Members of the team that created Fossilation (Pompidou, 2021) are proud to announce an essay — ‘Form taking/force shaping’ — published in the Fall 2022 edition of Antennae: Microbial Ecologies. The essay explores the theory, process, and cross-Atlantic creation of the collaborative research project.

‘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.‘

From the Antennae website

Download the full essay — ‘Form taking/force shaping‘ — for free from the website. Essay co-written by Alice Jarry, Marie-Pier Boucher, Brice Ammar-Khodja, lee wilkins, Vanessa Mardirossian, and Samuel Bianchini in Antennae’s current issue ‘Microbial Ecologies’ co-edited by Ken Rinaldo and Giovanni Aloi.

Front cover image design: Daria Fedorova, ‘Portraying’, extremely flat nutrient on thin paper, scaled area, air seeding, 2021 © DashaPlesen/The Blueprint Russia