Dr. Aura Elena Schussler is a university lecturer at Babeș-Bolyai University’s Department of Philosophy, Faculty of History and Philosophy in Cluj-Napoca, Romania. She is the founder of the “Posthuman Studies Research Group” and the “Transhumanism, Posthumanism, and Metahumanism” student circle at the University. She also leads and organizes the “Posthuman Studies” international conference series (PSC) and the national “Human Nature, Culture, Technology” (NUCT) conference series. Additionally, she is the series editor for the “Posthuman Studies” book collection published by Trivent Publishing and the lead editor of the essay collection “Metahumanism, Euro-Transhumanism, and Sorgner’s Philosophy—Technology, Ethics, Art” (Trivent Publishing, 2024). She serves on the Editorial Board of "Deliberatio: Studies in Contemporary Philosophical Challenges" (West University of Timisoara). Formerly, she was a member of the Editorial Board of the "Journal of Posthumanism" (Transnational Press, London). 

Her research explores trans-/posthumanism, posthuman art and aesthetics, eroticism, and sexuality, with several articles published in international peer-reviewed journals. She is the author of two books written in Romanian: Obscenul ca valoare postmodernă (Casa Cărții de Știință, 2013) and Dintre ale corpului și minții: despre Seducție, Erotism și Pornografie (Casa Cărții de Știință, 2011).

• https://ubbcluj.academia.edu/SchusslerAura 

Schussler, A. & Balistreri, M. 2024. Metahumanism, Euro-Transhumanism, and Sorgner’s Philosophy—Technology, Ethics, Art. Trivent Publishing. 

• https://trivent-publishing.eu/home/170-318-metahumanism-sorgner.html#/27-cover-paperback 

Stefan Lorenz Sorgner is a philosophy professor at John Cabot University in Rome, Director and Co-Founder of the Beyond Humanism Network, Fellow at the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies (IEET), Research Fellow at the Ewha Institute for the Humanities at Ewha Womans University in Seoul, academic Advisor of Humanity+, and Visiting Fellow at the Ethics Centre of the Friedrich-Schiller-University in Jena. He is editor of more than 10 essay collections, and author of the following monographs: Metaphysics without Truth (Marquette University Press 2007), Menschenwürde nach Nietzsche (WBG 2010), Transhumanismus (Herder 2016), Schöner neuer Mensch (Nicolai, 2018), Übermensch (Schwabe 2019), On Transhumanism (Penn State University Press 2020), We have always been cyborgs (Bristol University Press 2022), Philosophy of Posthuman Art (Schwabe 2022), Transhumanismus (mit Philip von Becker, Westendverlag 2023), Homo ex Machina  (together with Bernd Kleine-Gunk, Goldmann 2023, in German), Homo ex Machina  (together with Bernd Kleine-Gunk, Mirae N Co, Ltd 2024, in Korean translation), Philosophy of Posthuman Art (Epikentro 2024, in Greek translation). In addition, he is Editor-in-Chief and Founding Editor of the “Journal of Posthuman Studies” (a double-blind peer review journal, published by Penn State University Press since 2017). Furthermore, he is in great demand as a speaker in all parts of the world (World Humanities Forum, Global Solutions Taipei Workshop, Biennale Arte Venezia, TEDx, Colours of Ostrava) and a regular contact person of national and international journalists and media representatives (Die Zeit, Cicero, Der Standard; Die Presse am Sonntag, Philosophy Now, Il Sole 24 Ore). 

