ABSTRACT
This chapter details an interview with Vivian Xu. In this interview, Vivian Xu asks what it means for technological systems to be understood as a natural part of this mix. Humans have long explored conceptions of life through technology, but what intrigues and inspires the author in a contemporary sense is a relationship between mechanical and behavioural systems that interface the unpredictability of the living with the controlled behaviour of the machine. A recreation of organic life is a recreation of an ‘all together’ time – space reality within an organism. The relationship between Chinese people and the silkworm is very complicated. Sericulture is built on the killing of silkworms, but, because the practice is also almost synonymous with Chinese culture, there is an important layer of heritage and emotional attachment to the silkworm that is deeply rooted in Chinese society, even today.
