The Aesthetics of Bio-Machines and the Question of Life

Today we are immersed in life-like digital technologies, such as virtual assistants, generative computer systems, and adaptive robots. While physicists, engineers, and biologists are speaking about a notion of “life 3.0”, which declares life status to self-learning artificial intelligence, our humanities based core group will conceptualize life-simulating digital technologies as sensing bio machines in so far as we argue that their life-like qualities should be understood through the ways in which they perform a techno-mimesis of the sensory capabilities of biological life. We investigate these “lifeforms” from an aesthetic angle, focusing on understanding the sensory capabilities of these technologies and the way they are negotiated in literature, art and film in order to advance knowledge about what constitutes being alive. Considering the current planetary crisis (climate change, warfare, inequality), the search for new, integrative, and diverse concepts of life that rethink the status of machines is more than a philosophical task but an ethical responsibility.