event Archives

CurieuCity Festival

CurieuCity is a new arts and science festival coming to Brussels for the first time throughout 2024. It offers scientific, artistic and educational activities, partly in public spaces and in collaboration with local initiatives.

CurieuCity cultivates curiosity and wonder in everything that surrounds us individually and collectively. It’s a festival that aims to combine the scientific rigor of universities with the experiential impact of art, STEAM education (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics), and socio-cultural action. Each edition of the festival addresses a question inspired by the reality of the neighbourhood where it is located.

More than just a festival, CurieuCity animates four neighbourhoods throughout the year, aiming to develop sustainable and participatory interest in science by co-creating projects with residents and schools in the area.

Co-organised by two Brussels universities, the Université libre de Bruxelles and the Vrije Universiteit Brussel, CurieuCity explores the intersection of creativity and curiosity.

As artistic co-programmer, Ohme presents the work of artists whose practices cross path with the themes of each edition of the festival.

29 Nov > 1 Dec 2024

@ Marolles

CurieuCity#3 returns for its final edition of the year in Les Marolles neighborhood!

On the agenda: exhibitions, workshops, discussions, and much more! Join us at Place du Jeu de Balle and the surrounding area for a journey into the ‘mysteries of science and engineering.’ Delve into fascinating topics like space, mathematics, mechanics, chemistry and physics, while uncovering how and why certain ideas are considered true or false in science.

27 > 29 Sept 2024 (past edition)

@ Wiels Marsh & Saint Antoine, Saint-Gilles & Forest

For the second edition of @curieucity.brussels we dive into the world of biodiversity and natural sciences. 

Don’t miss our co-productions 𝐀𝐪𝐮𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐜 𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬, 𝐑𝐨𝐭𝐢𝐟𝐞𝐫 (𝐚)𝐥𝐢𝐯𝐞 and 𝐄𝐯𝐨𝐥𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐆𝐚𝐦𝐞. We are happy to be co-programming this multidisciplinary festival, co-presenting work by Studio Joanie Lemercier, Antoine Bertin, David O’Reilly, Marjolijn Dijkman, Toril Johannessen, Anne Marie Maes, Yami Moreno, David Ferreira, Karine Van Doninck & research group, Ophélie Lhuire, Aiko Design and Anagram.

3 > 5 May 2024 (Past Edition)

@ Weststation & Westpark, Molenbeek

CurieuCity makes its “debut” in Molenbeek! This new festival, which combines the experimental impact of art with the rigor of science, invites you to discover “the city of the future” in its first edition.

What’s in the program ? Hyperdiverse society, architecture, urban planning, smart cities, urban agriculture, circular economy, and many other exciting topics. Join us at the Molenwest and Park West sites.

Curieucity is led by the Université libre de Bruxelles and the Vrije Universiteit Brussel, and coordinated by Inforsciences and Wetenschap Brussel.

CurieuCity is funded by the Région de Bruxelles-Capitale – Innoviris.

The educational projects in schools is co-funded by the Vlaamse Gemeenschapscommissie.

ArtScience Day

The first edition of ArtScience Day, a collaboration with ULB and ISELP, combines lectures, panel talks, testimonials, performances and a temporary exhibition.

The intention of this pilot edition is to bring people from the academic community together, to provoke thought, to encourage dialogue between scientific and artistic researchers and to show a glimpse of the field of possibilities of transdisciplinary collaborations and ArtScience projects.

As a co-organizer of this event, Ohme will contribute several interventions during the congress and showcase a series of artworks in the exhibition.

Finally, the day will conclude with the live performance Tales of Entropy by Roméo Poirier & Ohme, followed by the vernissage of Just Landed | Showcase, an exhibition produced by Ohme with 2024 USquare residents.

Interventions

The artists Dewi Brunet and Kris Verdonck will elaborate on their respective Sustainable Robotics residencies with Ohme/BrIAS.

Dewi Brunet combines art, science and technology, applying folding methods to a wide range of materials and purposes. His current work explores the intersection of ecology and technology. During his Sustainable Robotics residency with Ohme, we work together within the field of robotic folding (also known as Oribotics). We help Dewi to deepen his research on plantoids – robots inspired by plants – and explore the use of biomaterials to create sustainable, eco-friendly robots.

Kris Verdonck is a multidisciplinary artist who fuses visual art, architecture, theater and dance. His works are at the crossroads of installation and performance. During his Sustainable Robotics residency, Kris continued his research on the project entitled Garden of the Future, in collaboration with the Museum of Natural Sciences. This project explores the creation of robots powered by renewable energies, designed for and (in)capable of assuming the ecological functions of animal species that have become extinct as a result of the environmental crisis and the collapse of biodiversity.

