Francophonie celebrations in New England: “March Madness…in French”
Francophonie celebrations in New England: “March Madness…in French”
Francophone & Quebec Film Festival at the MFA, French DJ night, a night in Pondicherry at the French Cultural Center, flag raisings with the State Governor…the 2011 Francophonie celebrations in New England enlivened the final three weeks of winter, and swissnex Boston was proud to partner on several of its events.
“When Art meets Science” at the Petit-Dejeuner des Sciences:
swissnex Boston’s signature Francophonie event was its traditional networking breakfast for the French-speaking scientific community on March 29, 2011. It was organized along with the partners of the Café des Sciences (Consulate General of France, Government of Quebec, FACCNE and Hubtech 21), and other France-related organizations of the Boston area, such as MIT France.
This year’s topic explored the unlikely links between two disparate fields, art and science: How can we gather both proclivities around projects that could solve global issues?
David Edwards did just that.
The Harvard Biomedical Engineering professor and founder of the experimental art and design center Le Laboratoire in Paris introduced the theoretical background of ArtScience, a concept he developed in his publications. The aim of the approach is to push the limits of innovation by sharing the creation process between artists and scientists around applied research projects.
Together with two of his students, Suelin Chen (director of The Laboratory at Harvard) and Etien Santiago (master’s student in Architecture at the Harvard Graduate School of Design), Prof. Edwards presented research projects developed at the interface of art and science, between Paris and Boston (also see the slide show below):
1) Le Whif: New approach to eating by inhaling food—like chocolate- without chewing…and without the calories!
2) Le Whaf: Glass bowl that produces a cloud of flavor from a particular ingredient that you can also inhale.
3) The Pumpkin: Revolutionary bag inspired by the biological cell used to carry water without any waste.
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…and so much more
swissnex Boston also supported numerous other Francophone cultural events. We sponsored the film screening of “Dechainées” by Geneva-based director Raymond Vouillamoz at The Museum of Fine Arts’ Francophone Film Festival (March 17-18). We hosted a Cine Club for the families of the EFGB network, who enjoyed the latest version a Swiss classic, “Heidi et Peter” on March 12. And swissnex Boston was delighted to contribute to the success of the first Francophone “French DJ night” at Club Felt, where 450 guests danced to the tunes of DJ Jean-Michel, a top-notch French DJ from New York City, on March 16.
