Plastir Number 72

THE ART OF REVEALING THE INVISIBLE, THE OTHER QUANTUM REVOLUTION

Lecturer at Jussieu, Sorbonne University, Charles ANTOINE is a researcher at the Laboratory of Theoretical Condensed Matter Physics (LPTMC). His research and university teaching activities revolve around quantum physics, complexity, and symmetries. A cellist with a fervent interest in history, philosophy, and various forms of art, he is equally passionate about conveying his love for quantum physics. As a lecturer, translator, and author of several books spanning both academic and popular science realms, his approach entails exploring novel methods of disseminating cutting-edge scientific knowledge. This includes creating children’s books and graphic novels, organizing practical workshops for the general public, and producing shows that fuse art and science, such as the « equiQuanto » performance where quantum physics is narrated through a live equestrian spectacle. He is also intrigued by the nuances of language and cognitive biases involved in science communication and holds the responsibility, at Sorbonne University, for the « Science & Design » dual degree program in collaboration with the French National School of Design (ENSCI). Latest publication: »Schrödinger à la plage, la physique quantique dans un transat » (Dunod 2022). At the crossroads of art and science, The author takes us to the heart of the quantum revolution by introducing us to the art of showing the invisible in this issue of Plastir, which he sums up as follows: “Since time immemorial, humans have endeavored to comprehend the worlds surrounding them. Not only the tangible, palpable, and sensory physical world, but also the myriad invisible realms that lie beyond their senses, language, and cognition. Dreamlike, poetic, mathematical—these worlds pose questions about their translatability and, more broadly, about language itself. While physics had long remained a relatively accessible science, conveyed through common language, the 20th-century quantum revolution shattered not only our « classical » certainties about the universe, but also our hopes of articulating this science outside the realm of mathematical language. However, many artists and scientists reject this notion, instead experimenting with alternative languages to capture the ineffable and render visible the subtle and enigmatic invisibles of quantum physics. This trend is on the rise, spanning the globe, as if the multiplicity of « other » languages were indispensable for grasping the inherent complexity of the quantum world-manifested in its mathematical formulations and interpretations. This diversity even extends to today’s various technical implementations of quantum computers, the flagships of the ongoing second quantum revolution. It is a true ode to diversity and the art-science bilingualism.”

ARTISTIC AND SOCIOLOGICAL APPROACHES: BEHIND THE SCENES OF COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH

Marie DOGA is a lecturer at Toulouse 3 University and a member of the CRESCO laboratory (EA 7419). She is a sociologist of culture and artistic, physical and leisure practices. Much of her research focuses on the construction of inequalities, forms of socialisation and the experiences of vulnerable and disadvantaged young people. The areas she investigates range from priority neighbourhoods for urban policy, to juveniles under judicial supervision, to schools for pupils with special educational needs. Fanny TUCHOWSKI has a doctorate in Arts and Art Sciences and is a member of the LERASS laboratory at Toulouse 2 Jean Jaurès University. Specialising in the analysis and modelling of artistic devices, she coordinates and leads interdisciplinary artistic projects combining the arts and social science research, particularly with vulnerable audiences (victims of LGTphobia, new arrivals, people under the influence of the law, etc.). As a visual artist, she leads artistic projects based on memory, notably as part of territorial residencies, and installations at the crossroads of the visual arts, video and astrophysics. For over two years, their multi-disciplinary research team has been experimenting with projects in the fields of visual arts, video and astrophysics. For over two years, their multi-disciplinary research team has been experimenting with artistic and scientific projects (sociology, art science, language science) that explore discrimination. The practical arts workshops – run by professional artists – are offered to young people aged between 8 and 25, mainly from neighborhoods classified as urban policy areas. Artistic creation as an epistemological lever for entering sensitive areas is a particularly original approach, but one that is no less complex to put in place. Investigating in vivo and in situ with these vulnerable young people on the delicate subject of their experiences of discrimination required us to re-examine our qualitative survey methods, to move away from them, to polish their rough, over-intrusive contours. What methodological issues are at stake in this type of collaborative research, whether scientific or artistic? How does different disciplinary knowledge circulate and coexist in the field? How does art as a method help to turn a stigma (Goffman, 1991) into an artistic subject? These are the questions they explore in depth, and to which they provide us with some answers in Plastir.

FOR QUANTUM PLASTICITY

Pascale WEBER is a visual artist who works mainly in drawing and ceramics. Her research focuses on the relationship between our bodies and their surroundings. Jean DELSAUX is interested in the perception and representation of the space in which our bodies move. He works with image capture (photography, digital video systems). In 2011 they founded the duo Hantu, who create performances that deal with the body in presence and representation, in relation to its human and non-human environment. They have performed and presented their work in the Mentawai jungle in Indonesia and in Sapmi (Norway), in the Brazilian forest and the Saguenay forest (Canada), among the Inuit and in the forest of the Puy de Dôme. They have published texts in which they consider their artistic practice in the context of so-called minor cultures, as well as anthropology, biology, law, the neurophysiology of perception, mathematics and, in this case, physics… They see creation as a field that opens up to multiple imaginary worlds, and for this reason they endeavor to cross-reference their thinking with that of specialists in disciplines other than art. A series of drawings is at the origin of their unpublished text presented in this issue of Plastir. The authors have already published an article in Plastir n°39, 06/2015. A series of drawings is at the origin of this new unpublished text presented in issue 72 of Plastir. The title of the series is « Quantum Plasticity ». It refers to the form that, in the imagination, the novice can try to give to phenomena that are known but which are not accessible to his or her senses of perception. The article in this issue is a reflection by artists who are passionate about what quantum theories conjure up in our imaginations. We have set out to address these questions in the light of what our experience as visual artists suggests to us about space, time, matter and perception. Reading some of the pioneers and developers of these theories of physics has enlightened us, and we would like to thank Charles Antoine for his careful reading of our text, given the distance between our respective fields in terms of subject matter and methodology. The difficulty is all the greater when we use the same terms in the fields of art and science, when they do not have the same meanings. This is what we have confronted in our text: how can an artist feel concerned by physics, how can he enter a dialogue with science? How can methodologies be compared, and what can come out of this confrontation?

WHAT THE CIRCULAR ECONOMY IS DOING FOR ART

Nathalie FOUGERAS is a visual artist. She completed a post-graduate course at ENSAD Arts Décoratifs de Parion of a sculpture made from recycled leather.is in Visual and Multimedia Arts (ARI lab) and went on to study Fine Arts and Art Sciences at Saint-Charles Paris 1 Sorbonne and Arts and Art of Photography at Paris 8 (Doctorate in Fine Arts and Art of Photography) as well as sound art at Folkhögskolan (Folk High School, Sweden). The questions she poses in her presentation are as follows: How does the circularity of a material spill over into the creative process? What does the circular economy produce upstream of the artistic act itself? Her answer is: « By following the progression of the exploration of a form from its initial IA sketch, I set out the stages and repetitions of the formulation of a sculpture made from recycled leather.