The research explores how contemporary art at the intersection with science and technology engages with the multifaceted concept of immortality, encompassing biological, technological, temporal, and cultural dimensions.
Through a selection of pivotal artworks from the late 20th century to the present, they examine how artists interpret and challenge notions of existence, memory, and legacy. The paper discusses projects such as Guy Ben-Ary’s CellF, an autonomous musical instrument powered by the artist’s own neural cells, and Marta de Menezes’ Immortality for Two, created in collaboration with immunologist Luís Graça, which uses cancer-inducing genes to immortalize immune cells and confronts the ethical implications of biotechnological interventions in life extension. John Cage’s 639-year-long performance of ORGAN²/ASLSP is explored as a radical redefinition of temporal experience, while Shawn Brixey’s Voltar uses cloned ice-core samples in a luminous installation that poetically captures prehistoric time.
Further reflecting on cultural and symbolic immortality, their analysis includes Joe Davis’ Microvenus, a project inscribed with questions about humanity’s representation across time, and Trevor Paglen’s The Last Pictures, a disc of images mounted on a satellite and designed to outlast life on Earth. Marina Abramović’s mixed reality work The Life creates a digital doppelgänger of the artist, enabling indefinite posthumous interaction with audiences and engaging with cultural and digital legacy. The paper also discusses Hito Steyerl’s How Not to Be Seen and etoy’s Mission Eternity, which approach the topic of digital data's endurance in contrasting ways, raising questions about visibility, permanence, and the fate of digital memory.
Dr. Majcen Linn and Dr. Ostoić’s contribution brings together critical theory, bioethics, and aesthetic practice, offering a nuanced reflection on the future of human presence, its possible extensions, and the evolving role of art in mediating our relationship to time, death, and the infinite.
