For millennia, the boundaries of our physical selves have been dictated by the slow, unyielding crawl of natural selection. Evolution designed the human hand, the leg, and the eye, leaving us to navigate the world within rigid biological borders. Today, however, a quiet revolution on the fringes of neural interfacing, bionic engineering and regenerative medicine is blurring the line between machine and organism—transforming the cyborg from a well-worn trope of science fiction into an imminent, lived reality.

Following presentations of their respective work, biophysicist Hugh Herr and artist-research scientist Ana Rajčević will sit down with Pioneer Works Director of Sciences Janna Levin to dismantle our assumptions about human anatomy. Herr approaches this frontier from the realm of extreme engineering, building highly responsive bionic limbs that fuse directly with human muscle and bone. Rajčević approaches it from the avant-garde, designing non-anthropomorphic robotic body extensions and relational design systems that look less like traditional prosthetics and more like evolutionary leaps.

This work begins with restoration—returning movement, touch, and function to bodies altered by injury or disease—but it does not end there. The implications stretch far beyond standard medical therapy. Together, Herr and Rajčević treat the human form not as a fixed biological condition, but as a malleable medium. Their collaborative research asks a radical question: What happens when the human brain is wired to operate an anatomy it was never built to control—like a soft, flexible appendage modeled after an octopus? When our nervous systems comfortably adapt to non-human forms, we are forced to redefine the very parameters of selfhood and agency.

Join us as we look past what our bodies were born to do and toward the alchemy of what we might choose to become.

Before and after the conversation, enjoy stargazing in the garden with the Amateur Astronomers Association (weather permitting).

Please note that seating is limited and will be available on a first-come, first-served basis.

About Pioneer Works

Pioneer Works is an artist and scientist-led nonprofit cultural center in Red Hook, Brooklyn, fostering innovative thinking through the visual and performing arts, technology, music, and science. The organization builds community and accelerates culture by creating free, accessible spaces where makers and thinkers from diverse disciplines collaborate and experiment together.

This program is supported by the Simons Foundation's Science, Society and Culture division.