'Under the thematic concept of HyperDesign, the 6th Shanghai Biennale will take on design as an important element of contemporary visual culture, exploring complexities and disjunctures of design as an aesthetic formula, lifestyle and exemplar of social history. Its goal will be to highlight the links between contemporary art, functionality and aesthetics and to inspire deep thought about the relationship between methods of production and utopia.

HyperDesign will reconsider the possibilities inherent in three major understandings of design: artistic design, design for daily life and social design. Artistic design includes all manners of artistic production methods, with a design and production process that allows for artists' conceptual and aesthetic sensibilities. Design for daily life refers to every individual's urge to plan his or her own life, and to the idea that only through this sort of daily life planning can the individual throw off the constraints of systematization and utilitarianism. Social design refers to the conceptual thinking and planning of Chinese and foreign social idealist, past and present, aimed at conceptual structuring and planning of human society. It is both a utopian dream and a historical conspiracy.' - extracted from the introduction.

Images of works in the present catalogue are accompanied by individual texts, and are divided into three sections Design and Imagination, The Practice of Everyday Life and Future Constructions of History. Artist biographies are provided.