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Looking back on a key conversation from MTL connect 2025 on World Creativity and Innovation Day
At a time when technology is profoundly transforming our societies, World Creativity and Innovation Day reminds us of an often understated truth: innovation is not solely the domain of science and engineering. It is also built through artistic practices, which can question, subvert, and expand technological frameworks of thought.
At MTL connect 2025, a panel featuring Marie-Ève Bilodeau (ETS), Jens Hauser (University of Copenhagen Medical Museion) and Manuelle Freire (École NAD-UQAC) explored the links between digital arts, artificial intelligence, and scientific research. The discussion highlighted a central observation: the artist is no longer on the periphery of innovation but is becoming a structuring actor within it.
The artist as a catalyst for research and experimentation
At the heart of the exchanges, one idea stood out: the encounter between artists and scientists produces unprecedented forms of knowledge.
At the École de technologie supérieure (ETS), the artist-in-residence program concretely illustrates this dynamic. By integrating artists into research environments in electrical engineering, photonics, or interactive systems, the goal is clear: open laboratories to other forms of exploration.
The presented projects demonstrate this hybridization in action:
- use of optical fiber in visual practices,
- exploration of motion capture for choreography and virtual reality,
- development of interfaces where body, data, and technologies intertwine.
These residencies do not only produce works; they create shared spaces of experimentation between disciplines.
Misunderstanding as a driver of creation
One of the panel’s major contributions is a counterintuitive idea: misunderstanding is productive.
In art-science collaborations, languages are not aligned, objectives differ, and methods sometimes clash. Yet, it is precisely in these zones of incomprehension that the most interesting innovations emerge.
As Jens Hauser pointed out, these collaborations often rely on “fruitful misunderstandings,” where the artist does not seek to illustrate science but to subvert its tools, shift their uses, and reveal blind spots.
This tension allows us to question the over-technicization of research and to introduce critical reflection on the uses of artificial intelligence, synthetic biology, or immersive technologies.
Open laboratories and objects to think with
Experimental formats, such as public creation laboratories, highlight an important evolution: knowledge is no longer transmitted solely through publication or conferences but through practice.
In these spaces, the object becomes central. Prototypes, installations, interactive systems, or hybrid devices serve as meeting points between disciplines and audiences. They enable collective exploration, where researchers, artists, and citizens manipulate, test, and reinterpret technologies.
This approach shifts the traditional role of expertise. It makes science more accessible but also more debatable by embedding it in open environments.
Towards a more critical and inclusive innovation
Beyond the projects, the panel highlights a broader transformation: the emergence of “situated” innovation, which integrates the social, ecological, and political dimensions of technologies.
The artist plays a specific role in this:
- they question the uses of technologies rather than merely optimizing them,
- they introduce sensitive perspectives (sound, body, matter, the living),
- they propose alternative narratives to dominant discourses on AI and data.
This approach contributes to a more critical form of innovation, less focused on performance and more on understanding complex systems.
MTL connect 2026: Extending dialogues between art and technology
The discussions at MTL connect 2025 confirm a strong trend: the boundaries between art, science, and technology continue to blur.
In this context, MTL connect 2026 positions itself as an essential continuation. The event becomes a strategic space to:
- deepen collaborations between artists, researchers, and institutions,
- experiment with new research-creation formats,
- and strengthen a transdisciplinary approach to innovation.
At a time when artificial intelligence and immersive technologies are redefining professional and cultural practices, the artist’s role appears less as an option and more as a structural necessity.
This panel reminds us of a simple yet foundational idea: innovation is not just about producing technologies; it is also about producing questions.
And in this endeavor, the artist is not merely a companion to science but a full-fledged actor in its transformation.