Bleu Silico

France, 2022, 16' 

FREE ENTRY

In scientific literature, the Latin phrase in silico, “in silicon,” denotes chemical-biological phenomena that are not reproduced in test-tubes or in a living being, but via a mathematical simulation on a computer (whose electronic components are actually made of silicon). Eloïse Le Gallo and Julia Borderie, students at the Paris-based film school Le Fresnoy, film the experiments of researchers who inject the DNA of photosensitive algae to heal the retina of the human eye departing precisely from the close-up shot of a test tube: it is from the hole of the small glass object, indeed, that the observation and speculation conducted in this short film begin. Marine algae and retinal cells are connected in a mysterious, mesmerizing convergence of animate and inanimate, vegetal and human, ancestral and futuristic – nature represented al vivo and science projected in silico. From coastal rocks we switch to shots imbued with primary colours – red, blue, green – while cinema continuously proceeds from objective to subjective; from reality to abstraction; from life to its reproduction and back.