The Art of Deception
The future of organ transplantation, 2015
Isaac Monté & Toby Kiers (BE & US)
Designer Isaac Monté and Toby Kiers, professor at the Free University in Amsterdam, have created the first collection of designer hearts using a technique known as decellularisation, a biomedical process in which an animal heart is stripped of its cellular contents. This translucent 3D protein scaffold becomes a white sterile frame for building a new, personalised heart, repopulated by healthy human stem cells. The process creates the potential for functioning hearts from discarded animal organs, tricking one’s own body into accepting a dead heart from another organism by masking it with the recipient’s living cells.
BIO
The Art of Deception was conceived when Isaac and Toby became interested in how humans use deception to obtain perfection in society, art and science. Isaac is a design activist and known for his past work using expired meat, such as bacon, to create marble-like vases and lighting objects. Toby is a professor of evolutionary biology studying the evolution of deception in nature. The team focused on the decellularisation process because this rapidly emerging technique will soon allow science to shape and reform bodies for medical and aesthetic goals. Such intervention will allow humans to redefine themselves, from curing deformities to manipulating status symbols.