A collection of contributions and works of about 15 international artists around the concept of "biomedia" developed and contextualized by Peter Weibel (ZKM), providing insights into mutual correlation between ecosystems and
technology, and possible ways in which organic and inorganic life forms can coexist.
BioMedia is the result of reflections between the ZKM I Centre for Art and Media in Karlsruhe and the Centre des arts of Enghien-les-Bains on new artistic and scientific perspectives. This book brings together a set of contributions around the concept of biomedia, as thought and put into perspective by Peter Weibel, President and General Director of the ZKM. From this word, come then to articulate a set of reflections, those of Ingeborg Reichle, Doctor and Lecturer or those of the co-curators of the exhibition Daria Mille and Sarah Donderer. Finally, the research of the artists comes to bring this double entry of the biomedias in their acception sometimes technological and robotic, sometimes biological and environmental. The artists participate here to contextualize a posture of contemporary creation and to imagine the spectrum of possible fictions that could be so many premises of future life forms.
"The XXIst century will be the century of biomedias. [...] The objective of biomedia is not the creation of biological art (bio-art) from biological, natural, organic resources, but the creation of an art using technological, artificial, inorganic materials to create life-like behaviors. BioMedia refers to any media system with behaviors similar to natural organisms. They look like living organisms capable of reacting autonomously to their environment and to other beings."
Peter Weibel
Works by Anna Dumitriu, Jake Elwes, Justine Emard, Stephanie Dinkins, Jakob Kudsk Steensen, Alex May, Christian Mio Loclair, Matthew Lutz, Alessia Nigretti, Sascha Pohflepp, Maija Tammi, Jeoen Van Der Most, Peter Van Der Putten, Fabien Zocco.
Published on the occasion of the exhibitions L'ère des médias semblables à la vie at Centre des arts, Enghien-les-Bains, and The Age of Media with Life-like Behavior at ZKM, Karlsruhe, in 2021-2022.
