Vitruvian Woman / A Breath for Leonardo

VITRUVIAN WOMAN : A BREATH FOR LEONARDO

I rise like a Phoenix bit by bit, atom by atom changing energy into matter with eternal mastery...

Vitruvian WoMan : A Breath for Leonardo 3D interactive hologram display/installation Soundscape: Andre Bartetzki Interface: Piotr Slomczewski / Andre Bartetzki Abstract / Introduction In Mathematical Universe The Big Net of Life RNA Labyrinth of Shifting Identities Vitruvian Woman / Breath for Leonardo Documentation The artwork is realised with the support of Prof. Janusz Bujnicki’s Lab, at the International Centre for Molecular and Cell Biology Warsaw,

Abstract Vitruvian WoMan: Breath for Leonardo is an interactive installation in which the famous drawing of Vitruvian Man by Leonardo da Vinci changes into the dynamic, multidimensional geometry of the basic molecule of life, the RNA molecule. Using his/her breath, the interactor transforms molecular states and moves along different paths of the poetic labirynth of diverse molecular structures and their identities. Vitruvian WoMan It is hard to imagine the western tradition of art without the Vitruvian Man, an anthropometric canon derived from Pythagorean concept of mathematical Harmony of the World, the idea of beauty and truth expressed in numbers. The famous drawing by Leonardo, depicting the figure of a man inscribed in a circle and square, was a reflection of the Renaissance inquiry into \"cosmography del minor mondo\", the relationship of man with the universe. At the same time it manifested deep links between art and science and the centuries-long double path of our cognition. Vitruvian WoMan evokes Renaissance tradition, proposing a new orientation of the mind. The piece poses questions about human identity in the context of modern scientific research, in the reality ruled by biological and digital algorithms, in the universe of interactive data. The Big Web of Life—RNA molecule The female form of Vitruvian WoMan is not inscribed in a flat diagram, but in the three- dimensional complex model of the molecule of life, the fractal structure of RNA, from which, according to the RNA World hypothesis , the Great Network of Life evolved. Though components of RNA molecule resemble the DNA code, it rarely assumes a stable double-helix shape. In fact, the RNA biomolecule is a maze of all its possible conformations, which it must pass through to adopt the final form and function. However, there are RNA molecules that have retained their original ability to switch, like a molecular werewolf, between various forms and functions under the influence of environmental factors. The mechanisms of structural and functional variability of RNA is considered one of the basic mechanisms of the variability of biological forms and the evolution of life. The artpiece uses the RNA-riboswitch structure, synthesized by the research group of Prof. Janusz Bujnicki at the International Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology in Warsaw. The DNA double helix became an icon of the progress of civilization in the 20th century. It is not excluded that RNA, as the basic tool of biotechnology and bioengineering, will become a symbol of 21st century achievements and challenges. We live in times when algorithms of life are no longer governed only by nature. Increasingly, power over biological processes is taken over by man and the technologies he develops, opening a new chapter in the evolution of life

However, the question arises whether we are in fact able to fully understand and effec- tively control self-organizing complex organic and inorganic complex systems and wisely head towards what we want to become? New Renaissance There are many similarities between the cultural revolution of the Italian Cinquecento, which Leonardo became a symbol of, and our times. It is not just about the recurrence of the paths of science and art or the pursuit of interdisciplinary discourse and holistic knowledge. Like 500 years ago, we are facing a civilization crossroads, in the face of a crisis of insti- tutions, ideology and values. Like 500 years ago, we experience opposites, extremes and paradoxes. The greatest period of the Medici and the activity of the Renaissance umanisti community was also a time abounding in the atrocities of numerous wars, in- quisitions, conspiracies, killings and widespread corruption Today, the incredible scientific and technological progress is overshadowed by global crises: ecological, economic, social and political. A cultural revival becomes necessary, in order to break the eternal narrative of the Anthropocene based on profit, consump- tion and acquisition, and to redefine the concept of humanity, designating a new path of its development. A Breath for Leonardo We exist in a dynamic data universe where every breath counts, where every action, every thought has a value. Nothing is lost in it, nothing is annihilated or „disappears”. Thus Leonardo da Vinci's data are also present here and now, in various arrangements and aggregations, This feature of our physical world inspires the imagination and the question of who / what is Leonardo today, who / what could he become tomorrow? Genius is a spirit of time, the result of a unique data configuration that, like a wave, occurs periodically, amplified by countless small waves. Will the development of bio- digital super-intelligent networks result in the creation of a new kind of genius, Leonard of the 21st century? If so, how will I contribute to it? Our bodies consist of an astronomical number of atoms, mainly oxygen, carbon, hydro- gen and nitrogen, formed in the nuclei of distant stars. To enter my body, every carbon atom underwent photosynthesis, each oxygen atom was once a part of the ocean. How- ever, these atoms do not stay in my body for long; approximately every seven years, 99.999% are replaced by other atoms. Among the atoms that make up the retina of my eye, there may be an atom of Leonardo that was previously part of a jellyfish, leaf or bird.

