Interaction Design

Artificial Eternity at Bits n Bolts Robotival 2025

What if the personality of your loved ones could be preserved forever, to be summoned at any moment for advice or comfort after death? What if you could stave off death yourself and continue to exist in some digital likeness indefinitely?

The exhibition Artificial Eternity by students from the BA Major Interaction Design at ZHdK explores the digital afterlife through five interactive. Using large language models and embodied devices, the projects investigate how personal data and AI can be used to simulate personality, preserve memories, and maintain emotional connections after someone has passed away.

From a dog’s toy that reacts as if it still carries the pet’s presence, to a family archive that allows you to request stories from relatives using voice commands, each project raises questions about memory, identity, and grief in the context of new technologies.

Part of the Bits n Bolts Robotival, the exhibition invites visitors to engage with these speculative designs and reflect on how digital tools may change how we deal with death in the future.

With projects by

Pablo Blumer, Kiara Rai, Arya Gohad, Lorena Cirincione, Meagan Crowe, Elena Fabrikant, Nico Frey, Jonathan Gartenmann, Nadja Häfliger, Lea Helbok, Leroy Jallow, Noel Kampus, Tommaso Poggi, Iris Prelorentzou, Laura Renner, Anna Senko, Thinle Shitsetsang, Joel Staub

Mentors

Luke Franzke and Paulina Zybinska

Many thanks to Marcial Koch, Andrin Gorgi and the team of Überaktiv for making this possible!

Photos: Paulina Zybinska
Exhibition: Bits n Bolts, 3 & 4 May 2025 at Dynamo Zürich