I was commissioned by the Contemporary Science team at the Science Museum in London to create an interactive, performance installation to explore the emerging field of “biotechnology” and “human enhancement”. With my regular team of set, lighting, sound and videos designers we created a large scale “expo” event, hosted by the fictional start-up company Unlimited Enhancement Technologies (UNET) at which museum visitors could meet  scientists at the forefront of the field, try out demos of the latest biotechnologies and ask questions about the impact of these advancements on the future of humanity.

I world in close collaboration with the UK’s leading scientists and researchers in biotechnologies and human enhancement technologies from the Universities of Cambridge, Oxford, Manchester, Bath, Newcastle and Imperial College London.

The centerpiece of the Expo was a keynote presentation by UNET’s CEO Evelyn Musk who outlined her vision for a world in which scientists, artists, academics and entrepreneurs collaborated to create the most advanced prosthetics, brain implants and smart drugs to restore or improve physical functions and heighten or repair damaged cognitive function. UNET’s strapline is the deliberately provocative command to “Stop being normal”.

Over the course of 5 days, more than 4000 people visited the Expo at the Science Museum and took part in a conversation about the social, ethical, cultural, political implications of these emerging ideas and technologies. It was a huge success and led to it being recommissioned by Manchester Science Festival.

This time I developed the format to include ‘on the sofa’ interviews with researchers, cyborgs and philosophers as well as commissioning a new Human+ themed artwork from tattooist Rebecca de Cadorette that was completed live on the night. The event was live-streamed, live-captioned and BSL interpreted.

STOP BEING NORMAL.