Unarchive Complexity is an event dedicated to communicating and sharing complex systems science through the CNRS’s scientific audiovisual heritage.

Inspired by the international creative archive reuse festival Unarchive – Found Footage Fest (Rome, Italy), which brings together each year a selection of films made from film archives of all kinds and geographical origins, Unarchive Complexity aims to place scientific audiovisual archives at the heart of audiovisual creation and science communication.

Often perceived as specialised or technical documents intended primarily for researchers, scientific archives can thus be transformed into narrative and artistic materials, helping to make science more accessible, engaging and tangible.

This approach draws on a French tradition embodied by Jean Painlevé, particularly in his film Vampire (1945), which demonstrates how scientific images — here, observations of bats and crustaceans — can become vehicles for a political narrative. Painlevé’s work illustrates the metaphorical power of scientific cinema, capable of combining documentary rigour with critical imagination.

Drawing inspiration from processes of transformation and recycling found in living systems, the project also explores contemporary ways of producing images and knowledge. This approach resonates with current environmental challenges: resource efficiency, circularity, material transformation and system resilience.

The project also opens up possibilities for workshops, performances and collaborative formats in which audiences — the general public, students and secondary school classes — can themselves manipulate, re-edit and reinterpret scientific archives. This active dimension turns spectators into participants in the production of meaning.

The Event at a Glance

The event will bring together science communication activities, screenings and discussions of archival films, round tables, exhibitions and scientific workshops. It will also showcase films that creatively reuse scientific archives, selected through an open call for films.

A creative editing marathon, based on a pool of scientific archival material, will also be offered to participants. The short films produced during the marathon will be presented during the event on 9 October, and an award will be presented to the three best short films.

Event Partners

CNRS Images – Archives Department

Archivio Audiovisivo del Movimento Operaio e Democratico (Audiovisual Archive of the Workers’ and Democratic Movement), Rome

British Film Institute National Archive

Institut de Cinématographie Scientifique (Scientific Cinematography Institute)

Université de Montréal – Department of Art History, Cinema and Audiovisual Media

Université Sorbonne Nouvelle – Cinémathèque Centrale de l’Enseignement Public

Sciencis – Science Communication Company

Event Organisers

Francesca Barbieri – ISC-PIF / CNRS

Céline Ferlita, Ann-Audrey Fayol – ARDIS / CNRS

Catherine Ventenat, Laura Moncet – Archives Department / CNRS Images

Franck Leclercq – ISC-PIF / CNRS

In Collaboration With

Espen Bale – British Film Institute National Archive (UK)

The team of the Archivio Audiovisivo del Movimento Operaio e Democratico (Audiovisual Archive of the Workers’ and Democratic Movement) (Italy)

André Habib – Department of Art History, Cinema and Audiovisual Media / Université de Montréal (Canada)

Alexis Martinet – Institut de Cinématographie Scientifique

Frédéric Rolland – Cinémathèque Centrale de l’Enseignement Public / Université Sorbonne Nouvelle