BioMedia | The Age of Media with Life-like Behavior

Duration
6:41
Category
Exhibition
Date
18.12.2021 to 28.08.2022
Description

Who or what defines on what is alive and what is intelligent? Can artificial forms of life be empathetic? What does the cooperation of human beings and artificial agents look like? What ethical questions arise? The exhibition »BioMedia« invites visitors to learn about and discuss possible forms of cohabitation between organic and artificial forms of life.

For centuries, humans have attempted to create machines that simulate life — from 16th century animatronics to pre-cinematic moving image devices. The 19th century was the dawning of the age of wheel-based motion machines, for example with bicycles, cars, and trains. This wheel-based technology gave way to the moving image, cinematography, the illusion of motion in the 20th century. An image that could actually imitate movement was a radical step towards the simulation of life, because up until this point, from painting to photography, images characteristically had been of a static nature.

With the development of color and sound cinema, that is, »the movie«, we came close to an imitation of life: people, animals, and objects can be captured or animated by camera technology with »high fidelity« to their locomotive action, their movements, conversations, and expressions. The transition from moving machine to moving image is visually evident.

Video documentation:

ZKM | Video Studio, 2022

Xenia Leidig (camera, concept, editing)

Lisa Michel, Peter Müller
Johanna Ott, Christina Zartmann (camera)