Research topics

The culture of project-design finds itself in the intersection of different languages. It is through the hybridisation of languages that project-based research is carried out. This “creative writing” combines: graphical or technical vocabulary, literary, cinematographic or sound-writing, comic strips, computer code, scientific protocol, mathematical statements, etc… The specifics of the project and the singularity of the practitioner’s approach determine which research approaches are favoured in the process. This iterative process may be dominated by: 

• Research through narrative (storyboard, usage scenario, literary narrative, protocol, etc). 
• Research through investigation (interview, reportage, survey…) 
• Research through pictures (mood board, trend, formal universe…)
• Research through technical representation: project representation (through images or 3d modelling)
• Research through materials, models, demonstrations, prototyping, etc. 
• Research through drawing: sketch, outline, modelling. 

The singularity of artistic work thus rests on the way in which these different approaches are put together/laid out, linked, called upon to create forms and journeys which we will call dominant languages. Research focuses on these dominant languages and the tools and methods created by designers to observe them. 

Biography

Since the 2000s, Armand Behar has devoted himself to the creation of a single, evolving work: Histoire d'une représentation, exhibited in art centres, galleries and biennials. In parallel to his creative work and research work focused on the question of creative writing, Armand Behar co-founded art3000-le Cube in the 1990s, where he created a research workshop dedicated to creation and new technologies. In 2012, he opened the research and experimentation platform in art and contemporary industry, phenOrama, at the ENSCI - Les Ateliers. In 2016, he created a series of encounters Écritures de creation-Pratiques de recherche with the architect and researcher Antonella Tufano. In 2017 he developed a research programme on ethno-fiction with the Laboratoire d'Ethnologie et de Sociologie Comparative. He is currently deputy director of the Centre for Research in Design, which is being created under the joint supervision of ENS Paris-Saclay and ENSCi - Les Ateliers.

PhD Supervision

• Doctoral Candidate : Emmanuelle Becquemin
Thesis title : Performer l’objet, une poétique-fiction
Thesis supervisor : Christophe Viart (Université Paris 1 - La Sorbonne - Institut ACTE).
Co-supervisor : Armand Behar (CRD) sinc november 2019.

Responsabilities, juries

• Member of scientific committee Dzing-dzing Biennale of St Etienne 2021.
• Annual member of the post-graduate jury Specialised Master - Contemporary Creation and Technology.

Other institutional roles

• Head of Masters degree in Research in Design (ENSCI Les Ateliers, ENS Paris Saclay).
• Director of the Specialised Masters in Contemporary Creation and Technology.
• Head of the research and experimentation platform in art and industry, phen0rama.
• Member of the Labex Creation arts and heritage laboratory council.
• Member of the Hesam University doctoral college.
• Member of the Graduate School (Humanité-Sciences du Patrimoine), Université Paris Saclay.

Work

Design projects

Expositions

Research programmes
 

• L’œuvre d’art à l’ère des industries créatives. Project leader - Funding : Labex cap, ENSCI-Les Ateliers (phénOrama),   2012-2013 - Raphaëlle Jeune, curated by - Audrey Cottin, artist.
• Uchronie des objets techniques. Project leader - Funding : Labex cap, ENSCI-Les Ateliers (phénOrama). Partners : CNAM – Ann Guillaume artist, Girolamo Ramuni, historians (CNAM), Sigrid Mirabeau, doctor of Chemistry (Institut National du Patrimoine), Antonella Tufano, researcher  (Gerphau- ENS Architecture de la Villette), Margerita Balzerani, art critic.
• Ville informée – forme de ville. Project leader - Funding: Labex cap, ENSCi - Les Ateliers (phénOrama), 2015 – Co-led with Claire Bailly, architect and urbanist lecturer at ESA Montpellier - François Brument, designer - Dominique Boullier, sociologist, professeur of political science- Thierry Joliveau, geographer, professor at the Université de Saint Etienne - Francis Dhee, geographer, Ecole nationale des sciences géographiques – Jérome Denis, sociologist, senior lecturer telecom Paris-Tech – Olvier Scheffer, director of department of research agency XTU.
• Indian Gestothèque. Joint project leader with Anne Dubos - Funding Labex cap, ENSCI Les Ateliers (phénOrama) – 2016 - Partners : Cnam (Dicen idf), Arts et métiers Paris Tech – Natacha Nisic, artist - Judith Guez, artist INREV Université Paris 8 – Jean-François Jégo, artist – Charles Tijus, professor of cognitive Psychology at Paris 8, Annette Leday, stage director– Catherine Pelachaud, research director at CNRS Mines Paris Tech – Remi Brun, engineer, founding director of MocapLab —  Frédéric Bevilacqua, researcher, head of interaction team at Son Musique Mouvement, IRCAM – Sotiris Manitsaris, researcher at Mines Paris Tech.
• Ethno-fiction - fiction d'ethno, Guest artist. Funding : Labex. Research programme directed by: Jean Baptiste Buob - Laboratoire d'Ethnologie et de Sociologie Comparative - 2018.

Publications
 

• Le Design d’ethnofiction. Comment libérer les objets des récits marchands ?  Revue E phaistos, 2022. +
• Quelles sont les fonctions du design en entreprise aujourd’hui ? Avec Anne Asensio et James Auger. Entreprises et histoire 2022/3. +
• Lexique et outils de projet(s). Un glissement. A conversation Tufano-Behar, publication, 2014.
• La Déconvolution d'Euler, edition in collaboration with Nadia Barrientos, Art BookMagazine, 2012.

Conferences
 

• Art et corporéité, Le design ou l'intégration des corps dans la fabrication des objets, seminar organised by Agnes Callu, INHA, 2020.
• De Montreuil à la Station Spatiale Internationale, où sont les dragons, conference, Maison populaire de Montreuil organised by Marie-Julie Bourgeois, 2019.
• Nous ne sommes pas le monde que nous croyons être - Quelques approches au problème du manque de temps, conference organised by the Laboratoire des Intuitions Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris, 2018.
• Observer, c'est créer "De l'auto-analyse à l'auto-fiction", seminar Forme d’écriture et processus de création, one day workshop, ENSADlab, 2018.
• Ville informée-forme de ville, one day workshop, Vivre l'espace/espace augmenté : Générer, fabriquer, informée.  Esad d'Orléans. Les Turbulances FRAC-Centre, 2015.

Organising of seminar series or conferences

• Écritures de création – pratiques de recherche. Dialogues between researchers practitioners and teachers, first series — co-organised with Antonella Tufano, researcher at ENSAPLV. Funding : Labex cap ENSCI - Les Ateliers – Partners : Gerphau, ENSAPLV, June 2015.
• Forumidable, Écritures de création – Pratiques de recherche, second series. Co-organised with Thierry Mouillé (artist), Marie-Haude Caraes (political scientist) et Antonella Tufano (researcher) – Funding: Labex cap - Partners ENSAPLV, Ville de Tours, ESAAA, Le Mans, Angers Loire métropole, Canson, Laboratoire des intuitions, April 2015.
• Forumidable, Écritures de création – Pratiques de recherche, third series : Using data to produce form. Co-organised with Thierry Mouillé, Marie-Haude Caraes – Funding : Labex cap – Partners : Talm,  laboratoire des intuitions, June 2017.

Sites and links

https://www.armandbehar.com/
https://blog.ensci.com/phenorama/
https://www.ec-pr.net/