Shapes of Emergence collective

Shapes of Emergence is a live cinema collective exploring the intersection of experimental sciences, music, and cinema. Founded by artist, physicist and roboticist Baudouin Saintyves, the project originated from projections of experiments on forms that he conducted alongside his scientific research at MIT. It then moved to the University of Chicago, where physicist Séverine Atis joined to develop the first choreographies and explore new experiments. The duo presented a first eponyme live cinema performance, Shapes of Emergence, drawing on Chicago's rich experimental music scene. They were joined by musicians Otto Briner, Ben Kinsinger, and Roiel Benitez to further refine their medium and develop a new performance, Water Organoids. Like a metaphor for a scientist in the lab, the inherent variability in the physics experiments they "perform" on stage becomes a central element of the show, allowing for the development of a symbiotic approach to sound and image that put emphasis on improvisation and "discovery." Exploring sounds heavily influenced by Chicago's jazz and experimental music scenes,Water Organoids premiered as an award winner at the International Symposium on Electronic Art (ISEA) in Paris in May 2023, and was subsequently featured at international events such as the Chicago Architecture Biennial, Ars Electronica, the Current New Media Festival, or La Nuit des Idées (Villa Albertine).

Baudouin Saintyves

I am a physicist, engineer and multimedia artist. I am a staff scientist and visiting artist at the University of Chicago (Jaeger Lab), and founding artistic director of Shapes of Emergence. I am interested in how patterns self-organize in nature, as a scientific topic, and as a creative medium at the cross of art and technology. In my performance work, I explore a process that highlights a connection in the emergence of natural and artificial forms. I develop audio-visual immersive narratives, with real-time projections of physics experiments, as well as robotic installations. In my scientific research, I develop new forms of embodied artificial intelligence based on self-organizing properties, blurring the distinction between materials, programmable assemblies, and autonomous robots. I earned a PhD in physics from Sorbonne University in Paris, France, and did post-doctoral research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and at Harvard University. I was awarded a CAMIT grant from the council for the art at MIT in 2018 and had residencies at MANA Contemporary’s High Concept Labs in Chicago (Feb. 2019 to Dec. 2020), at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (Jan - Dec 2019), and I am currently part of the 2024 resident laureates cohort at Chateau Ephemere in France (2023-2024). I was an artist laureate at the International Symposium on Electronic Art (ISEA) 2023. My art and scientific works have been presented in international events such as the 5th Chicago Architecture Biennial, the American Geophysical Union meeting, the American Physical Society’s March Meeting, ISEA 2023, and the Festival Zero 1. My research has been published in international journals including Science Robotics, Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, and Physical Review letters.

Severine Atis

I am an experimental physicist currently working at the CNRS in France, and visiting researcher at University of Chicago. I attach great importance to an interdisciplinary approach towards science, and my research interests span soft matter, nonequilibrium statistical physics, biophysics and art. I received my PhD at Sorbonne University in Physics where I investigated reaction waves dynamics in disordered flow. I did my post-doc at MIT, Harvard University and University of Chicago, working on the coupling of hydrodynamical flows and wave propagation with other out-of equilibrium phenomena such as evolutionary dynamics in yeast, inertial particle transport, and density gradient.

Ben Kinsinger (organs, piano)

Ben is a Chicago musician exploring how narratives emerge from the interplay of improvised sound and movement. Combining jazz methods with film scoring, he collaborates with performance artists from contemporary art and dance to improve theater and magic. He is a resident pianist/organist at the Chicago Magic Lounge, IO, and Annoyance Theater.

Roiel Benitez (drums, electronics)

Shaped by diverse cultures, from his birthplace Jerusalem to South Africa and the Americas, Roiel is a France-based Paraguayan musician, sound artist, and community leader. He blends traditional and experimental drumming, sound design, and music production in art & tech projects. He works on public engagement for various educational entities.

Otto Briner (upright bass)

Otto is a musician and biogeochemist researching greenhouse gas exchange in natural and managed ecosystems at the Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de L’Environnement. As a double bassist he draws from free jazz, post-punk, Gamelan, and African drumming traditions to create improvised and composed music.