Benjamin Pothier

Dr Benjamin Pothier is an interdisciplinary artist and anthropology researcher, photographer/ Film maker and professional explorer born in France in 1973.

Before joining i-DAT as an Alumni Research Fellow in 2023 he had spent 7 years conducting his PhD research worldwide under the supervision of the professor Roy Ascott in the framework of the Planetary Collegium program at the University of Plymouth.

During his participation in this research program, Benjamin developed unique work at the border of geographic exploration, Arts and Sciences. In 2018, he directed a 360VR project with a group of US and Japanese astronaut candidates on the world’s highest volcano, sending later his photograph of the Mars curiosity test site as radio waves to the Moon and back using the Dwingeloo telescope in the Netherlands. In 2019 he tested the RISD/NASA MS-1 Mars simulation suit on top of an active volcano in the middle of the icecap in Iceland.

Specialized in Life experiences in isolated, confined and extreme environments and their documentation and studies, he participated to expeditions from the driest desert on Earth to the Northernmost human settlement and was elected in 2018 as an International fellow of the prestigious Explorers Club (NYC).

First French artist selected for the “Arctic Circle Residency” in the Arctic Ocean and Svalbard in 2013, and the Ars Bio Arctica residency at Kilpisjarvi’s research station in Finland in 2014, he taught 360 documentary film making at the DeTAo Master’s academy in Shanghai, and was a visiting scholar at the Center for Saami and Indigenous studies at Tromsø University in Norway.

A former recipient of the LunAres 2021 research Grant, the School of Arts, Design and Architecture PGR Fund Grant 2017 (University of Plymouth) and the French-Norwegian Center in Human and Social Sciences 2014 Grant, he has lived twice on active volcanoes (Ojos del Salado, Chile and Grimsvotn, Iceland) and experienced twice extreme high altitude (18044,62 ft) in Nepal and 19685,04 ft in Chile.

Active in the field of Space Art, he became in 2022 the first French sculptor to send an artwork to the International Space Station, sending a sculpture containing a drop of Yves Klein IKB Blue color.

His work has been featured on PBS, Amazon prime, ARTE TV, GEO, La Stampa, The Telegraph, Le Figaro, Libération, etc…