Donatien Aubert

Donatien Aubert is an artist, researcher and author. He is particularly interested in the role that cybernetics has played in the development of digital cultures. He has contextualised its influence during the Cold War, questioned the representation it has offered of the human race and its potential obsolescence, and, finally, he has sought to demonstrate its importance in the recasting of scientific ecology.

Donatien Aubert combines his research with the production of hybrid works -- videos, interactive installations, virtual reality experiences, and sculptures created using computer-aided design and manufacturing. These works strike a balance between an epistemological and historical perspective on forms that owe as much to the classical culture of (scientific and literary) curiosity as to that of contemporary technoscience.

After graduating with honours from the École nationale supérieure d'arts de Paris-Cergy, Donatien Aubert went on to carry out post- master's research at the École nationale supérieure des arts décoratifs (EnsadLab). There he worked on the Spatial Media programme, which specialises in the creation of virtual reality experiences and shared 3D environments. He also holds a PhD in comparative literature from the Arts Faculty at the Sorbonne.

At least until the 17th century, men and women of letters seeking to apply their knowledge and hone their memory did so with the aid of intense visualisations. These were generally organised according to a heuristics known in the Renaissance as the "arts of memory," which catalogued and combined a set of ancient ("artificial memory") and medieval ("memory machines") techniques. Donatien Aubert's thesis concerns itself with the reinvention of these techniques in the field of human-machine interactions, drawing on the work of engineers and artists attached to the humanities (Nicholas Negroponte, Jaron Lanier, etc.). His thesis also shows the influence that this rediscovery has had in the fields of cinema and video games.

Donatien Aubert has exhibited at several biennials (Némo, Chroniques, Elektra) and his work has been presented internationally (Kyoto, Esch- Belval, Basel, Montreal, Goa). He won the Cnap's "Image 3.0" photography commission in 2020. He has had solo exhibitions at Galerie Odile Ouizeman, Paris, in 2021, at 3 bis f, Aix-en-Provence in 2022 and 2023, and at Le Hublot, Nice, in 2024. He recently featured in the "Machina Sapiens" exhibition at the Conciergerie, organised within the framework of the AI Action Summit.

He is published by Éditions Hermann (Vers une disparition programmatique d'Homo sapiens ?, 2017) and has contributed to scientific volumes including L'art de la mémoire et Les images mentales (2018), published by Éditions du Collège de France.

For his project at Le Fresnoy, Donatien Aubert will explore the troubled relations maintained by the Russian and American chancelleries with the technological imaginaries born within their respective borders: cosmism in Eastern Europe, transhumanism and the belief in technological singularity across the Atlantic. The film he will make on this occasion will highlight the surprising ideological convergence currently emerging between the two countries.