Vincenzo Di Nicola
Three images:
“The double helix” – DNA
(1953)
 | |
| Schematic representation of the DNA double helix |
“The blue marble” – Earth
from space (1972)
 |
| The Blue Marble - Earth seen from space |
“The black hole” – the
event horizon (2019)
 | |
| Black Hole - Even Horizon Telescope |
Each image was the
result of extraordinary technology wedded to a theory or a scientific mission (genetics, the structure
of the universe, space exploration).
And each image
produced an extraordinary vision of life on earth and beyond.
Not since the “Great Chain
of Being” – scala naturae (Latin: the
ladder of nature) – in the Middle Ages have we had such a convergence of knowledge
(science), belief (philosophy), and practice (politics) cutting across all domains
of human activity.
In my visualization of
social psychiatry (of life, really), I think we need to capture and somehow superimpose
these three images together.
They represent to me:
They represent to me:
· The double
helix – the biochemical building
blocks of human being
(my association – the double helix is much like the caduceus as a symbol of
medicine)
· The blue
marble – the Earth as a
complex organism, bound both by the laws of nature and social life
(my association – this image had a profound social impact; many astronauts
who trained in engineering and physical sciences had metaphysical, almost
spiritual experiences in space; the external perspective of Earth, facilitated
by physical sciences and technology, led to metaphysical and almost mystical reflections)
· The
black hole – the event horizon,
representing the collapse of stars and star systems into compacted masses that
change our understanding of the physical laws of the universe
(my association
– in science fiction black holes represent a kind of metaphysical radical
departure – either of the end of the universe or an anxious uncertainty as to their potential as in time travel, parallel worlds and so on)
departure – either of the end of the universe or an anxious uncertainty as to their potential as in time travel, parallel worlds and so on)
In socio-political
terms, in my lifetime (I was born in 1953) we have gone from a scientific image
of life (DNA) which represents hope (not forgetting its reductive potential to define
life in terms of chemicals) to an image of astrophysics which represents death
(a black hole) with life on the blue planet hanging in the balance (the blue marble).
