Into the Crucible of a Collaboration

Into the Crucibles of Nature
In what was 2009, the year of Astronomy, a unique partnership was formed between artist Fiorella Lavado and Scientist cum Author Arthur I. Miller to facilitate an exploration of the cosmos like never before. In concert with the Benaki Museum of Athens for the purpose of the exhibition, Into the Crucibles of Nature, Fiorella, with direction from Arthur have created a unique collection of art that recreates the science of the universe.

Fiorella’s weavings work particularly well with black holes. They contain a stillness that is unsettling which evokes a cautiousness to their exploration as the viewer. Likewise wormholes and nebulas which also feature are still very unknown quantities but there is reason to be very cautious about their exploration also, which is captured marvellously in these weavings.

Jaws of Darkness | Ultra Fine Wire Weave | Fiorella Lavado | Photography Noel Mclaughlin
Worm Hole | Ultra Fine Wire Weave | Fiorella Lavado
These works also touch on a recursive aspect of nature. From atoms to stars, the universe is similarly structured. As electrons are to an atomic nucleus, so are the planets to the Sun, our planetary nucleus. Fiorella's weaving epidermises the universes ability to apply its different laws in ways that result in remarkably similar structures no matter the scale involved.

The Dreams of Wolfgang Pauli
Furthering their partnership, Fiorella and Miller developed a series of insightful illustrations from their conversations concerning the dream interpretations of Wolfgang Pauli as deciphered by Carl Jung described in Arthur's most recent book Deciphering the Cosmic Number: The Strange Friendship of Wolfgang Pauli and Carl Jung.

Pauli in Perseus | Vector illustration | Fiorella Lavado
Pauli and Serpent | Vector illustration | Fiorella Lavado
Wolfgang Pauli is one of the most respected and well known of the past physicists who was well known for his arrogance and quick criticism, who at one stage was known as the conscience of science.

However, at the end of 1930, Wolfgang underwent a severe breakdown that lead to him finding council in psychiatrist and psychotherapist Carl Jung. Jung elaborated on no fewer than 400 of Pauli's dreams as documented in Psychology and Alchemy and now brought to life through the work of Miller & Fiorella in these spectacular illustrations.

From Atoms to Stars
Not ones to rest on their laurels, Fiorella through her conversations with Miller and her own reading developed another set of illustrations & sketches honouring the life and achievements of Niels Bohr & Richard Feynman. Together this collection has been coined, Weaving the Universe: From Atoms to Stars and was recently shown in Berlin.

In the Eye's Mind | Vector Illustration | Fiorella Lavado
Feynman diagrams - wave particle duality | Vector Illustration | Fiorella Lavado
The journey of Niels Bohr and Richard Feynman, which perhaps could not have been more different, have been illustrated in frustrating detail. Their struggles with the strangeness of quantum mechanics and the realisation that matter exists as both waves and particles captured in still motion.

Niels Bohr made many fundamental discovers to our understanding of quantum mechanics, which has to date become our grandest and most complete description of the universe. It was these developments that Feynman would later come to study in detail and revolutionise through the development of the Feyman diagrams.

Anschaulichkeit | Fiorella Lavado
In conjunction with the atoms to stars collection, Fiorella returned to her practice of weaving in order to convey the strange message of wave particle duality in an installation as part of the Anschaulichkeit exhibit. In this installation, Fiorella has brought to life a multi view of the quantum world. Be it a time line of states that shifts from one impossibility to another or a snapshot in time of the quantum states of matter prior to a realisation of these states in a classical sense due to a wave function collapse.

Fiorella and Miller have been in conversation for over a year, through which they have created an impressive collection of art. Let this be an inspiration to other artists and scientists, that they may seek out and work on cross discipline projects in order to bring the wonders of the universe to us all.