Culture Machine Vol. 24 Call for Papers:
The Aesthetics of Biomachines
Guest editors:
Johan Lau Munkholm, Naja Grundtmann
Kathrin Maurer & Kristin Veel
Department of Culture and Language, University of Southern Denmark
In the contemporary technoscape we are surrounded by an ever-expanding multitude of interactive technologies that encourage reconsideration of the state of entanglement between organic life forms, environments, and technologies meant to simulate or enhance them. These include, for instance, virtual assistants (Siri, Alexa), language- as well as image models (ChatGPT, DALL·E 2), digital implants (brain-computer interfaces, ocular implants) and adaptive systems (digital companions, soundscapes). By examining the life-simulating capabilities of these technologies, this special issue of Culture Machine aims to provoke reflections on what theoretical frameworks, concepts, and methods are required to define and assess the novel relationships they mediate between people, technologies, and our surrounding environments as modes of life are undergoing critical transformations.
To critically interrogate current life-simulating systems, their standing in the world and the stakes of our relationships to them, we call for contributions that investigate the circumstances of contemporary techno-mimetic functionalities from an aesthetic perspective. The notion of aesthetics is applied here to foreground two different yet intersecting perspectives, namely: on the one hand, the sense-making of technologies in line with aesthetics as the study of sensory knowledge (Baumgarten, 1735; Fazi 2019) and, on the other hand, the symbolic representations circulating in the cultural realm. We propose a focus on their sensory capabilities and the way these are negotiated in literature, art, and film. We specifically wish to explore the critical and creative potential of the term bio-machines, where the prefix bio opens to the expressions of machinic sensing and their translations into technical configurations that simulate life-like qualities or perhaps challenge our very conception of what constitute life and technological being (see Langton, 1995; Lerena & Courant, 1996; Thacker, 2003; Zylinska 2009).
We suggest that an aesthetic focus on bio-machines can be productively raised to interrogate the dependencies, symbioses, and divergences we find in the production of sensing and simulation in the intersection between humans and machines. Including, but going beyond the ways in which bio-machines challenge us to rethink categories of aesthetic production and notions of artistic agency (see Boden 1998; Somaini, 2023; Wilde, 2023), the aesthetics of bio-machines can provide unique and creative insights into the terms of interaction between humans and technology in the contemporary moment, whether this foments new companionships, accelerated automation of labour, or impending environmental collapse.
This special issue calls on contributions from researchers who can place current technological developments within historical contexts as well as theoretical and aesthetic debates that highlight the ethical, cultural, and political implications of the bio-machinic. We encourage reflections on how the term bio-machine provides a constructive lens with which to engage with present technological developments and challenges.
Topics include but are not limited to:
Critical aesthetics for the conceptualisation of bio-machines
Cultural imaginaries and histories of bio-machines
Bio-machinic companions and the aesthetics of life/existence
Changes in conditions and power dynamics at the workplace provoked by bio-machines
Bio-machines, environmental collapse, and hybrid eco-systems
Feminist and decolonial perspectives on the aesthetics of bio-machines
Calendar
Abstract submissions (up to 300 words) are due on 15 October 2024
Submit drafts (6,000-7,000 words) by 1 April 2025
Peer Review throughout April and May 2025
Revised articles due on 1 September 2025
Publication in December 2025
All contributions, including abstract and short author bio should be sent to Naja Grundtmann (nag@sdu.dk)
Please follow the Author Guidelines for submissions!
Selected References
Baumgarten, A. G. (1735) Philosophische Betrachtungen über einige Bedingungen des Gedichtes. Heinz.
Boden, M.A. (1998) Creativity and artificial intelligence. Artificial Intelligence 103:347-356.
Fazi, M.B. (2019) Digital Aesthetics: The Discrete and the Continuous. Theory, Culture & Society 36(1):3-26.
Langton, C.G. (ed) (1995) Artificial Life: An Overview. Cambridge: MIT Press.
Lerena, P. & Courant, M. (1996) Bio-machines. In Proceedings of Artificial Life, volume V, Nara, Japan.
Somaini, A. (2023) Algorithmic Images: Artificial Intelligence and Visual Culture. Grey Room 93:74-115.
Thacker, E. (2003) What is Biomedia? Configurations 11(1):47-79.
Wilde, L.R.A. (2023) Generative Imagery as Media Form and Research Field: Introduction to a New Paradigm. IMAGE: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Image Sciences 37(1):6-33.
Zylinska, J. (2003) Bioethics in the Age of New Media. Cambridge: MIT Press.