A major actor in energy transition, the EDF Group is an integrated energy provider active in all areas of the business: production, transport, distribution, trading, and sale of energy and energy services. In order to ensure that as many people as possible are aware of its activities and how it facilities operate, the Group has set up an organisation fully committed to dissemination of scientific, technical and industrial culture.
Its support of Science & You and its paper at the colloquium set to be held in November 2021 are part of a comprehensive CSR policy that includes visits to EDF’s industrial facilities, educational workshops, and local activity programmes involving actors in such fields as tourism, education and culture. It also supports Europe’s biggest museum dedicated to the history of electricity and its applications, the Electropolis Museum in Mulhouse. Founded in 1992, it has recently been redesigned, with a lush green setting and no lack of augmented reality: the “Garden of Energies”.
These days, patrimonialisation of objects pertaining to scientific, technical and industrial (STI) culture seems just as important as patrimonialisation of art and architecture. What does the company want to communicate to future generations through projects like the Electropolis Museum?
Sharing the amazing story of electricity with young people and the public at large – a complex subject many people know little about, but really astonishing and impressive given the many discoveries that have revolutionised the industrial world and society.
“Shedding light on history in order to illuminate the future”, as electricity’s story is above all one of constant invention, which is one of the focuses of the Electropolis Museum’s most recent layout, with the “An Electric Future” gallery and the “Garden of Energies”.
The Garden of Energies shows how the production, transport and distribution of electricity and its uses have evolved due to the energy and digital transitions. The Garden covers 12,000 m² and is divided up into six distinct areas, four of them dedicated to modes of production – hydraulic, thermal, nuclear and wind power – and the other two devoted to the grid and smart cities. Visitors are invited to play an interactive game in which, thanks to connected bracelets and play stations, they can bring “sleeping machines” back to life in augmented reality, in order to find out how they operate. They are also led to make civic choices by looking into the future and considering the hows and whys of energy in tomorrow’s world.
The Electropolis Museum is the only one of its kind in Europe, and since its creation the EDF Group has been committed to supporting it, adding to its collections and contributing to its basic purpose, which is to disseminate science and make it accessible.
The One Powerline project, which is the subject of a paper at the Science & You 2021 colloquium, is an art installation on the industrial site in Bouchain. How does EDF view the relationships between scientific mediation, art and industry?
EDF is an actor in scientific and cultural mediation via a great many projects like One Powerline. We welcome almost 400,000 visitors to our industrial facilities every year: guided tours to explain how they operate, educational and artistic activities and workshops, and so on. We absolutely need to surprise the public we serve, to renew the ways we relate to them and act as mediators. These days, art, science and industry come together to form fertile ground for highly positive action, enabling everybody to broach scientific, cultural and societal subjects according to their individual sensibilities…
One Power Line is an innovative scientific and artistic mediation programme that perfectly embodies the way in which we want to develop our projects. It has grown over the years. Initially a call for local art projects, it has become a scientific education and artistic creation programme implemented in collaboration with nearby schools. What could be better than seeing children produce creative work based on an industrial site? The children involved were able to visit the Bouchain “cloud factory” and learn how it operates and how electricity is produced! They illustrated a story written for the occasion by Gérémy Crédeville and the final results were projected onto the plant’s cooling tower. A real source of pride for them, their teachers and all EDF employees!
With this experience to its credit, the Bouchain plant now organises projections to do with great national and local events and causes on a regular basis. For example, portraits of individuals closely involved in management of the Covid crisis were projected following a call for expressions of interest in the local press. A great way of thanking them for their commitment.
The project developed at the Bouchain plant is part of more comprehensive artistic and cultural programming. We have launched a programme we’ve baptised “EDF Odyssélec”, which combines art, science and industry. It aims to provide a new angle on our industrial activities, through highlighting, exhibitions and scientific workshops. It gives us an opportunity to meet all types of publics and invite them to come and discover the incredible adventure of electricity.
How do you bring citizens, scientists and the company together?
EDF is a local actor, present everywhere on French soil. It’s important to speak to our local inhabitants, our fellow citizens who have uncertainties about technology and science. Nothing better than getting them to visit our facilities and listening to and answering their questions. That helps demystify often complex technical subjects and make them accessible. It also builds local relationships of trust between citizens and EDF.
At local and territorial level, we can organise field visits, lectures, debates and workshops, on our premises, in schools, or in the context of a colloquium, for example. Everyone must be able to form their own opinion and it’s our responsibility to make information accessible and enable everyone to take an active part in scientific debate on the major subjects and issues that concern us all, such as the energy transition and the fight against CO2. Programming adapted to young people is also on offer, so that they can discover the sciences and the world of industry and develop a critical sense.
An event like “Science & You” provides an opportunity to share the challenges and successes of scientific mediation – which is why we’re delighted to be attending it.