ABSTRACT
In the movie The Fifth Element (1997), a nameless cockroach makes a cameo appearance, finding its way into a private boardroom and scurrying across a polished silver table. Fitted with a seemingly fictional wireless remote-controlled circuit and spy camera, the insect is steered by a human outside the room, to capture real-time video of a top-secret conversation. Eventually the insect meets its instant and deadly fate, smashed by the sole of a shiny black shoe. The insect body, viscous and mixed with hard plastic bits from the once-complex circuit, is now nothing more than gunk. The soupy mix of crushed exoskeleton, technological innovation, and human intervention foretells our current time, when living/technological hybrids are becoming not only realizable but commonplace amongst researchers, engineers, artists, and makers.
