet. You can see what looks like a pulse through the dress' veins that quickens as it gets excited.

"Tension builds up, the closer the viewer get's to the work, the faster it pulses," the project's Vimeo page explains. "The neck, a sensual part of the body, is hidden until someone dares to make contact, then the suit will relax and show it’s vulnerable side."

Creeped out yet? Just wait. A short film being featured at the exhibition, called "Make Your Maker," takes biological transhumanism so far human beings essentially become lab rats. Lab humans. The film imagines a future where genetic manipulation and cloning are not only commonplace, but the clones are then eaten by other humans, so that people can absorb their sensory effects and gain super-sensing powers.

I like to talk about how technology has progressed so far writers need to come up with new material to put the “fi” back in sci-fi. Hopping a flight to the Netherlands and heading down to TETEM art space would be a good start. The show opens October 10 and runs until the end of November.