Breathing…. Breathing in…. Breathing out... Slowly I am calming down my mind-body cobweb. Breathing ... Breathing in ..., Breathing out... I imagine 25 sextillions (or 25, and then 21 zeros) of air molecules that filled my lungs and warmed up with the heat of pulsating tissues. Breathing out ... I slowly release active bits of information. Breathing in ... a wave of air permeates my darkness ... impatiently I am sorting its content I put aside the molecule that once was Leonardo’s breath, and the one that visited lungs of the pterosaur, and the one that created the shockwave of the bomb dropped on Hiroshima ... Breathing out…. Breathing in ... I absorb the dust that made up the solar system and the wind that touched the Sahara dunes ... I plunge into the bowels of the Eyjafjallajökull volcano Breathing out – bits of information now mix with a breath of a passer-by, they float in cigarette smoke, thicken with street smog. Breathing in… I can feel the salt of the sea and the bird's screaming in the musty air Breathing out… 25 sextillions of particles float enveloping the earth with a sphere of air. I breathe. The piece was presented in the form of an individual exhibition at the 7th EUROBIOTECH Congress in Krakow 2019, on the 500th anniversary of the death of Leonardo da Vinci, as a tribute to his creative mind at the threshold of the digital era of the New Renaissance. The piece is part of a wider project EpiMimesis Epizone V: Shifting Identities awarded the Magnus Laurentius Medices Medal, Florence International Contemporary Art Biennale 2019



In Mathematical Universe The concept of the Harmony of the However, for Leonardo, the direct Universe, based on mathematical inspiration was not a Roman copy of the structures and proportions, originates sculpture of Doryphores, but a from Pythagorean thought. His idea was monumental work De architectura by taken over by Plato, combining the Marcus Vitruvius written in the first ability to perceive beauty with man’s century BC. In the third book devoted to cognitive powers. the construction of temples, the Roman Since ancient times, the search for the architect gave a description of the essence of beauty which, according to proportion of man as a model for a Socrates, was the only divine and visible harmonious building. thing, was identified with the search for Also for Leonardo, the mathematical truth. Mathematics, capable of image of man was an embodiment of generalizing properties and making knowledge about the nature of the analogies between distant and world, cosmography \"del minor mondo\". seemingly unrelated things, has become His famous drawing is not a portrait of a the key to the secrets of the universe. particular person. Following the ancient The search for the most perfect, principle of mimesis, it is the result of \"harmonious\" proportions between many years of studies, including individual elements of the whole and anatomical ones, of the Renaissance between elements and the whole, was master. seen as a path to the essence of its Le proporzioni del corpo umano secondo \"beauty and truth\" . Vitruvio shows the figure of a naked man The ancient faith in the power of in two superimposed poses. One, with numbers united Greek and Judeo- joined feet and outstretched arms, was Christian traditions, while placing man as inscribed in a square, while the other created in the image of God (s) at the resembled a \"spread eagle\" was closed center of cognizance. Proportion and in a circle. However, one can notice, that symmetry, the fundamental concepts of the arrangements of arms and legs Greek geometry, set the foundations for actually creates sixteen different anthropometric perfection, which aimed positions, suggesting the possibility of at simplicity, balance and moving from one position to another. complementarity. These ambitions found expression in the famous canon of Polikleitos - a detailed description of the human body as a form based on a series of mathematical operations. 1 : √2. )

