MLC - ethnography of the contemporary

I am an anthropologist of art and science. Currently, I am a research associate and co-lead of the project “Cutting” at the Cluster of Excellence “Matters of Activity” at Humboldt University in Berlin, and co-founder of the Speculative Realities Lab (University Hospital of the Charité). In my latest ethnographic project, I explore haptic creativities and neurosurgery cartographic practices. As a visual ethnographer, I use digital drawing as an investigative device. I also stage and curate virtual reality experiences, which I frame as collaborative art-science inquiries aimed at stretching the senses of both anthropologists and the public. I teach at the Open Design Master’s program (Humboldt University/University of Buenos Aires), at the Institut für Europäische Ethnologie (Humboldt University in Berlin), and as a guest lecturer at the University Hospital of Charité in Berlin.

I trained in general ethnology at Paris Nanterre (BA 2010, MA 2012) and hold a Ph.D. in social anthropology from EHESS Paris and the Institute for Theater Studies of the FU Berlin (2018). Born in Lyon and educated in France (St Germain-en-Laye & Nantes), I have been based in Berlin since 2014. I have held invited researcher positions at Concordia University in Montreal and the University of Oxford. Before pursuing a career in the humanities, I graduated in economics from the University of Lille (IESEG, MSc, 2005). For many years, I freelanced for qualitative research institutes, including IPSOS & Rheingold, conducting hundreds of interviews, focus groups, and several ethnographic surveys, writing reports on various topics in France and Germany.

At the Centre Georg-Simmel in EHESS Paris, I convened the research seminar “Présences et atmosphères” (2014-2016). Following this, I co-edited Exercices d’ambiances: présences, enquêtes, écritures (2018), a peer-reviewed volume on the phenomenon of atmospheres and the ethnographic practices applied to the study of affective phenomena.

I have co-curated the exhibition projects Field/Works I in Lisbon and Field/Works II in Barcelona (ANTART/EASA/FBAUL, 2020-2022, 2024-2026), Stretching Materialities at the Tieranatomisches Theater Berlin (MoA, OSA 2021-2022), the ongoing participant exhibition Sketching Brains at the University Hospital of Charité (2022-2024, Berlin), and the performance series More-than-human Sketching at the Kunstgewerbemuseum in Kulturforum Berlin (2024).

I am also a father to three kids and a partner to Chilean doula Ignacia Escobar. Together, we are deeply immersed in contemporary research and practice surrounding birthing mothers, fathers, and new human critters. I have been practising yoga and meditation daily since 2011, and I integrate these practices into my writing seminars and workshops. Occasionally, I find the time to play the guitar, write a song, or improvise a quick electronic soundtrack for one of my ethnographic videos.

As an artist, my work has been exhibited in online group exhibitions such as “Illustrating Anthropology” (2020, Royal Anthropological Institute, Liverpool at the Open Eye Gallery and Sheffield at Bloc Projects) and “Multimedia Encounters” (2020, Multimedia Anthropology Lab at University College London), at the Institute for Art History and Image Theory at HU Berlin, and in Potsdam (Best Practice, SpurLab).

See my CV here: link.