• CV & www.mousike.de 

• https://th-pedia.org/wiki/Stefan_Lorenz_Sorgner 

Stelarc’s projects explore alternative anatomical architectures. He has performed with a Third Hand, a Stomach Sculpture and a 6-legged walking robot.  In 1995 for Fractal Flesh his body was remotely choreographed using muscle stimulation. In 2006 an ear was surgically constructed on his arm. The intent, not yet realised is to electronically augment the ear to internet enable it as a remote listening device. Attached to an industrial robot arm in 2015 the trajectory, velocity and position and orientation of the body was precisely programmed. In 2016, with Re-Wired/Re-Mixed, for 6 hours every day for 5 days, he could only see with the eyes of someone on London, could only hear with the ears of someone in NY, but anyone, anywhere could access his right arm and remotely actuate it. Commissioned for the 2020 Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art at the Art Gallery of South Australia, Reclining StickMan is a 9m long, 4m high robot that is algorithmically actuated and can be remotely controlled with online interactivity. In 1996 he was made an Honorary Professor of Art and Robotics, Carnegie Mellon University and in 2002 was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Laws by Monash University. In 2010 he was awarded the Ars Electronica Golden Nica Hybrid Arts Prize. In 2015 he received the Australia Council’s Emerging and Experimental Arts Award. In 2016 he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from the Ionian University, Corfu. In 2023 he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from the Academy of Fine Arts, Krakow. In 2024 he was elected an Honorary Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities. 

• www.stelarc.org

Articulated Head, Stelarc —Photographer Damith Herath 

Eduardo Kac is internationally recognized for his groundbreaking work in contemporary art and poetry. In the early 1980s, Kac created digital, holographic and online works that anticipated the global culture we live in today, composed of ever-changing information in constant flux. In 1997 the legendary artist coined the term "Bio Art," igniting the development of this new art form with works such as his transgenic rabbit GFP Bunny (2000) and Natural History of the Enigma (2009), which earned him the Golden Nica, the most prestigious award in the field of media art. GFP Bunny has become a global phenomenon, having been appropriated by major popular culture franchises such as Sherlock, Big Bang Theory and Simpsons, and by writers such as Margaret Atwood and Michael Crichton. In 2017, Kac created Inner Telescope, a work conceived for and realized in outer space with the cooperation of French astronaut Thomas Pesquet. In 2024, Kac's Ágora flew to deep space aboard the Centaur rocket and is now in a perpetual heliocentric orbit. Kac's Adsum is scheduled to fly to the Moon in 2024. Kac’s singular and highly influential career spans poetry, performance, drawing, printmaking, photography, artist's books, early digital and online works, holography, telepresence, bio art, and space art. Kac has also authored or edited several books, including Telepresence and Bio Art -- Networking Humans, Rabbits and Robots (University of Michigan Press, 2005). Kac’s work has been exhibited internationally at venues such as New Museum, New York; Pompidou Center, Paris; MAXXI-Museum of XXI Century Arts, Rome; Mori Art Museum, Tokyo; Reina Sofia Museum, Madrid; Power Station of Art, Shanghai; and Seoul Museum of Art, Korea. Kac's work has been showcased in biennials such as Venice Biennale, Italy; Yokohama Triennial, Japan; Gwangju Biennale, Korea; Bienal de São Paulo, Brazil; and Bienal de Habana, Cuba. His works are in major collections such as Museum of Modern Art-MoMA, New York; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Tate Modern, London; Reina Sofia Museum, Madrid; Victoria & Albert Museum, London; Museum Les Abattoirs—Frac Occitanie Toulouse, France; Valencian Institute of Modern Art-IVAM, Spain; Museum ZKM, Karlsruhe, Germany; and Museum of Contemporary Art of São Paulo, among others. 

As a composer and musician, Sven Helbig combines classical composition techniques with experimental electronics. Sven grew up in the East German planned town of Eisenhüttenstadt. The self-taught composer's debut album, Pocket Symphonies, was released by the Deutsche Grammophon label in 2013. Sven Helbig's work is interdisciplinary. His visualizations have won international awards.

In 2023, his still life Skills was shown in a collective exhibition together with Gerhard Richter, William Kentridge, Tony Cragg, and Katharina Sieverding.

Svens Helbig's works are performed worldwide by many renowned artists, including the BBC Singers, the London Contemporary Orchestra, the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the Fauré Quartet, the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin, the cellist Jan Vogler, and the conductor Kristjan Järvi.

In 2025, he will be on the programme of the Vienna Symphony Orchestra and the Dresden Staatskapelle with his current work, Requiem A.

Since 2017, Sven Helbig hosts his weekly music special, Schöne Töne, on Radio Eins in Berlin, in which he shares his extensive music-historical  knowledge and introduces new music.

Sven Helbig is the winner of the Dresden Art Prize and Maestro of the National University of San Marin in Buenos Aires.

• www.svenhelbig.com