But what is perhaps most poignant about Haser’s project is the discrepancy between the high-tech nature of the issues it brings up -the advances of genetic engineering that promise a future of genetic enhancements and the ever-shifting digital identities we construct through social media- and the low-tech process of paper folding she has chosen to work with. This incongruity is emblematic of our desire to improve or even exceed our inherited physical characteristics and our parallel fear that by doing so we are overstepping some unspoken boundary and corrupting our humanity.

Cosmic Surgery’s premise, the ability to swap faces at will, is further explored in a book of the same name -coined when Haser, who’s a dyslexic, misspoke cosmetic surgery- which imagines a future world where cosmetics and electronics have merged with biotechnology to enable us to literally be who we want to be. Designed by Emily Macaulay, it features Haser’s photographs, some of which aptly include pop-ups, as part of a brochure convincingly explaining, with the help of science writer Piers Bizon, how Cosmic Surgery works. Complete with elucidating diagrams, patient testimonials and warranty guarantees, the book presents a plausible future where you can license celebrity faces from “WonderTalent© Agency”, mind-switch your “WiFi-enabled Cosmic Surgery© enhancements” to share faces with friends and family or use “RandyTrance©” to change your face at random, a technology-driven dystopia uncannily envisioned through the simple act of paper folding.