Background
Practice-based research in arts, science, and design
La Chaire Arts & Sciences amplifies and enriches the dynamics already at work within each of its sponsor institutions.
>At École Polytechnique (Institut polytechnique de Paris, known as “X”), the activities of La Chaire Arts & Sciences are part of an arts and sciences program led by Jean-Marc Chomaz since 1990. The program is based at the school’s Hydrodynamics Laboratory (LadHyX), which studies natural sciences. It also works with the Interdisciplinary Laboratory in Human and Social Sciences (LinX), which studies the relationship among science, technology, and society.
Researchers from various laboratories at École Polytechnique (such as the Solid Mechanics Laboratory, the Le Prince Ringuet Laboratory, the Interdisciplinary Center for Electronic Microscopy, and the Center for Applied Mathematics) are regularly involved in the activities of La Chaire Arts & Sciences. This involvement by scientists from all disciplines in research and artistic production aids in epistemological reflection, thereby forming a unique approach that has been endorsed and strengthened by the creation of La Chaire Arts & Sciences.
> At École des Arts Décoratifs, Paris (Université PSL – Paris Sciences & Lettres), the activities of La Chaire Arts & Sciences are mainly linked to those of the school’s EnsadLab art and design research laboratory and the research group Reflective Interaction directed by Samuel Bianchini, in connection with other research groups such as Spatial Media and Symbiosis.
With the creation of EnsadLab in 2007, and then that of the doctoral program SACRe (Sciences Arts Creation Research) in 2012, with which it is associated, École des Arts Décoratifs has developed numerous projects in collaboration with various scientific disciplines (notably engineering and experimental sciences). Today, École des Arts Décoratifs, with its PSL partners, is one of the most advanced artistic institutions for the development of practice-based research in arts, sciences, and design.
> At the Daniel and Nina Carasso Foundation, La Chaire Arts & Sciences is supported by the Art, Science and Society Program of its “Art Citoyen” component, which promotes “art to consolidate citizenship and to act as a driver of change, so as to take up the challenges of the contemporary world.” In 2020, the Daniel and Nina Carasso Foundation renewed its support for La Chaire Arts & Sciences for three years.
Structuring effects
> Joint events such as Useful Fictions, the first arts-design-sciences summer seminar at École Polytechnique, and the public workshop Behavioral Matter at the Centre Pompidou
> Experimentation with original formats of interaction with the public: “publicization” systems proposed during events, to share multidisciplinary research processes by involving the public
> Incorporation of research-creation modules and collective projects in the student curriculum
> Shared creative engineering systems, used in artistic installations and productions developed within each school
> Development of arts-science partnerships, such as the creation of the Exoplanète Terre network, which brings together 10 arts & sciences organizations in the Île-de-France region of France, as well as international partnerships with the Matters of Activity Cluster of Excellence in Berlin and the Hexagram network in Montreal.