Notes
1 J. Zask (2024), Admire. Praise of a Feeling that Makes Us Grow (in French).
2 A. Grothendieck (1983-86/2022), Harvest and Sowing.
3 C. Rovelli (2020), Helgoland.
4 “Posthuman Performativity” (2003) and Meeting the Universe Halfway (2007).
5 The introduction of this theory is due to C. Rovelli (1996), “Relational Quantum Mechanics.”
6 To quote the British chemist C.P. Snow (1959) in a famous speech, “The Two Cultures and the Scientific Revolution”.
7 For the history of this divide between science and culture, see also J. M. Lévy-Leblond (2013), The Great Divide: Science Between Technology and Culture (in French).
8 N. Bohr (1955), “The Unity of Knowledge”.
9 A. Miller (2014), Colliding Worlds. How Cutting-Edge Science is Redefining Contemporary Art.
10 For example, the arrival of dedicated museographic institutions (ZKM, Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe), independent research networks (the Canadian Hexagram net-work or the SymbioticA laboratory in Australia), biennials (Ars Electronica in Austria, Transmediale in Berlin, or the Nemo biennial in France). A large number of initiatives have emerged since the 2000s, such as the artistic residency programs at CERN and CNES, among the most visible in the French-speaking world.
11 I. Prigogine and I. Stengers (1996), The End of Certainty.
12 “The fantastic foundations of reality.” Quote by F. Coppola, referenced in J. Kripkal (2024), How to Think Impossibly.
13 An Atom of Wisdom. Writings by a Physicist on Veiled Reality (1982). Quantum theory would not refer to realities having an existence in themselves, but would rather certainly be relational in nature.
14 The so-called “Many-Worlds Interpretation” (Everett, 1957).
15 Quote reported by W. Heisenberg.
16 See also F. Capra (1975), The Tao of Physics. An Exploration of the Parallels Between Modern Physics and Eastern Mysticism, which examines the bridges between quantum physics and Taoism. Regarding the philosophical implications of quantum theory, C. Rovelli (2020) frequently cites one of the leading thinkers of Indian philosophy, Nāgārjuna.
17 This jest, introduced by physicist David Mermin (“Could Feynman have said this?”, 2004), refers to a 1950s approach to physics, more focused on practical applications than phil-osophical discussions.
18 On this subject, see for example M. Bitbol (1996), Quantum Mechanics: A Philosophical Introduction (in French).
19 Title borrowed from P. Weber and J. Delsaux (2024), “For a Quantum Plasticity” (in French). The authors refer by this expression to “the form that in imagination the novice may seek to give to proven phenomena but that would not be accessible to his senses of perception.”
20 Here I refer to several approaches that account for the great diversity of “quantum dif-fractions” in the field of visual arts.
21 According to the words of Mériam Korichi and Olivier Dadoun. Catalogue of the exhi-bition “Cloud Chamber” (Curator: O. Dadoun, L’ahah, Paris, 2023).
22 According to the title of a video by YouTuber David Louapre on his channel “Stunning Science”https://youtu.be/zPolTp0ddRg (in French), video viewed on December 15, 2024.
23 Can a painting influence a quantum physicist? The father of physicist Bernard d’Espagnat, Georges d’Espagnat, was a painter himself, and Bernard credits his father with having influenced his sensibility as a researcher.
24 Another essential artist, in the field of engraving this time, Maurits Cornelis Escher, corresponded with the scientist Roger Penrose and is said to have inspired him.
25 Strictly speaking, diffraction is a physical phenomenon that occurs when waves encounter an obstacle in their path, causing interferences.