Workshop at the Technische Universität Dresden: Biomachines

The Aesthetics of Biomachines and the Question of Life

This workshop focuses on the “bio” in the concept of “biomachines,” a central theme of the research project The Aesthetics of Bio-Machines and the Question of Life.

Combining a morning session with presentations by Rob Mitchell, Orit Halpern, and Kathrin Maurer, and a site visit to the B-Cube lab at the Center for Molecular Bioengineering, the workshop aims to inform our exploration of notions of life at the intersection of the machinic and the biological.

Attached are three articles that we would like everyone to read in preparation:

• Mitchell, Robert, Orit Halpern, and Henning Schmidgen. ”The Planetary Experiment: A History and Theory of Science at Scale”.
• Maurer, Kathrin. ”Metabolist Machines: Reflections on Eighteenth-century Machine-Man Relations in the Writings of Julian Offray de La Mettrie”. 
• Mitchell, Robert. ”Theory of Vital Media”.