The aesthetics of bio-machines

For the project The Aesthetics of Bio-machines and the Question of Life, the grant will be used to shed light on how we can rethink the status of the machine and explore new concepts of what it means to be alive

Physicists, engineers and biologists talk about “Life 3.0” in the context of self-learning and artificial intelligence. From a humanistic and aesthetic perspective, we want to conceptualise digital technologies that simulate life, like sentient bio-machines. We argue that the qualities that make them resemble biological life ought to be understood by an examination of ttherefore examining these “life forms” from an aesthetic point of view, focusing on the ability of technologies to sense the world and the way they are portrayed and discussed in literature, art and film. The aim is to increase our knowledge of what it means to be alive,’ says professor Kathrin Maurer from the Department of Language, Culture, History and Communication at the University of Southern Denmark.

The grant is led by Kathrin Maurer (Professor of Humanities and Technology, SDU) and Kristin Veel (Associate Professor, University of Copenhagen).