Ohme project manager Gwen Sauvage will talk about Successful artist/scientist collaborations, based on his years of experience coordinating the Recherche en Perspective programme, while Ohme co-founder Raoul Sommeillier will animate a panel talk on The benefits of transdisciplinary interaction between art and research.

Our resident artist and glass blower Héloïse Colrat, who worked with us on the Methods project, will take part in this, as well as our associate researcher Guillaume Schweicher, FNRS qualified researcher in chemistry.

Exhibition & artworks

The ArtScience Day includes a temporary exhibition, where Ohme presents a series of artworks created in collaboration with talented artists and researchers, exploring the intersection of art, science, and technology:

Plantoïd with Dewi Brunet.

Tales of Entropy – Snapshots with Guillaume Schweicher, Barthélémy Decobecq, Zlab & Aiko Design.

Rotifer (a)live with Aiko Design, Karine Van Doninck & her research team.

Evolution Game with Ophélie Lhuire & Karine Van Doninck.

Recherche en Perspective with the Visual and graphic communication studio of ENSAV La Cambre & the students and experts who have taken part in the programme since 2018.

Truth(s)? – ArtScience(s)? edition, a series of excerpts from interviews with a dozen experts carried out for our Tell All The Truth exhibition and for a research project with the Fonds Wernaers FNRS, edited by Maxime Jennes.

Land of the (un)known (un)knowns with Mathilde Boussange.

Artworks in pictures

Learn more about the artworks

academiaproject

Recherche en Perspective

academiaproductionproject

Land of the (un)known (un)knowns | Mathilde Boussange

installationproduction

Rotifer (a)live

installationperformanceproduction

Tales of Entropy

academiaco-production

RISE Evolution Game

Full programme

ArtScience Day is an event conceived, organised and produced by

Tales of Entropy | New tour dates

Photo: Christian Bertrand

Tales of Entropy is an audiovisual performance combining live polarised light microscopy, computer vision and generative music. Its final version – with electronic musician Roméo Poirier – is on tour in Europe.

A stage-mounted microscope scans through organic samples, revealing transitional states of matter and its fluctuating patterns, which are projected live on stage. Roméo Poirier receives different signals from the live analysis of the images and transforms them into a sensitive musical exploration of the structures of organic matter, merging analog and digital tools.

The music of performance aims at reflecting the contrasts and the textures of the different samples, oscillating between atmospheric landscapes, heavily processed vocal samples, warm orchestral fragments, thunderstorms and passing shadows of dissonance.

TOUR DATES

1 December 2024 | Brussels (BE)
Centre Culturel Bruegel
As part of CurieuCity, Marolles

28 November 2024 | Nantes (FR)
Stereolux
As part of Infiniment lumière

20 November 2024 | Brussels (BE)
Reset
As part of Bozar x Reset #4

18 October | Brussels (BE)
Usquare
As part of Journée ArtScience (ULB)

13 April 2024 | Sankt Vith (BE)
Meakusma & ArsVitha at Corso Cinema

09 April 2024 | Barcelona (ES)
Mutek Opening night w/ Autechre

06 April 2024 | Den Haag (NL)
Rewire Festival

21 March 2024 | Brussels (BE)
PILAR House for Art & Science
! show + artist talk !

16,17,18 March 2024 | Louvain (BE)
Art & Science Parcours at Stuk
As part of FTi and& 2024 Festival

Tales of Entropy is produced by Ohme with the support of :
Région de Bruxelles-Capitale – Innoviris and Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles

Co-creating tomorrow: the human-robot alliance

As part of the Pilar ASAP Festival – The Posthuman Edition, we are pleased to present a conversation exploring, from the point of view of artists and scientists, what might be the future of collaboration between humans and robots.

This talk is presented in the framework of the Sustainable Robotics artists residency, organised by Ohme in collaboration with BrIAS – Brussels Institute for Advanced Studies, and FARI Institute for AI for the common good.

Artists Dewi Brunet and Kris Verdonck, both selected for the residency, will present their projects and their practices at the border between art and robotics, in conversation with Franziska Kirstein and Professor Barry Lennox, international robotics experts from the BrIAS 2024 programme.

Dewi Brunet is a folding artist interested in the sensitive relationship between the living world and robots. This practice is part of the field of Oribotics, a fusion of nature, origami and robotics.

Kris Verdonck explores the societal and ecological impacts of technological advances with a multidisciplinary approach that blends theatrical and visual elements to create unique artistic expressions.

Franziska Kirstein has worked in interdisciplinary teams in the field of Human-Robot Interaction since 2012. Her work combines the robotics industry with academic research in international collaborations, focusing on sustainability in robotics.

