Red Dot Design collaborates with the Hong Kong Design Institute on an exhibition that considers how deeply data and technology are entwined with our lives.
December 8th, 2017
Truth is stranger than science fiction – that is certainly the impression visitors will get when they visit Homo Ex Data, if they look below the surface, even just a little. Homo Ex Data – The Natural of the Artificial is a Red Dot Design exhibition presented by the Hong Kong Design Institute (HKDI) Gallery, and it looks at how Red Dot Award-winning, technology-enabled designs have influenced the way we live, leading to the evolution of humans into a new species: Homo Ex Data.
Dreamt up by Red Dot, the company behind one of the world’s leading good design awards, the exhibition encompasses some 150 technology-driven products, all of which use data in some way, in order to improve our lives. First, the exhibition looks at those products that bring data into the system. Covering categories like Monitoring, Self-tracking, Analysing and Measuring, it includes items like MetraSCAN 3D, which helps engineers take three-dimensional building measurements with incredible accuracy.
Also in this section is the Dräger Babyleo TN500 IncuWarmer, a product Professor Dr Peter Zec, Founder and CEO of Red Dot, chooses to single out. “Incubators such as this provide premature babies with an optimal microclimate, using highly sensitive sensors to facilitate constant monitoring of vital functions as well as of environmental data,” he says. “The still-fragile life of a premature-born child depends on this stream of data, while the continuous transfer of data links the natural with the artificial, thus ensuring survival.”
Perhaps more than any other product in the exhibition, this incubator shows how, in some cases, humans literally depend on technology in order to live. In the case of some of the other products on show, however, the message is more about how technology enhances our day-to-day lives. Take, for example, the Air Dragon: it’s a mobile air quality monitor no bigger than your thumb.
The second section of the exhibition relates to products that process data, such as computers and microprocessors, including a Mac G4 microprocessor from 2005. Lastly, the exhibition looks at products that output data in order to enhance our experiences, to tell us where disease lies in the body, to clean our floors, or to show us the world from a bird’s eye view. The modular, educational Airblock drone is one of a number of drones on show at Homo Ex Data.
Whatever their purpose, these devices all have one thing in common: they are attractive, and increasingly so. The exhibition demonstrates this, showing how products have become sleeker and now have more curves.
This reference to organic forms is no doubt intended to make us more comfortable with technology, which is not always a comfortable topic. “I’m well aware of the mixed feelings people have about what the future might bring with regard to a fusion of technology and the human body,” says Zec. “But there are already many cyborgs among us. Think for example of deaf people – today, it is already possible to fit at least some of them with cochlear implants. And those are nothing other than sensor-equipped microcomputers that enable them to hear again … If technology enables us to no longer have to accept this kind of biological weakness as simply God-given, I myself would try to make use of it.”
No matter which side of the fence you stand on, this exhibition will make you realise how ever-present technology is in our lives, and how complex a relationship we have with it.
A searchable and comprehensive guide for specifying leading products and their suppliers
Keep up to date with the latest and greatest from our industry BFF's!
The Sub-Zero Wolf showrooms in Sydney and Melbourne provide a creative experience unlike any other. Now showcasing all-new product ranges, the showrooms present a unique perspective on the future of kitchens, homes and lifestyles.
Suitable for applications ranging from schools and retail outlets to computer rooms and X-ray suites, Palettone comes in two varieties and a choice of more than fifty colours.
Savage Design’s approach to understanding the relationship between design concepts and user experience, particularly with metalwork, transcends traditional boundaries, blending timeless craftsmanship with digital innovation to create enduring elegance in objects, furnishings, and door furniture.
In the pursuit of an uplifting synergy between the inner world and the surrounding environment, internationally acclaimed Interior Architect and Designer Lorena Gaxiola transform the vibration of the auspicious number ‘8’ into mesmerising artistry alongside the Feltex design team, brought to you by GH Commercial.
Adventist Medical Centre – CWB is a pilot project in which a curated medical interior enriches user experience while addressing operational imperatives with precision.
The AIA Alta Wellness Haven offers the complete package for health and wellbeing away from the busy city life in Hong Kong and does it through a stellar interior design.
The internet never sleeps! Here's the stuff you might have missed
2024’s theme, “Reawaken,” calls for a journey through reinvention and sustainability.
The AIA Alta Wellness Haven offers the complete package for health and wellbeing away from the busy city life in Hong Kong and does it through a stellar interior design.