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Why do our technologies inspire so much hope and fear? When radical new technologies emerge, they stir up a cloud of utopian dreams and doomsday prophecies. Art is central to that conversation. In recent years, the robot has returned to contemporary art in experimental forms, signalling a shift in technology’s impact on our lives.

In the age of surveillance capitalism, technological utopias are hard to see. We find ourselves in the midst of a new technological revolution. Artificial intelligence, synthetic biology and quantum computers are being introduced into a culture where many already navigate a digital double – the virtual identity we construct on social media, freely handing over our data to giant corporations. The relationship between humans and machines is one of modernity’s defining cultural dramas, and it is intensifying before our eyes.

Soft Robots presents works by 15 artists and artist duos. From different artistic perspectives, they look at life in the new technological ecology, questioning the future we are shaping for ourselves. Many of the works were developed especially for CC’s exhibition. Created with or without new technology, they show art’s capacity to explore the world through poetry. Critically, the exhibiting artists search for the breath and soul that may be hiding in the landscapes of the future, among doppelgängers, digital avatars and seductive machines. They all insist on art as a unique space of reflection.