Gluon, Brussels

Gluon is a Brussels-based platform for art, science and technology. At Gluon we believe that interactions between researchers, artists, entrepreneurs, citizens and young people are vital in the quest for solutions to our global societal challenges. Gluon stimulates exchanges between these different actors.

Gluon supports collaborative projects between artists, researchers and companies. These interactions give rise to artistic and philosophical outcomes or innovative ideas, services and products in sectors such as education, healthcare, ecology, cultural diplomacy and community building. The results of these alliances are presented in a program of lectures and exhibitions.

The educational STARTS (Science, Technology & Arts) program is the other major axis of Gluon’s activities. It is dedicated to youngsters between 14 and 18 years old and aims to support them in the development of digital skills, critical thinking, creativity and entrepreneurship.

Caput (head)

AnneMarie Maes (BE)

Since Darwin, it is clear that flowers and bees engage in an evolutionary race. The honeybee is a complex insect with numerous sensorial features which are matching perfectly with the demands of sensual plants. The black-and-white photographs reveal the elaborate design of some dissected parts of flowers and honeybees.

Disrupted Sensations

AnneMarie Maes (BE)

A series of lightboxes containing smart materials and Scanning Electron Micrographs (SEM) of Honeybee parts and pollen grains. The artist studies the processes by which nature operates and how she can use these processes to create her own intelligent materials.

Intelligent Guerrilla Beehive research

AnneMarie Maes (BE)

The Intelligent Guerilla Beehive is an artwork and a prototype for a speculative research project. It is a mobile shelter for swarming honeybees that combines in a radical way smart materials, biomimetic forms and biotechnology.

Behind the Robots Eyes

Daman Diawara (US)

In the framework of the Scientist in Residence Program, Gluon launched a project with artist Manthia Diawara and researchers Tarek Besold (Alpha Health AI Lab) and Raoul Frese (Faculty of Sciences, Physics and Astronomy, VU Amsterdam). The first meeting took place at Manthia’s residency in the village of Yenne, near Dakar, Senegal. The artist and the researchers reflected together on the relationship of Senegalese people with technology and artificial intelligence, and they carried on interviews with women working on the market, fishermen and a traditional healer. The project will be further developed over the course of 2019 and will result in a movie.

Art & D Lab : Significant Other

Jonas Lund (SE) x Televic (BE)

The artist Jonas Lund collaborated with the Belgian telecommunication company Televic in the framework of Gluon’s Art & D Labs. He realized the work Significant Other, an intelligent, networked sculptural display installed in two locations in Belgium and Bulgaria. Descending from the ceiling, two cameras and flat-screens are programmed to read the “emotional state” of each person crossing their pathway.