"Field notes from a continuous stream of conversations, classes, symposia, readings, interviews, site visits, meetings, walks, and meals during the last year and a half as we prepared the 3rd Istanbul Design Biennial"--P. [5].

The question Are We Human? is both urgent and ancient. Beatriz Colomina and Mark Wigley offer a multi-layered exploration of the intimate relationship between human and design and rethink the philosophy of design in a multi-dimensional exploration from the very first tools and ornaments to the constant buzz of social media.

The mirror of design: spiderwebs, sediments radiation, extinction self-surveillance -- The plastic human: plasticity, strange artifacts interface -- Blows of design: technofossils, prehistory genetic continuum hands, ornament sexual selection -- The invention of the human: tools, brain, curiosity -- The ornamental species: domestication, beads, networks, thinking strings, useless things -- New from nowhere: mechanical life, good design, morality, failure toys, functionalsim -- Good design is an anesthetic: smoothness, shock, smile shock absorber, nerves -- The design of health: dissection, x-ray, tuberculosis, fatigue, allergies, autoimmune burnout -- Human-centered design: camping, artificial limbs biology, survival, self-destruction, primal scene -- The frictionless silhouette: normal, human engineering, automaton biotechnique, discipline -- Designing the body: bodybuilding, hedonism nudism, libido, stomach psyche -- Design as perversion: fetishism, bondage voyeurism, erotica scatology, pedophilia -- Designing a ghost: scale figure, protohumans clothing, lurking shadows -- The unstable body: microbiome, prosthetics plastic surgery, drugs biodesign, chimera -- Homo cellular: intimacy, connectivity shelter, computation selfie, surveillance -- Design in 2 seconds: social media, avatar hybrid space, the bed postlabor, self-design.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 276-281).