Maša Jazbec: Synthetic Organisms

With the exhibition Synthetic Organisms, the artist and researcher Maša Jazbec focuses on the ideas about the coexistence of humans and robots which is the synthesis of the years of research in humanoid robots. A spatial installation in the former monastery church addresses number of fundamental, social and ethical questions with visual means about understanding of life and being alive, the relationship between organic and inorganic matter, and possible substitutability of the human kind.

In her work the artist deals with numerous challenges of modern time, related with the perception and use of advanced technologies, through the perspective of social complexity, thus her works surpass the technical aspects of robotics and address above all the related conceptual and existential questions. She does not perceive contemporary technologies as self-evident but she rather analyses them in relation to topical socio-political realities. In her multi-layered practice, Jazbec works as an artist as well as academic researcher in the field of humanoid robotics, and she uses her findings in her artworks, which analyse and predict the possible futures of our civilisation. The exhibition is based on the sculptures of imaginary androids, however, beside the scientific paradigms of robotics it also refers to science fiction literature and film, which represented an important factor in the understanding of our potential futures in the previous century. Jazbec has enriched robotics as a precise interdisciplinary science with sociological and philosophical questioning of what it means to be human today. State of mind of the human kind is also being reflected through our attitude towards robots.

Kustos: Miha Colner

Foto: Jaka Babnik