Sylvain (Syd) REYNAL

MCF, ENSEA

Member of team:

Design-STS

Office:

D390 ENSEA

Biography

I am an Associate Professor at ENSEA Graduate School and a lecturer at ENSAPC School of Art and CY Cergy-Paris University. My research activity is connected to the interdisciplinary field of Science and Technology Studies (STS) with a focus on “Art & Science“ interactions, creative machines, Art & AI and Philosophy of Technology. Whether as an artist (through the so-called artistic research methodology) or as an academic, I am trying to shape a critical corpus on our relation to technology (with a focus on AI). I make use of tools from moral philosophy and psychoanalysis, creating art installations or writing essays. My recent works and publications revolve around ambivalence and actes manqués in our relation to technology with the question of subjectivity being a permanent “mantra” in my work. I have had numerous collaborations with artists in the last decade, including Olga Kisseleva from Institut Actes (Sorbonne), Eric Maillet from Ecole Nationale Supérieure d’Art de Paris-Cergy, the Cantierezero collective (Trieste, Wien), Ooze architects (Rotterdam), Compagnie Luciernaga (Paris), …. I am also happy to give lectures to the general public on philosophical issues regarding artificial intelligence, robotic and transhumanism. I completed a PhD in theoretical physics in 2005 and I am also holding the french Agrégation grade. I originally graduated in Applied Physics along with an undergrad philosophy cursus.

Find out more on www-reynal.ensea.fr and sydxrey.art

Research activities

  • Artistic Research, Art & sciences interaction,
  • Art & technology, creative AI
  • Science and Technology Studies
  • Philosophy of technics, epistemology

Ongoing projects

  • echo x echo, exoskeletons and contemporary music around works by P. Manoury  (2020-2023, with Clémence Martel, artist, HMDK Stuttgart)
  • Reincarnation of data through digital traces (2022, with Ninon Lizé-Masclef, artist, U. Paris-Saclay)
Latest publications
  • Reynal, S. (2021). Numéricité, complexité et échelles de temps dans la pratique artistique contemporaine. Josette Féral. CHANGEMENTS D’ÉCHELLE : les arts confrontés au réelEditions Mimesis, pp.255, 2021, Images, Médiums, 9788869762093. ⟨halshs-02474483⟩
  • Reynal, S. (2021). Entre processus stochastiques et métriques d’évaluation : l’IA-créatrice à l’épreuve de l’étrangeté. Philosophy kitchen, Torino, 2021, Pratiche artistiche e modi di soggettivazione, 14, pp.101.⟨halshs-03337350⟩
  • Reynal, S. (2021). Pour qu’on ne se débarrasse pas des hommes : entre art et sciences, l’ingénieur face à l’ambivalence du sujet. Drôles d’objets: un nouvel art de faire, Oct 2021, La Rochelle, France. ⟨10.5281/zenodo.6059677⟩⟨hal-03592746⟩