Billions of years ago, life appeared on Earth and has continued to evolve since. Active at multiple scales (molecule, cell, organ, individual, ecological system), it produces a diversity of living beings and life forms, which invade and transform all terrestrial environments.
Technical activity gradually became associated with these innovations, in the animal world, then in human societies. It is by putting it to work that human societies invent new ways of interacting with living beings and intervening in evolutionary processes in a profound way. Questioning the appearance and evolution of life is therefore inseparable from questioning human action. Is there a biological or technical limit to the evolution of living beings and life forms? What influences do norms and values (moral, legal, religious, economic, aesthetic) exert on human practice of acting on living things? In the light of contemporary human techniques, always more sophisticated, numerous and globalized, these questions take on a new acuteness and invite us to think about how we wish to form society with living beings.
The collective was born from this common issue, bringing together researchers in the natural sciences, human and social sciences and artists whose activities have been exploring the relationships between living systems and technical systems for several years. Relying on the most recent scientific knowledge and on the elaboration of sensitive objects, at the interface of the arts and sciences, the members of this collective wish to provide analytical instruments and elements of understanding to shed light on uncertainties created by the power of humans over living things. They are convinced that this conceptual elaboration cannot be done apart from a concrete exploration of the affects, the imaginaries, the representations that shape our relationship with living beings.
Synthetic thematic texts, conferences, round tables, series of film debates, exhibitions, performances and publications are all means of intervention used to share knowledge and methods with a large audience beyond academic circles. The strength of the collective is its diversity. He wishes to bring an edified, reflective, sensitive and accessible perspective, in dialogue with society. To identify together the primordial issues that are currently emerging between life and technology.