Having noted the limitations of scientific discourse which, in the absence of a narrative to support it, fails to unite people around the shared challenge of saving living things, the designer and artist Marie-Sarah Adénis is developing a hybrid work between cosmology and cosmogony. Her projects focus on the scales of DNA and cells, which she stages in representations where the history of life unfolds in narrative or mythological forms. Alongside her work as a contemporary fabulist, Adénis is conducting experiments with bacteria to develop ecological pigments. In this talk, the former neuroscience researcher emphasises the centrality of storytelling to our world’s ‘crisis of sensibility’.