In nature, the self-assembly of biopolymers and motor proteins in the complex intracellular environment leads to interesting emergent behaviour that is crucial for cellular functions and motility. The dynamics of these self-organising structures are driven by the continuous supply of energy at the molecular level, which enables the active components to generate internal stresses for spontaneous motion. In this study, we develop bioinspired active networks made of intracellular cytoskeletal components that self-organise in vitro. By combining passive components that produce entropic forces and extensile and contractile forces exerted by motor proteins, the networks evolve over time and exhibit nematic organization, pattern formation and transition toward disordered regime. Furthermore, we are interested in the behaviour of such active networks under the influence of external mechanical stimulation. We analyse how the intrinsic active stress couples with the environment and observe that this coupling influences the spatio-temporal distribution of the driving forces and the emergent behaviour of the system. These minimal synthetic structures can serve as new model systems for the quantitative understanding of fundamental questions about biological functions.