Exhibition: Artefacts of the future, ethical echoes in medicine

What if you could glimpse the future of medicine before it arrives? 

Artefacts of the Future is an exhibition conceived and developed by ETH Zurich, one of the world’s leading universities. The exhibition brings together artists from across Europe in what can be seen as an “ethical laboratory” that unfolds like a journey through time.

You will encounter installations presented as archaeological traces of an undefined technological future. They evoke tomorrow’s most advanced technologies, created through a combination of 3D printing and traditional hand carving. These objects are imagined as part of a technological future wherein humans can exert unprecedented control over their bodies, mind, and ultimately on life itself, from birth to after death.

The objects do not remain silent. By scanning a QR code, you can enter into dialogue with them, exploring questions of trust, care, and the boundaries of medicine. As you engage, your interaction leaves a digital trace: a shifting “ethical fingerprint” that reflects how you respond to these imagined futures.

This exhibition offers a space to encounter the possibilities shaping our future and to reflect on where you stand within them. Not a prediction of what will come, but an invitation to question what kind of future we ought to create.