S.A.M. The Symbiotic Autonomous Machine
As machines gain more autonomy and importance in human life, they are still given no agency in our society. Could a legalization of their status create a shift towards a more collaborative relationship with humans? S.A.M. 1, 2 & 3 are a Symbiotic Autonomous Machines challenging those ideas. It employs water kefir grains or kombucha to produce a beverage, acting as small scale automated food production systems.

Biomimikry
Für den Film “Biomimicry“ untersuchen Iris van Herpen und Dutch National Ballet die symbiotische Beziehung zwischen der metamorphen Kraft, in der sich Mode und Tanz verflechten. Der Film unter der Regie von Ryan McDaniels zeigt die hypnotisierende Tänzerin JingJing Mao, die sich in flüssige Formen verwandelt und in anmutige Figuren übergeht, die ihre unzähligen Bewegungen widerspiegeln. Das Konzept der Kreation basiert auf dem Begriff der Biomimikry – dem Entwurf und der Herstellung von Materialien und Systemen, die biologischen Prozessen nachempfunden sind. In Übereinstimmung mit Iris van Herpens kontinuierlichem Bestreben, die unsichtbaren Kräfte, die die Welt strukturieren, zu materialisieren, konzentriert sich der Film auf die Verbindung zwischen Mensch und Natur.

Ad Infinitum
Ad infinitum is a parasitical entity which lives off human energy. It lives untethered and off the grid. This parasite reverses the dominant role that mankind has with respect to technologies: the parasite shifts humans from “users” to “used”. Ad infinitum co-exists in our world by parasitically attaching electrodes onto the human visitors and harvesting their kinetic energy by electrically persuading them to move their muscles. The only way a visitor can be freed is by seducing another visitor to sit on the opposite chair and take their place. Being trapped in the parasite’s cuffs means getting our muscles electrically stimulated in order to perform a cranking motion as to feed it our kinetic energy. This reminds us that, in the cusp of artificially thinking machines, we are no longer just “users”; the shock we feel in our muscles, the involuntary gesture, acknowledges our intricate relationship to uncanny technological realm around us.

Parasitic / Symbiotic
In the project “Parasitic / Symbiotic” this area of tension between nature and technology is addressed. A scenario is created in which the human being makes use of a technical device, that is sitting like a parasite on a tree. It contains a milling machine, which moves along a tree to carve encoded text into it. For the content of the carving a poem from romanticism („Abschied.“ von Joseph von Eichendorff) is used, which expresses the natural thoughts of unity and oneness and depicts the relation of nature and culture.