Frontier stage
Keynote

The third thumb: Rethinking human dexterity

In person
  • Date
    9 July 2025
    Timeframe
    13:50 - 14:05 CEST
    Duration
    15 minutes
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    Dani Clode, augmentation designer, explores how wearable technology can move beyond restoration, toward extension, adaptability, and new expressions of the human body. Her work challenges conventional boundaries between prosthetics, tools, and the body, proposing augmentation as a way to rethink ability and reimagine how we interact with the world.

    This talk introduces the Third Thumb – a 3D-printed, foot-controlled extra thumb – as a design that invites new perspectives on movement, control, and the limits of the human body. Created to be worn by anyone, it opens up questions around inclusive design, productivity, embodiment, and the creative potential of human–technology collaboration.

    Clode shares how designing for augmentation means designing beyond utility – toward adaptability, agency, and identity. As emerging technologies become increasingly embedded in our lives, her work invites us to consider how we might evolve alongside them, and what it means to design with the future body in mind.