Baudouin Saintyves

Baudouin Saintyves is a Senior Lecturer at INRIA Lyon (France) and a visiting researcher at the University of Chicago’s James Franck Institute. He is a physicist, engineer, and multimedia artist, blending interdisciplinary research in experimental physics, robotics, and live cinema. As founding director of the Shapes of Emergence project, his work explores self-organizing patterns in nature and their application to artificial life and robotic systems.

His portfolio includes installations and performances such as Water Organoids (2024) and Amorphous Stories (2024), showcased at festivals like Ars Electronica and Current New Media Festival. He teaches The Physics of Shapes: From Nature to the Hand at INRIA, integrating scientific concepts with artistic practice through lectures, labs, and collaborations with institutions like the Jaeger Lab at the University of Chicago.

His research emphasizes interdisciplinary methods, challenging traditional boundaries between science and art. Key projects involve granular robotics, viscoelastic adhesion, and the intersection of material science with live performance.