Behavioral Objects, Behavioral Matter - Rethinking Robotics Through Contemporary Art: An Atlas. This is the title of the forthcoming book that Samuel Bianchini and his art and design historian colleague Emanuele Quinz will be publishing this spring with the publisher Spector Books. The book is based on over 12 years of research into and with “Behavioral Objects”, involving not only the art and design research group (Reflective Interaction) headed by Samuel Bianchini, but also numerous partners from various disciplines: philosophy, robotics, computer sciences (AI), cognitive science, anthropology, and material sciences. “Behavioral Objects” are robotic art and design objects whose movements tend to demonstrate behaviors. Non-figurative, these art objects have no need of being useful: their activity does not have a specific function or usage. So, why would an object move if not to complete a task? And how does it move if its power of action (its agency) comes from within? How to design these forms of agency and animacy in contradiction with the primary condition of these objects? How can we create works that increasingly incorporate soft robotics and smart materials? How to build an emotional and reflective relation with these robotic objects through an aesthetic dimension in operation?
Based on the work done for the book and the presentation of several robotic artworks, including a few developed by Samuel Bianchini in the framework of this Behavioral Objects field of research, this conference will provide answers to these questions through practice-based research.
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: Benaki Museum Pireos (Athens), Red Brick Museum (Beijing), Jeu de Paume (Paris), Zürcher Gallery (New York), Centre Georges Pompidou (Paris), Wood Street Galleries (Pittsburgh), Institut français de Tokyo, Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil (Belo Horizonte, Rio De Janeiro, São Paulo, Brasilia), Stuk Art Center (Leuven), Nuit Blanche (Toronto), Medialab Prado (Madrid), Palais de Tokyo (Paris), Kunsthaus PasquArt (Biel), Waterfall Gallery (New York), Art Basel, space_imA and Duck-Won Gallery (Seoul), Museum of Contemporary Art Ateneo of Yucatán (Mexico), Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie (ZKM, Karlsruhe), Musée d’art moderne de la Ville de Paris, 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 Springer, Birkhauser, Editions du Centre Pompidou, Analogues, Burozoïque, Hermes, Les presses du réel, 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). He is going to publish, as editor, with Emanuele Quinz, in Spring 2026, a new collective book (512 pages) untitled Behavioral Objects, Behavioral Matter - Rethinking Robotics Through Contemporary Art, with Spector Books, Leipzig. 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.
Websites:
www.dispotheque.org | www.ensadlab.fr | https://reflectiveinteraction.ensadlab.fr | https://able-journal.org | https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/behavioral-objects-I | https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/practicable
