Maurice Benayoun is a transmedia artist born in 1957. His work explores the potentiality of various media from video, to virtual reality, Web and wireless art, public space large scale art installations and interactive exhibitions.

Maurice Benayoun's work has been widely exhibited all over the world and received numerous international awards and prizes. Co-founder in 1987 of Z-A (Paris) a pioneer CG and VR lab, Maurice Benayoun, between 1990 and 1993, writes with François Schuiten and directs The Quarxs, the first HDTV CG series widely awarded and broadcast in more than 15 countries. In 1993, he is prize-winner of the Villa Medicis Hors Les Murs of the Foreign Ministry for his Art After Museum project, a contemporary art collection in virtual reality. After 1993, he creates VR and interactive art installations, among them, in 1995, the Tunnel under the Atlantic, televirtual project linking the Pompidou center, in Paris, and the Museum of contemporary art, in Montreal. In 1998, he obtained the Golden Nica, Prix Ars Electronica, Interactive Art category for World skin, a Photo Safari in the Land of War. Both works are considered by critics as major works in the field of interactive art.

Beside his art works, Maurice Benayoun is involved in many big exhibitions, events and architecture projects for the conception and direction of the interactive scenography. Just to mention some of them: the Navigation Room (1997) and the Membrane (2001) for the Cité des Sciences de la Villette, the Panoramic Tables for the Planet of Visions Pavilion for Hanover EXPO2000 and the Multimedia Tour for the Abbaye de Fontevraud.

Since 1984, Maurice Benayoun has been teaching video and media art at the Université de Paris 1 (Panthéon-Sorbonne) and invited artist at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux Arts of Paris. He is co-founder and co-director of the CITU research center (Création Interactive Transdisciplinaire Universitaire).

Art Installations, VR and Net Art.

The Big Questions: the two first Big Questions using Virtual Reality as an artistic medium

Is God flat? 1994. It was considered by Jean-Paul Fargier in Le Monde as the first metaphysical video game.

Is the Devil curved? 1995. The sensual and perverse seduction of mass media.

And What About Me? 1 (1996) and 2 (1997), were the Big Questions on line using Java...

the Tunnel under the Atlantic, created during ISEA'95, was the first intercontinental televirtual event. The virtual tunnel which connected the Centre Georges Pompidou Paris and the Musée d'Art Contemporain in Montreal was dug in 5 days. Digging inside a 3D material made of images from both countries, the visitors where talking together. The voices were the compass before thay could see each other as a floating video image in the 3D VR environment.

The Paris-New Delhi Tunnel, was 'dug' In January 1998, creating a cultural link between France and India.

World Skin a Photo Safari in the Land of War a virtual reality installation, for the CAVE(tm) (immersive room) helped MB to precise the concept of Situation Art In this work, a group of 6 to 8 people are immersed in a virtual "land of war". They are given cameras and told that they can take photos if they want to. The result is a photo safari in the land of war...This thought provoking, questioning work was presented for the first time in Ars Electronica CAVE then at Imagina, Siggraph '98 Orlando and KTH Stockholm. With World Skin, Maurice Benayoun won with Jean-Baptiste Barriere (for the musical work) the Golden Nica award for interactive art at Ars Electronica.

Crossing Talks (Communication rafting): A new collaboration with Jean-Baptiste Barrière, Crossing Talks is a virtual reality/Internet CAVE installation created for the Tokyo ICC Biennale (NTT International-Communication Center) in October-November 1999. The visitor tries to survive in an infinite universe of non-communication.

Art Impact (Collective Retinal Memory), Interactive installation where everyone, on site (the exhibition) and on line (Internet), take part in the refresh of the collective memory. In collaboration with Jean Baptiste Barrière, first show at the Pompidou Center (June 20 - July, 4 2000) and Internet.

Labylogue, exhibition Tu Parles !? le français dans tout ses états. Dialogue inside a virtual maze linking the Museum of Contemporary Art of Lyon, Bruxelles and Dakar (Senegal). Labylogue is tribute to the Library of Babel (J.L. Borgès) where the space become a meeting text. With Jean-Pierre Balpe (text generation) and Jean-Baptiste Barrière.

Parallel Architectures: An original VR and TV series. An interactive installation conceived and co-directed with Odile Fillion. Every TV programme of 4 mn is shot in a VR immersive room (SAS Cube or CAVEtm) inside which the architect can explore and comment his own utopian project turned into a real time 3D environment. The visitor will be able to explore the interactive version, meeting the architect path and video image. Prototype of the 'immersive television' concept, the pilot present Instant City by Archigram explored and commented by Peter Cook.

