52 is a medical publication created and produced by a group of students from the BA Design for Art Direction course at London College Of Communication.
The inaugural issue of 52 explores the themes of autonomy within the context of medicine and health. The rise in robotic doctors, bionic limbs and pigs replacing the human heart questions what it means to be human in an age that communicates more than ever, but with people we have never met.
Films like EX-machina, TV series like Black Mirror and Novels by JG Ballard show us the terrifying and wondrous future ahead of us, but day by day we are getting closer to these once speculative ideas and how will our hospitals, pharmacies and doctors react? Our newspaper aims to take the biennial associations created when discussing medicine and help make this sometimes dif cult to understand topic accessible, cool and sexy for a more creatively inclined audience.
Beautiful photography, illustrations and studio techniques combined with journalistic approaches to academic theories means everyone should be able to comprehend the medical jargon of the year.
Self-service checkouts, restaurants without waiters, vending machines, VR couples therapy, sex toys that connect to your laptop and the voice of a generation (Siri).
Is autonomy enabling (wo)mankind or is the next stage in our evolution? Once we were Homo Habilis, we became Homo Sapian, but what is next?