Barry Lennox is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering and Professor of Applied Control and Decommissioning in Nuclear Engineering at the University of Manchester (UK). He chairs the UK Robotics and Autonomous Systems Network.

The conversation will take place in English.

PRACTICAL INFORMATION

Tuesday 5 March

Doors: 18:30

Free entrance

Pilar, House for Art & Science – Bd de la Plaine 2, 1050 Bruxelles

The Colour Shifts | Fridays Late events

Every Friday the exhibition The Colour Shifts is open to the public until 22:00 with guided visits, live shows, workshops, DJ sets, and food trucks

Friday 09.02

19:00 – 20:00 Exhibition guided visit
20:30 – 21:00 Monochromes double bass live – Otto Lindholm & Yannick Jacquet
21:00 – 24:00 DJ sets

Froday 16.02

19:00 – 20:00 Exhibition guided visit
20:00 – 20:30 Monochromes Harp Activation of the installation by Margareth Hermant (Echo Collective),
21:00 – 22:00 Gnawa live – Maâlem Dris Filali & Koyo de Bxl
22:00 – 03:30 Party night à LaVallée ! with Giraffes & Penguins – Line up: Rafael Aragon, DiDi tropical djipsies, Rebelup Sebcat, Le grand Méchant Loop

Friday 23.02

19:00 – 19:30 Visite guidée de l’exposition
19:30 – 20:30 Otto Lindholm Live Concert
20:30 – 22:30 Roméo Poirier DJ set + Tales of Entropy – microscopie live et talk by Ohme Lab

Friday 01.03 – finissage

19:00 – 20:00 Exhibition guided visit
20:00 – 22:00 DJ sets

The colour shifts is an exhibition conceived and produced by Ohme

with the support of :
Région de Bruxelles-Capitale – Innoviris | Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles | Loterie Nationale – National Lottery | COCOF

]unframed[

Unframed is a multiformat concept unfolding over a series of panel talks, informal conversations and performances around ArtScience. Originally commissioned by Les Garages Numériques Festival in Brussels, Unframed is modular and adaptable to different contexts.

2020 - unframed x pilar - the fluidity edition

What is fluidity? If we look at how it is defined by dictionaries, we find it’s the quality of being smooth and beautiful, or likely to change (Oxford Dictionary); it is the physical property of a substance that enables it to flow (Merriam Webster); the quality of being likely to change repeatedly and unexpectedly, or of being continuous (Cambridge Dictionary).

All these definitions are similar, reminiscent of a state of being that is momentary, characterized by movement and impermanence. Can the so-called hard sciences and the humanities come together around a single word, and investigate its multifaceted meaning? To what extent can fluidity as understood by a biologist be compared with that understood by a political scientist or an artist? Can this exchange enrich the interpretation that we all have of what’s fluidity and how we understand it in the society we inhabit?

Ohme brings together scientists, researchers, and artists to explore one single word and unfold the multiple meanings and repercussions it has on our knowledge and perceptions.

With:

Prof. Dr. Karen Celis, research professor at the Department of Political Science and co-director Research of RHEA, Research Centre on gender, diversity and intersectionality (VUB);

Prof. Dr. Karine Van Doninck, Full Professor at the Department of Biology, Faculty of Sciences at ULB and UNamur. Principal Investigator of the ERC Consolidator Grant RHEA.

Moderated by Camilla Colombo, curator (Ohme)

2019 - unframed x les garages numerique

Unframed Panel Talk on ArtScience

The panel brought in different points of view on the topic of art and science collaborations, to tackle questions such as what does it mean to build bridges between artistic and scientific disciplines, especially in this society of hyper-specialization and fragmentation? How to present the outcomes of these collaborations to our audiences, playing the key role of mediators in sensible and meaningful ways? The panel aimed at offering a moment of reflection about a topic that is living a particularly “hype” moment, but it is often misinterpreted and misunderstood, and to shed a light on the how and why these collaborations, partnership and encounters are beneficial for all parties involved as well as for society at large.

With: AnneMarie Maes, artist | Eric Kluitenberg, theorist, writer, curator, and educator | Lorenzo Gerbi, designer, studio & education manager, Baltan Laboratories | Jennifer Wong, head of programming, London Science Gallery
Moderated by Camilla Colombo, artistic director, Ohme

Unframed Conversations

A selection of artists and scientists presented their work as artists and their scientific research, discussed artistic interpretation and applications, and scientific practice around common topics, giving a glimpse on the nature of the world we live in, as it is perceived and analysed through their different approaches.

