Matter under control: a human dream made true

“One of the oldest dreams of the human kind is probably to control matter with the mind. To see our dreams eventually realized. Information technologies have made our potential coming closer to this objective. We can give shape to matter and get the physical outcome without touching it. The process should be called Reification.
It’s opposite is another antique dream: to convert matter, let’s say the world, into a “thinkable” material, computable material. Converting the world into data that can be understood by natural or artificial brains is the counterpart of Reification. I call it Sublimation.
Like both sides of the same coin, Reification and Sublimation are becoming some of the main forces that control our prospective research. The Brain Factory, as an effective metaphoric artwork allows the “brain workers”, the public, to give an evolving shape to human abstractions. Deeply human, these abstractions are then printed out, completing the process of reification. This is at the same time a “vanity”, a desperate attempt to pursue a paltry objective, so the resulting model is not universal; it is one moment in the evolution of an individual mind inheriting from previous generations.”
Professor Maurice Benayoun is a pioneering researcher, artist and theorist in the field of New Media Art. His work explores the frontiers of emerging medias, creating the very first 3D CG animation series on TV, developing innovative concepts and technologies for virtual and augmented reality, interactive art and urban media large-scale public installation. He has exhibited internationally in museum and key venues of media art and scientific exhibitions: Centre Pompidou (Paris), contemporary art museums in Lyon, Montreal, Seoul and Helsinki, Eyebeam and Museum of the Moving Image (New York), the Machida Museum, the ICC Tokyo. Cite des Sciences de la Villette, Science Museum Shanghai… His work is also in the permanent exhibition inside Arc de Triomphe (Paris). Prof Benayoun created CITU LAB and the Scientific Interest Group H2H Lab and co-founder of Arts-H2H Lab of excellence Paris 8 University. Expert ANR, AERES and European Committee for Research, he created Z-A Production and MoBen Fact, 2 private companies that played a significant role in New Media innovation.