Parasites & Robotics is a sci-fi workshop that bridges biology and robotics, drawing parallels between natural evolution and technological design. By examining concepts such as body architecture, sensory perception, hots, evolution, and behavior, participants will dive into how parasites evolve and interact with their environments and how these biological principles can inspire robotic design.
Through creative exercises, participants will explore how robotic bodies can emerge as adaptive entities that inhabit both physical and virtual ecosystems. The workshop invites reflection on environments, interfaces, host bodies, and the dynamic relationship between organic and artificial life forms. Using Arduino boards, Pure Data and Ableton as our base tools, we’ll prototype behaviors and sensory systems that respond to real-world stimuli. Participants will also be introduced to Unreal Engine, learning how to extend their robotic creations into virtual spaces.
By the end of the workshop, participants will collaboratively prototype and animate their own bio-inspired robotic parasite, exploring how hybrid organisms can exist between code, hardware, and imagination.
Salvador Marino (b. 1985, Argentina) is a Doctor in Biology and a transdisciplinary artist at the intersection of art, science, and technology. His work focuses on interactive art, sculpture, performance, and direction, aiming to critique the hegemonic systems that shape our perceptions of life, nature, technology, and the body.
Marino’s practice explores the boundaries between organic and inorganic systems, creating speculative narratives that reimagine evolutionary processes and hybrid forms of existence. Through these investigations, he questions the cultural and political mechanisms that produce normative ideas of nature, environment, and identity.
In 2017 co-founded Post-Organic Bauplan, a collaborative project founded with the dancer and performance artist Josefina Maro. Post-Organic Bauplan works on the development of robotic prostheses to explore, from the movement, and question the practices that condition our bodily perception.
His performances, installations, and interactive works have been presented at HAU Hebbel am Ufer Berlin, Berlin (DE), Hellerau – Europäisches Zentrum der Künste, Dresden (DE), Teatro Nacional D. Maria, Lisbon (PT), LOFFT – DAS THEATER, Leipzig (DE) HALLE 14 (Leipzig), Performance Bienal, Buenos Aires (AR), Museo Nacional Palacio Evita, Córdoba (AR) within other international venues.
- Website: https://salvadormarino.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ssslvdr/
