Symmetry — Collision of Arts and Sciences for a New Dimension

Abstract

A dialogue concerning the arts and sciences was prompted among the panelists of an international webinar in November 2020, which featured Symmetry — a dance-opera film shot inside CERN, the largest experimental particle physics facility in the world. With the cathedral-like majesty of the Large Hadron Collider as his theater, a modern physicist searches for the smallest primordial particle and discovers a love without end. The panelists, which included the film’s writer and director, Ruben Van Leer, as well as other art directors, a dance choreographer, bio-medical scientist, and art educator, shared their reflections from different perspectives on how the collision of arts and sciences can help us explore and expand a new dimension for a better understanding of human beings and nature, and the relationship between the two. The article ends with “A Systems View” of the living systems and art of Fritjof Capra, which reinforces the perspective of human-nature integration.