With: Mathieu Zurstrassen, artist & Romain Maggiolo, researcher at BIRA – Belgian Institute for Space Aeronomy | Felix Luque, artist | Evelina Domnitch & Dmitry Gelfand, artists

Unframed Close Up

A group of scientists unveiled the sciences behind a selection of artworks selected from Les Garages Numériques Festival exhibition.
Starting from the artists’ works, scientists talked about neurosciences, quantum physics, holograms, generative coding and northern lights in an informal setting, for small groups of people, in the exhibition space, using artworks as starting points for accessible 15 minutes science talks.

With: Jean-Marc Sparenberg, Nuclear Physics and Quantum Physics Research Unit, ULB – talking about light waves, photons and atoms on frequencies (light quanta) by Nicolas Bernier | Athanasia Symeonidou, Electronics and Informatics Department (ETRO), VUB – talking about holography on Holograms by Louise Bourgeois |Anna Peiffer, Center for Research in Cognition & Neurosciences, ULB – talking about brainwaves on abscisse by Bots Conspiracy | Frederik Vanhoutte, Creative Coder, Physics PhD – talking about creative and generative coding on Bosphorus by Refik Anadol | Romain Maggiolo, researcher at BIRA – Belgian Institute for Space Aeronomy talking about northern lights on EOEEIT by Mathieu Zurstrassen.

Unframed Live

Evelina Domnitch & Dmitry Gelfand – FORCE FIELD
Charles de Ville & Francois Gaspard – QUADRAPHONIC ABSTRACT

Music & Technology Corner

Music & Technology Corner a multiformat concept unfolding over a series of talks, lectures, workshops and live concerts about technologies and music.
The MTC brings together performers, practitioners and academics for an all-day gathering that transcends the borders between creative practice, scientific understanding and technical expertise.

Edition 2018

Edition 2017

BEM Brussels Electronic Marathon – RecyK, Brussels

PRESS

Machine dans ma tête: les liens étroits entre sciences et musique // Focus Le Vif – Elisabeth Debourse // 22.11.2018

La musique ramène sa science // Le Soir – Didier Zacharie // 09.10.2018

STEAM Conferences

Smells Like STEAM Spirit is a cycle of lectures and panel talks presenting a selection exciting projects at the nexus of arts, science, technology and industry.

STEAM is for Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts & Mathematics.

Internationally renowned lecturers and organisations introduced the audience to a myriad of art & engineering projects. From bio-adaptive architecture to gesture control in video gaming, from multisensory experiences to joint arts-science research studies. The cycle includes four conferences around various topics.

Sonic.Taste

Designing sounds to enhance tasting experiences
with Felipe Reinoso Carvalho

Biomimicry in architecture

Biomimicry as a driving force for aesthetics, innovation and sustainable architecture
with Steven Ware (Art&Build)

Selected arts&science projects

International and collaborative art & science projects by Ars Electronica, BOZAR and Gluon
with Paul Dujardin, Veronika Liebl, Christophe De Jaeger & Michel Tombroff

How depthsensing impacts our world

The present and future of depthsensing in gaming and arts
with Ward van der Tempel & Christopher Littlefair (Sony Depthsensing Solutions)

Smells Like STEAM Spirit has been commissioned by the Alumni Association of the École polytechnique de Bruxelles and took place between March and May 2018.

Engine.ear

Music: perceptions & productions

Act 1: Music, Processing and Perception

– “Physical description of musical sound” by Jean-Louis Migeot, professor at the Ecole polytechnique de Bruxelles (ULB) and the Conservatoire de Liège

– “Two tools for processing sound waves: the Ear and the Machine” by Antoine Nonclerq, lecturer at the Ecole polytechnique and Federico Lucchetti, doctoral student at the Université Libre de Bruxelles.

– Musical interlude (LIVE)

– “From perception to thrills: how do we process music?” by Régine Kolinsky, Director of Research at the FRS-FNRS and Director of the Cognitive Neuroscience Research Unit (UNESCOG) at the ULB, and Manon Couvignou, holder of a Master’s degree in Cognitive Sciences from the École Normale Supérieure de Paris.

Act 2 : The Physics of Acoustic Music

– “Notions d’acoustique instrumentale: les instruments à vents” by Jean-Louis Migeot (presented above).

– “Musical interlude (LIVE)

Act 3: Introduction to Modular Analog Synthesis
François Gaspard, an engineer by training, is also a multi-instrumentalist musician, electronic music producer and sound engineer. After having collaborated on numerous musical projects for nearly two decades, he has now launched the creation and marketing of synthesis modules under the name Shakmat Modular. François will present the principles of analogue synthesis, explain how his modules work and do a 50 min set.