Form taking/ force shaping
2022
Antennae #59
Microbial Ecologies
Read the publication (p. 58-73)
Fossilation, bioplastic, energy harvesting, bio-art, residual energy, architecture.
Alice Jarry
Marie-Pier Boucher
Brice Ammar-Khodja
Samuel Bianchini
lee wilkins
Vanessa Mardirossian
A transparent membrane made of bioplastic hovers over the floor at the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris.
Many cables extend directly from the membrane towards the ceiling and appear to be held in place there as
if by static cling. Arranged like tentacles in search of food and energy, sensors and suspended cables running along the exposed piping (a signature architectural feature of the Centre) also interface with the membrane, converting the building’s residual flow, energy, activity, and traffic into electricity.
This energetic and electrical “grip” on the building serves to power a light arrangement that illuminates the membrane from the inside,
modulating its intensity and creating an effect reminiscent of a flickering film strip. The membrane is imprinted
with counter-forms depicting bare, obsolete electronic components—flat screens, cables, computer components, and peripheral devices. The forms progressively merge and fade into the media, like an open-pit mine being gradually filled, frame by frame, creating a fossilized imprint of our era.



