Membrane

Philippe Parreno

Installed on the Parc des Ateliers lawn, Membrane is a mechanical tower structure akin to an antenna. It hosts a cybernetic system with unconventional cognitive and linguistic capabilities. By dialoguing with its immediate surroundings, it develops a new language and gains a virtual voice that spreads through the park as a tenuous, enigmatic song. Membrane collects all kinds of environmental data, including temperature, humidity, windspeed, noise levels, air pollution levels, and each vibration of the ground in order to translate these signals into sounds, which it modulates. Straddling the line between organism and machine, Membrane is a hybrid entity, a sensitive work that perceives and adapts to variations in its environment, reflecting the rhythms of its external and internal worlds.