Samuel Bianchini is an artist and teacher-researcher (professor, habilitated to supervise research) at École nationale supérieure des Arts Décoratifs (EnsAD, PSL University, Paris). He lives and works in Paris. With more than 100 collective and 20 solo exhibitions, his works are regularly presented in Europe and around the world: Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil (Belo Horizonte, Rio De Janeiro, São Paulo, Brasilia), Benaki Museum Pireos (Athens), Red Brick Museum (Beijing), MOMus – Museum of Contemporary Art of Thessaloniki, Jeu de Paume (Paris), Zürcher Gallery (New York), Centre Georges Pompidou (Paris), Wood Street Galleries (Pittsburgh), Nuit Blanche (Toronto), Medialab Prado (Madrid), Palais de Tokyo (Paris), Waterfall Gallery (New York), Art Basel, etc.
His creations involve physical as well as symbolic operations, in context, in public and in real time, stimulating us to contemplate, to think as much as to act. Supporting the principle of an “operational aesthetic”, Samuel Bianchini works on the relationship between the most forward-looking technological “dispositifs”, modes of representation, new forms of aesthetic experiences, sociopolitical organizations and ecological issues. To this end, he collaborates with scientists and engineering research laboratories: Institut FEMTO-ST (Franche-Comté Electronics Mechanics Thermal and Optical - Science and Technology), Orange Labs, CEA (French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission, Saclay), ISIR (Institute for Intelligent Systems and Robotics, Sorbonne Université-CNRS), etc.
In close relation to his research and artistic practice, Samuel Bianchini has undertaken theoretical work, which has led to numerous publications. He has published over 70 texts with publishers such as Editions du Centre Pompidou, Editions Jean-Michel Place, MIT Press, Analogues, Burozoïque, Hermes, Les presses du réel, Springer, Birkhauser, etc. As an author, director or co-director, he edited 7 books including the collective book Practicable. From Participation to Interaction in Contemporary Art, MIT Press, 2016 (co-directed with Erik Verhagen); the collective book Behavioral Objects 1 – A Case Study: Céleste Boursier Mougenot, Sternberg Press, 2016 (co-directed with Emanuele Quinz and distributed by MIT Press); and, À Distances – Œuvrer dans les espaces publics, Les presses du réel, 2017 (with Mari Linnman). He also founded the international and multi-platform image-based journal .able, published by Actar (Barcelona, New York) and launched in March 2023, of which he is currently editor-in-chief.
He defended his PhD thesis at Palais de Tokyo with a solo exhibition and, more recently, his accreditation to supervise research (HDR) at the crossroads of artistic, technological and political issues. He is now a teacher-researcher at École nationale supérieure des Arts Décoratifs (EnsAD) – PSL University, where he is the head of the Reflective Interaction group of EnsadLab (EnsAD’s laboratory) on research on interactive “dispositifs”. Here, from 2017 to 2023, he was also co-head of La Chaire arts & sciences, created with École Polytechnique and the Daniel & Nina Carasso Foundation. He is a member of SACRe Laboratory (Sciences Arts Création Recherche) of PSL University and involved in its doctoral program, for which he supervises PhD in art and design. He is also a member of the canadian research-creation network Hexagram and an associate member of the Cluster of excellence Matters of Activity, Humboldt Universität zu Berlin.
 

Websites:
www.dispotheque.org
https://reflectiveinteraction.ensadlab.fr
https://able-journal.org
https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/practicable
https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/behavioral-objects-i

MAURICE BENAYOUN 莫奔

New Media Artist, Theorist and Curator, 
Professor, Nanjing University, CHINA

Maurice Benayoun (aka MoBen or 莫奔) (born 29 March 1957 in Mascara, Algeria) is a French pioneer, contemporary new-media artist, curator and theorist based in Paris and Hong Kong. His work employs various media, including (and often combining) video, computer graphics, immersive virtual reality, the Internet, performance, EEG, 3D Printing, large-scale urban media art installations and interactive exhibitions. Often conceptual, Maurice Benayoun’s work constitutes a critical investigation of the mutations in the contemporary society induced by the emerging or recently adopted technologies.

Miguel Almiron

Professor, University of Paris 1

Miguel Almiron is a member of Institut Acte (UR 7539) University Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne. He leads a theoretical and technical practice exploring and reflecting on the possibilities of expressing the senses of body, and the human being through the use of new digital technologies. His artistic work has been exhibited in galleries and festivals in France and abroad. He was associated to the Labex Arts-H2H/Ens Louis-Lumière research program "Deceptive Arts. Machines, Magic, Media."(2015-2018).