Ergonomic Futures is a multi-part project that asks questions about contemporary “fitness” through the lens of speculative evolution. The work comes out of Tyler Coburn’s interviews with paleoanthropologists, ergonomists, evolutionary biologists, and genetic engineers. To each he has asked: What are future scenarios for imagining new types of human bodies, and how might this thought experiment reframe conversations about body normativity in the present day?
Over the course of forty minutes, Coburn will discuss genetic engineering, the founder effect, postplanetary living, and other things that contribute to marked differences in how we biologically, philosophically, and legally define the “human.”
Tyler Coburn
Tyler Coburn is an artist and writer based in New York. His work has been presented at South London Gallery; Kunsthalle Wien; CCA Glasgow; Western Front, Vancouver; Bergen Kunsthal; Grazer Kunstverein; Para Site, Hong Kong; and Sculpture Center, New York. Coburn participated in the 11th Gwangju Biennale and in the 10th Shanghai Biennale. His writing has appeared in e-flux journal, Frieze, Dis, Mousse, and Rhizome.
![Olaf Stapledon. Last and First Men: A Story of the Near and Far Future. New York: Magnum, [1930] 1978.](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/561467cce4b094b629357b28/1570614644492-UHBO79ZYJPPR74MXDZQO/unnamed.jpg)
Olaf Stapledon.
Last and First Men: A Story of the Near and Far Future.
New York: Magnum, [1930] 1978.