Workshop on June 20th, 2025: "The Aesthetics of Biomachines and the Question of Life"

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, the workshop aims to inform our exploration of notions of life at the intersection of the machinic and the biological.

• 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”.

Programme

June 19th, 2025
15:00 Velux Research Group visit to the Hygiene Museum in Dresden – all are welcome.

June 20th, 2025 – Workshop
Location: SchauflerLab meeting room on Zellescher Weg 21 (Rotunde/ 0 floor) https://tu-dresden.de/gsw/schauflerlab 

09:00–09:30 – Arrival and informal introductory round
09:30–10:00 – Rob Mitchell presentation with Q&A
10:00–10:30 – Orit Halpern presentation with Q&A
10:30–11:00 – Kathrin Maurer presentation with Q&A
11:00–11:30 – Joint discussion, drawing on the circulated texts (see attached)

Site Visit
13:00–14:30 – Tour of B-Cube, the Center for Molecular Bioengineering https://tu-dresden.de/cmcb/bcube?set_language=en. Igor Zlotnikov and Yael Politi will guide us through the lab and present their research on organic-inorganic life relations and complexity.