Behavioral Matter

In dialogue with the exhibition »La Fabrique du vivant«, an unforgettable multidisciplinary workshop took place at the heart of the Centre Pompidou, Paris, to explore through practice the notion of ›behavior‹ of matter and materials, techniques, living and semi-living entities.

The goal of the workshop was to test and open perspectives for new works of art and design which integrated materials’ agentivity, by experimenting at the crossroads of engineering and science, creative practices and humanities, in an open exchange within a public arena. The collaborative approach involved thinking through relationships among humans, non-humans and environments, inspired by the living and composing with living or partially living systems or organisms. The main challenge was to successfully combine many disciplines and many personalities in such a dynamic setting and to reach the creative, technical and theoretical objectives that participants had in mind. For three days, more than 90 researchers and students coming from the natural sciences, engineering and the humanities worked side by side with artists and designers in the main lobby of the Centre Pompidou, creating new bonds, new forms, and new formats for interdisciplinary research. 21 institutions from Germany, Australia, Canada, Spain, USA, France, Italy and Great Britain were represented, and 8 members of the Cluster of Excellence Matters of Activity participated. At the end of the third day, all the participants gave a public presentation of the work and collective reflections that emerged, as well as of the resulting productions. The public from the Pompidou demonstrated a real curiosity for what was being made or demonstrated before their very eyes and one of the many challenges of the participants consisted in performing in a very limited space and time while being observed and questioned by the visitors.

Twelve modules were set up on site that steamed up for three days, and a web radio created at Beaux-Arts de Paris (Radiobal) broadcasted live during the workshop. One of the groups (Mattering Matter ) also went to Beaux-Arts for half a day, hosted by artist Guillaume Paris, to make kombucha and mycelium, which had been forbidden at the last minute by the Centre Pompidou. Special attention was given to the relations between the social sciences and humanities and the various fields of practice at stake and a group of four ›pollinators‹ circulated between the various modules, creating cross-connections between the participants or engaging rich dialogues at the radio stand. It appeared that the radio was a great medium for discussions, making sense of these relationships between various disciplines, approaches and generations, and, more generally, between theory and practice.

The project and workshop »Behavioral Matter« had been implemented by EnsadLab, the research laboratory of the École nationale supérieure des Arts Décoratifs, in partnership with the Cluster of Excellence »Matters of Activity«, under the initiative of Patricia Ribault.