The Incredible Shrinking Man

Biennale Warszawa, Warsaw Design LAB and School of Form

“The Incredible Shrinking Man” is a speculative design research about the consequences of downsizing the human species to 50 centimeters. It has been a long established trend for people to grow taller. As a direct result we need more energy, more food and more space. But what if we decided to turn this trend around? What if we use our knowledge to shrink mankind?

Arne Hendriks is an artist, researcher and exhibition maker based in Amsterdam. People sometimes call him a radical ecologist and although he likes the sound of that, he rather likes to say that he deliberately explores the borders of specific cultural values that define our relationship with the planet. He believes we should be more generous towards ourselves in allowing radical new ideas and practices into our relationship with the ecology. Recent projects of Arne Hendriks include “The Incredible Shrinking Man” – an investigation into the possibility of downsizing the human species to just 50 centimeters tall – and FATBERG, the creation of an island of fat, in collaboration with NNN fellow Mike Thompson.