The art of mediation through ‘the universe’ − A dialogue between an engineer and a designer at CERN

Abstract

Over the centuries, collaborative research between artists/designers and scientists/engineers has been an ambition. Yet, precisely how to make this successful still remains an enduring question. A creative approach that can unite art, design, science, and engineering is needed as a framework for effective collaborations. Assuming that the notion of ‘the universe’ in which we live is a concept that all humans can share, this paper considers how the idea of ‘the universe’ can connect the experts between and across different disciplines. This notion was developed through collaborative dialogue between an engineer at CERN (Conseil Européen pour la Recherche Nucléaire) and a designer at HEAD – Genève (Haute école d'art et de design – Genève), with the author acting as a mediator – forming bridges between these two main collaborators. This mediated dialogue began with fundamental questions about the universe: “what are the core principles of the universe?”; “how do we perceive the universe?”; or, even “what is a meaning of life in this universe?”. This dialogue created a transformation of our usual perspectives, and it opened up our usual, narrow ways of viewing the world – in other words, collaborators developed ways of looking at the world from a cosmic perspective. The first, three-month-long, stage of the project was intended as a precursor to future collaborations. The project took place at the R&D platform at CERN called IdeaSquare. During the period of the project, the engineer and the designer together created a proposal for a new artistic practice in public, from scratch, with mediated dialogue as the basic means of a project evolution. The developed proposal was for the creation of a Cosmic Table – a public installation in which visitors could feel a connection between the universe and other living beings. A working prototype was experimentally presented at CERN to test its design and functions. Followed by this prototype, it was developed to install in a public space at CineGlobe, a film festival at CERN. Through the mediated dialogue, this paper explores the possibility of ‘the universe’ as a mutually acceptable idea established through mediation among experts, and examines how this might provoke diverse forms of public installation that touch on the essence of the universe.