Rossella Vingelli

Extended Organicity in Cyborg: Bridging the Gap Between the Natural and the Artificial

My research investigates the concept of extended organicity in cyborgs, aiming to destabilise the traditional boundary between the natural and the artificial. Grounded in a philosophical and conceptual analysis, the project questions whether technological hybrids—commonly understood as synthetic or mechanical—might participate in processes typically associated with life.

Engaging with Barbara Mazzolai’s creation of plantoids, James Lovelock’s Gaia hypothesis, and Bruno Latour’s Actor-Network Theory (ANT), I develop a framework in which the cyborg is situated within broader ecological and systemic logics. This approach challenges classical definitions of the organism and opens the space for thinking about new forms of vitality across biological and technological domains.

By reframing the cyborg through the lens of extended organicity, the research contributes to contemporary philosophical debates on life and the ontological reconfiguration of what it means to be alive in a world increasingly shaped by hybrid entities—raising the question of whether a form of evolution might be conceivable beyond the strictly.

Supervisors

Professor Michael Hauskeller