Are We Human? Notes on an Archaeology of Design

Beatriz Colomina, Mark Wigley

Our Take

Not an approachable read but one that makes you work for it. The small size makes it travel-friendly, which is ideal since it works best taken in bites while in a quiet, reflective space.

Their Take

The question "are we human?" is both urgent and ancient. Beatriz Colomina and Mark Wigley offer a multilayered exploration of the intimate relationship between human and design and rethink the philosophy of design in a multidimensional 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.

- Their Take is the book description listed at Bookshop.org