REESPIRATION

Interactive Dispositif, 2025
Samuel Bianchini

Project developed in the framework of The New Patrons Program, supported by The French Ministery of Culture and la Fondation de France avec a group of patrons composed of members and former members of the R3S Department (“Respiration, Réanimation, Réadaptation respiratoire, Sommeil”) of the Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital (Dr Maxens Decavèle, resuscitation doctor; Mme Irina Goriounov, clinical psychologist; Dr Antoine Guerder, pneumonologist; Mme Sophie Lavault, research engineer and clinical psychologist; Pr Capucine Morélot-Panzini, pneumonologist; Mme Marie-Cécile Nierat, research engineer; Mme Nathalie Nion, senior health executive; Pr Thomas Similowski, pneumonologist) accompanied by Dr. Laure Serresse, palliative care doctor, by Mme Christine Welty, General Manager of the University Hospital Group APHP·Sorbonne Université, by Father Frédéric Louzeau, former church chaplain St-Louis de la Salpêtrière, as well as by Dr Claudine Peiffer, respiratory physiologist.

Artist and artistic, scientific and technological team: Samuel Bianchini with the artistic collaboration of Hugo Scurto and Victor Audouze (musical design), Corentin Loubet (object design), Maude Guirault (textile design) with the collaboration of Aska Yamashita (artistic director of Atelier Montex), Atelier Montex (embroideries) and the scientific and technological contributions of Thomas Similowski (respiratory neurophysiology), Philippe Gauthier (computing for interaction), Baptiste Caramiaux and Hugo Scurto (IA / machine learning), Kanty Rabenorosoa, François Marionnet, Pierre Roux et Maude Guirault with the collaboration of Sylvain Hernandez, Alexis Lefèvre, Mehdi Salah et Vincent Tissot (robotics). Exhibition manager: Simon Paugoy. Realization of the parabola: ARRK. Assistant: Laura Fernandez.

Musicians, musicians and performers: Breath: Minh Boutin, artist and musician, Mathias Minne, actor and author; Cello: Dr Marta Fornasari, doctor; Violon: Dr Lara Joslove, resuscitation doctor; Great organ of the church Saint-Louis de la Salpêtrière, Paris, 1709, 1861, 1977-9: Father Frédéric Louzeau; Transverse flute: Dr Iseline Peyre, music therapist.

Mediation: 3CA - Mari Linnman

Project developed with the support of The Fondation de France, of The University Hospital Group APHP·Sorbonne Université, of The Fondation du Souffle, of The Institut Universitaire d'Ingénierie en Santé de Sorbonne Université, of The Région Île-de-France, of Löwenstein Medical France, and personal patronage of M. Picciotto, as well as La Chaire Beauté.s of the PSL University for the first exhibition of the artwork.

Partners: École nationale supérieure des Arts Décoratifs – Paris Sciences et Lettres University | Institut FEMTO-ST (Franche-Comté Électronique Mécanique Thermique et Optique – Sciences et Technologies) – UMR 6174 | ISIR (Institut des Systèmes Intelligents et de Robotique) – UMR 7222 Sorbonne Université - CNRS | Unité Neurophysiologie Respiratoire Expérimentale et Clinique – UMRS 1158 Sorbonne Université – INSERM | Atelier Montex, maison de broderie.

Acknowledgment: Nicolas Bernon, France Beuque, Olivier Bienz, Sabrina Blaise, Clément Bricard, Yannick Broder, Adrien Bucheton, Édith Buser, Thibaut Cocatrix, Korotoumou Doumbia, Ozgun Kilic Afsar, Bertrand Guessant, Thomas Jeannin, Julien Klein, Louise Lasalle, Guillaume Laurent, Olivier Lehmann, Patrick Lhermite, Barnabé Louche, Emmanuel Mahé, Pauline Maisani, Ysalis Mallédant, Aurélie Mosse, Marine Moulin, Oussama Mubarak, Elio Nika, Damilare Samuel Ojo, Olivier Pasquier, Luis Antonio Pereira De Sousa Junior, Jean-Claude Petit, Catherine Podsadny, Christophe Pornay, Johann Roberjot, Margaux Robilliard, Patrick Rougeot, Guillaume Teneau, Judicaël Touron, Cécile Vivien Leal, as well as La Société des Nouveaux commanditaires.

REESPIRATION, Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital, Gosset Building, Paris, January - June 2025
Photos: © Samuel Bianchini - ADAGP

REESPIRATION is an artistic “dispositif” featuring an object that deforms, as if breathing, according to the breathing of the person in front of it. The abstract object at the center of the installation is covered with a rich, ornamental embroidery that reacts elegantly to light when set in motion. The object is integrated into a parabolic dish that acts as a case for it, as well as an acoustic and luminous amplifier. The parabola subtly illuminates the object and reflects the sound of breath emerging from it, combined with a captivating musical design, inciting us to contemplation and even immersion.
As a pneumatic apparatus in the field of “soft robotics,” the breathing object deforms under the effect of air flows controlled by an interactive system. This is based on a non-intrusive capture of the breathing dynamics of the spectator in front of the object. If the apparatus is able to synchronize itself with the breathing of its audience, it is above all in an attempt to influence their respiratory rhythm and, by the same token, their emotional state. Far from being a mimetic device, REESPIRATION integrates the development of a respiratory computer model (GANspire) developed as part of the project and made up of “machine learning” (artificial intelligence) based on respiratory data from healthy individuals as well as sick people.
The object created has its own respiratory characteristics and seeks to enter into a relationship of reciprocal respiratory influence with the person facing it. This relationship could be described as “respiratory empathy,” which is often observed by the medical profession but rarely studied or implemented. A factor of emotion and training, this sensitive relationship can be a source of aesthetic and social experience as much as of care. While always remaining a work of art, REESPIRATION also aims to become a medical device with an operational as well as a symbolic character.
A work of art, a medical device, and a scientific prototype, REESPIRATION has mobilized a multidisciplinary community (art, design, medicine, engineering sciences, robotics, computing, and human-machine interaction) around a project that is at once practical, reflexive, and experimental as well as fundamental.
Breaking with disciplinary and societal boundaries, it offers an original approach to raising awareness of breathing and its calming power. It also raises awareness of respiratory illnesses and the suffering they cause, as well as the possibility of alleviating them.