From Materiality to Machines: Manufacturing the Organic and Hypotheses for Future Imaginings

In 2013, Charlie Brooker wrote an episode for the series Black Mirror titled “Be Right Back,” about a women distraught and heartbroken from her boyfriend’s untimely death. Based on the advice of a friend, she calls on a service that sends a physical avatar that seemingly resembles a human-sized doll. Much like an expandable water toy, the human-like avatar must be kept in bath water. The doll arrives pre-programmed to perform based on the social media activity and online persona of the deceased person, a simulacrum of the lived experience. Although the series was short-lived, it raised questions about life, death, memories, and how people are thinking about human existence. Most importantly, how are various forms of the biological sciences and technology meshing together to help us form new ways of being and imagine the future alongside machines and devices? The artworks discussed in this chapter …