Nelson Brissac Peixoto ///

TURBULENCES OF MATTER. Art, Science and Industry

Over recent years art’s relationship with science and industry has taken on new and provoking variables. Although art as we have known it since the Renaissance has always interacted with scientific knowledge and instrumental production, two recent events have added further dimensions to that situation.

1) From the nineteen-seventies on, a veritable scientific revolution took place with the development of the theory of the dynamic and complex systems. This started in physics – in thermodynamics – and implied a radical alteration in the way we understand matter, now recognised as being capable of self-organisation and of generating its own forms and configurations. It was discovered that it is in the distant states of equilibrium that material systems are formed and developed.

The setting processes in disequilibrium, which had previously been relegated to the category of insignificant deviations, at the centre of scientific concerns would have a deep cultural impact, including on artistic production, and in particular on sculpture.