Behavioral Objects, Behavioral Matter

This book explores the notion of "behavioral objects"-contemporary artworks with the capacity to act and react that exhibit autonomous behavior. For even though these non-anthropomorphic objects make movements that serve no particular purpose, their motion and animation are nonetheless strongly suggestive of behavior. Indeed, they could be said to possess a personality of their own, thereby challenging their status as objects and becoming more like subjects. Uncanny and profoundly unsettling, they question the notion of being alive and, in turn, of being human. With 8 essays, 24 interviews, and summaries of more than 100 artworks, the book adopts a multidisciplinary approach, combining fields ranging from philosophy and art history to robotics, art, architecture, design, anthropology, cognitive science, materials science, human-machine interaction, and computer science. Samuel Bianchini is an artist and teacher-researcher at École nationale supérieure des Arts Décoratifs, Paris. Emanuele Quinz is an art and design historian and curator with a full professorship at Paris 8 University. Rahma Khazam is a philosopher affiliated with Institut ACTE at Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne University