The history of culture is saturated with works of art that simulate the human body into a machine, and machines that simulate human-beings. Current developments in biotechnology, new imaging technologies and DNA research, shed new light on traditional perceptions of the human body and their relationship to the machine. In a reality in which the organic properties of the body can be manipulated by scientific means, artificial intelligence can replace human intelligence and artificial components can be inserted into the body and become an integral part of it, the common identification of the concept of "body" with the concept of "nature" is dismissed, and the way in which the body is perceived in relation to its environment in which it functions, is fundamentally altered. The conception of the body in the digital age as a hybrid between a machine and a human (cyborg), is not merely the product of potential physical intervention in the human body through digital and scientific technologies, but rather a result of the recognition that through our embodiment with the computer's topologies and architecture, we have a new sense of subjectivity. Today's machines are frequently defined as having a "life" of their own: they can act autonomously and in a creative way, respond to emotional states, and be fully synergetic with their surroundings. These new characteristics raise ethical and political questions concerning their changing role in the world.

The seminar will analyze the changing relations between man and the machine as they are being reflected in the artistic field. These relations will be examined on the basis of various theoretical texts, such as Norbert Winer, Donna Harway, Katherine Hayles, Bruno Latour, Andreas Broeckmann, Don Idhe and others.