Watchout ! a Wireless, Internet, Video installation, presented at the Art Center Nabi of Seoul Korea and in four other locations in the city, in October 2002.

So.So.So. (Somebody, Somewhere, Some Time) an interactive installation in VR recently presented in the Future Cinema exhibition at the ZKM of Karlsruhe, and the Gaité Lyrique in Paris (2003). Using the same VR binoculars, So.So.So. can be considered as a narrative version of the Art Impact concept of 'Collective Retinal Memory'.

World Emotional Mapping Dynamic cartography of the emotions of the planet. Scanning the World Nervous System. At the origin of different projects : Far Near E-motion, Frozen Feelings, SFEAR, Emotional Market.

Frozen Feelings Series of sculptures, frozen emotion of the World as a physical object. Physical avatar of the World Emotional Mapping produced with a digital prototyping tool (digital carving).

SFEAR Internet, search engine and physical digital sculptures. The giant ballon of the FEAR map (World Emotional Mapping) flies in the Church Saint Pierre aux Nonnains, Metz during the Norapolis event. When the Frozen Fellings are presented like relics. Opening April 15, 2005

Cosmopolis, Overwriting the City Art and science exhibition, probably on of the largest interactive installation ever done using 12 VR binocculars and 12 projections sceens about urban planning and sustainable developpment. Done in the frame of the French year in China this installation is a new use of the Collective Retinal Memory concept. Opening on April 18 2005,Science Museum, Shanghai.

Emotional Market (e-Market) Internet, search engine and physical digital sculptures. The market of the emotion of the world presented as a luxury shop. One of the first developpement of the World Emotional Mapping. Opening in Shanghai, Galery 18 on the Bund, May 1-7 2005.

Interactive scenography

Beside his art work Maurice Benayoun conceives interactive scenographies combining physical public spaces (exhibitions, events) virtual environments (interfaces, Hypercube, HyperTV), augmented reality (Panoramic Tables, Planet of Visions, Expo2000 Hanover), intelligent agents (Gadevu, Z-A Profiler) and interactive projections. Several interactive and visual installations were created for the Hanover World Expo (EXPO2000) for the Planet of Visions pavilion conceived by François Schuiten and Bleu Lumière.

Iin charge of scenography for the multimedia tour, in the Abbaye de Fontevraud, with 3 different installations (by Alain Escalle, Jean-Baptiste Barrière et Hyptique).

The Membrane was the core of the exhibition the Man Transformed in 'la Cité des sciences et de l'Industrie' that opened on November 2001. The Membrane featured a large multi-screen, organic VR installation. This work done in a collaboration with Yann n'Guyen Minh, Jean-Baptiste Barrière, Corinne Lambert, and Z-A with a scenography by ZendCO. Interacting with the visitors body, this organic interface is a good example of what can be a new form of organic scenography for museums.

The Navigation Room,, a 500m² space has been designed by Maurice Benayoun for the exhibition New Images and New Networks at 'la Cité des Sciences et de l'Industrie de la Villette'- Paris. It was one of the first network exhibitions using ATM network. The installation was made up of eleven two meters wide screens, showing fully working examples of the new 3D multiplatform user interface: Hypercube. More than eight hundred thousand visitors came to 'la Cité des Sciences de la Villette' to experience the Navigation Room.

In the field of navigation interfaces, Maurice Benayoun conceived the 3D interface "Hypercube" (patent Z-A). Hypercube's success and appeal with the public was reported on at length in the national papers Liberation and Le Monde. Importantly, hypercube is the interface masking a powerful non-declarative intelligent profiling system. The Z-A Profiler has proven so effective, that both Hypercube and Profiler have since evolved the following directions:

HyperTV, an EPG (Electronic Program Guide)

The Travel Tunnel, developped by Z-A at the request of France Telecom and the Lux Tunnel a virtual 'lêche vitrine' guided by your desires...created for the metro station project; 'Franklin D Roosevelt' see further on.

The Blue Station : : Conceived in collaboration with the French architect Jean Nouvel, won the competition to create Paris's first interactive subway station in the heart of Paris. Funded by the RATP (Parisian transport company) this unique project will be a metro station dedicated to French creation. Interactive, sound lighting and up 200 plasma screens will allow the public as well as artists to interact. The VR Tunnel will be the first VR and intelligent agent apparatus In use in a subway station.

In LEBAZAR.NET Maurice Benayoun introduce the concept of the useless as a component of the survival process

Since 2001, Maurice Benayoun is art director of the CITU (Creation Interactive Transdisciplinaire Universitaire).