(e)merging bodies

The research line (e)merging bodies explores what bodies can become in the age of AI, with a particular focus on more-than-human entanglements in postdigital culture. We approach human bodies—in all their diversity—as situated, hybrid, porous, and continuously evolving in relation to animals, machines, bacteria, plants, objects, minerals, fungi, code, landscapes, and more. Our inquiry centers on complex relationships with emerging technologies such as machine learning, and how these connections enable or disrupt networks ranging from intimate to global.

As a counterpoint to techno-determinism and AI-solutionism, we foster imagination, critical reflection, and dialogue through the arts. From a posthumanist perspective, we consider technology as an active agent and investigate its interplay with bodies as more-than-human assemblages, along with their socio-political, cultural, ecological, and ethical implications. Inspired by Bridle’s “ecology of technology,” we seek alternatives to dominant paradigms—toward softer (Tripaldi), slower (Wakkary), and more tender (Axelsson) approaches to technological progress.

Through speculative making and thinking, we create space for co-learning and weave together diverse forms of knowledge: artistic, embodied, indigenous. In doing so, we explore art as a collective language to engage with contemporary and future bodies, materials, and technologies—and their intricate webs of connection.