EnsadLab – the laboratory of the École nationale supérieure des Arts Décoratifs (EnsAD, Université PSL) – welcomes art and design researchers from Concordia University’s Research Chair in Critical Practices in Materials and Materiality (Milieux Speculative Life Biolab), the University of Toronto Mississauga, the Royal College of Arts, and researchers and engineers from the Institute for Intelligent Systems and Robotics, for a research-creation workshop.

This workshop will focus on the operability of membranes, such as their protective, porous and elastic capabilities. In this context, the team will experiment with bio-inspired materials and soft robotics pneumatic systems to examine the reciprocal activities and behaviors between membranes and air flows.

Combining practice and theory through workshops, conferences, debates and meetings with the public, some fifteen researchers, designers, artists and engineers will work together for four days to produce new ways of thinking and acting with these objects and materials that embody both the power and fragility of life.