←

———————————

Visual Episteme: Uniting Art and Science in Interdisciplinary Research

 

Veronica Di Geronimo, The Fine Arts Academy of Rome

 

 

Although art and science have been woven in the intellectual evolution of human history, they have been theoretically and conceptually separated in a cultural dichotomy. In recent decades, these disciplines started a new interaction and integration phase, inaugurating an era of knowledge co-creation and leading to Sci-Art as a creative transdiscipline. In this paradigm shift, the visual knowledge is revealed to be episteme and a unifying methodological tool. In fact, both art and science employ sketches, drawings, diagrams, and other forms of visual representation to facilitate analysis and understanding in the research process.


This paper proposes a case study based on the experience of CARE - an artistic research laboratory established by the Academy of Fine Arts of Rome in partnership with the National Institute of Nuclear Physics of the University of Roma Tre - to elucidate the role of drawing and visual scheme in the science and art interdisciplinary projects titled Collisions (2023). The project, materialized as an art installation, allowed the audience to experience the inherent unpredictability and serendipity of scientific discovery, chiefly through simulating particle 'events' linked to the quest for the Higgs boson. Central to this endeavor was the creation of a visual grid, specifically designed for the arrangement of scientific data. This grid, conceived to bridge the gap between raw data and its potential for visual representation, covered a cognitive functionality and proved to be the turning point to transform the project from multidisciplinary to interdisciplinary, thus demonstrating its indispensable and transversal nature in the epistemological process of the research project.


Besides assessing the role of visual knowledge and its related techniques as a fundamental pillar in the architecture of knowledge acquisition and dissemination, this theoretical study positions the practice-based research carried out by artists and scientists in the CARE research laboratory in a broader discourse related to artistic research methodology.

 

Keywords: Visual Epistemology, Sci-Art, visual knowledge


Biography
Veronica Di Geronimo is a PhD in Art Theory and currently researcher at the Fine Arts Academy of Rome. She holds a BA in Art History and MA in Contemporary Art History from the University of Rome La Sapienza. After graduating, she curated the exhibition "Syncretisms. Dao between East and West" at Lo Studiolo and worked at the National Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art in Rome. In 2022 and 2023 she was Junior Scientist at the Academy of Fine Arts of Rome for the European research project EU4ART_differences, funded by Horizon2020. She received a research grant for a transdisciplinary laboratory established in collaboration between the Academy of Rome and the National Institute for Nuclear Physics (University of Roma Tre Unit). Her research interests include Sci-Art and artistic research methodology.