The research project 'Animism|Maschinism. Configurations of Critique between Science, Art and Technology' offers insights into the current state of research at Summaery 2023 in the bauhaus.medien.bühnen Labor.

"Animism/Maschinism" is characterized by the combination of methods and approaches from recent science and technology studies, philosophical analysis and criticism, as well as artistic research. 

Our starting point is the notion that our world appears more than ever as an animistic world. One reason for this lies in the developments in the field of "smart objects" and "intelligent environments." AI voice assistants like Apple's Siri or Amazon's Alexa create the impression that we are dealing with devices that possess an individual personality, or soul. We communicate with them as if they were assistants with a personality of their own. At the same time, the developments in ubiquitous computing lead to environments have their own power and agency, thus experiencing a kind of re-vitalization. Their equipment with technological components creates sensitive spaces that, for example, self-regulate their atmospheric properties, such as their lighting and temperature. The project investigates how these developments change the way we deal with media technologies.

The research project is based at the Chair of Media Theory and History of Science (Schmidgen) and is funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG).

The Summaery is the annual exhibition of the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar and takes place once a year in June. All faculties of the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar take part in the Summaery and the events take place at more than 60 locations.

Link to the project-site