Mathematical figures were closely constructions and transformations exist associated with Leonardo's alchemical physically. This hypothesis ultimately search. The circle was a symbol of destroys the dualism of thought and perfection, heaven, transcendence, matter, abstraction and nature. The map externality and infinity, while the square of Jorge L. Borges is identical to the suggested an internal zone related to territory of our experience. Postmodern human corporeality and the earth. The simulacrum becomes only a convenient center of the cosmic circle, omphalos metaphor concocted by our limited mundi, was situated in the navel of knowledge, Plato's cave, which itself Vitruvian man, while the center of the turns out to be an illusion. square Leonardo placed in the lower We do not know whether Tegmark's abdomen, changing the original idea of mathematical universe will ultimately Vitruvius. prove to be a triumph or a dead end of Cartesian reason. Scientific methodology The idea of mathematical harmony of our requires empirical evidence that we are universe remians one of the main stimuli unable to provide at the current stage of of our cognition. Pythagorean intuitions, our development. Nevertheless, this neo-Platonic inquiries of Leonardo and hypothesis sheds new light on the Renaissance umanisti were replaced by greatest secrets of our existence and modern methodologies and scientific provokes reflection on the consequences thought The imagination of the 20th of its veracity. century was affected by the Theory of Great Unification, the Theory of If our physical world is a mathematical Everything (ToE) including the structure with an infinite number of initial holographic 11-dimensional M-theory. random conditions, then the algorithms of Today, imagination is stimulated by the life, including conscious life, acquire new hypothesis of the mathematical universe meaning. Tegmark uses the poetic term (or rather multi-universe) of Max \"awakening of the universe\", establishing Tegmark. According to the Swedish us as part of the cosmic process. The age- physicist and cosmologist, mathematics is old questions about the relationship not only a tool for discovering and between micro and macro worlds take on describing reality. The amazing utility of a new context, making us realize that it mathematics in natural sciences (Eugene depends on us whether the Anthropocene Wigner, 1960) can only be explained by era turns out to be a short episode or the the hypothesis that the world is beginning of a new chapter in the history mathematics. All mathematical of not only our planet.

Unable to comprehend the Whole, I direct my attention to a fractal, looking, as in the past, for a relationship between a fragment and unity. I immerse myself inside cozy self-born spaces. As I leave, I grow into a crystal of broken symmetries Of Life Non-trivially infinite Ragged I discreetly spread out probabilities of occurrence Vitruvian WoMan is a multidimensional fractal, a fundamental molecule of life, a labyrinth

Vitruvian WoMan



HUMANISM— De himinis dignitate You may, as the free and proud shaper of your own being, fashion yourself in the form you prefer. It will be in your power to descend to the lower, brutish forms of life; you will be, through your won decision. To rise again to the superior orders whose life is divine” Pico della Mirandoli De himinis dignitate (1487) This tribute to the dignity and unlimited possibilities of man expressed in the famous oration of the Renaissance philosopher Pico della Mirandoli (1487) acquires a special significance on the threshold of the new digital Renaissance. The humanism outlined in the Renaissance thought can be defined through the prism of the idea of the incompleteness of a man, condemned to a constant process of becoming. Based on uncertain premises, the drama of his freedom. This drama was inscribed in the hierarchical concept of the world, taken from Greek philosophy, and based on the decree of the heavenly forces, Scala Naturae. In this system at the top of the \"ladder of beings\" there are gods (or God), beneath them (or Him) angels, demons, then people (kings, princes, nobility, ordinary people), animals, then plants and below precious stones and metals and other minerals. Man's place on the level between natural and divine beings marked his privileged but labile position.

The position of a man on Scala Naturae, on the border of entities between angels/demons and animals, was the source of his inner tear, the drama that breeds a constant conflict between spirituality and corporeality, the desire for good and evil. (St Augustin) The trap of dichotomy

Vitruvian WoMan Today we stand on a different border of beings, between organic and inorganic life, Between Icarus's dream and the nightmare of falling. Uncertain premises of freedom

THE BIG WEB OF LIFE The Ladder of Beings (Scala Naturae) introduced a pattern of thinking that took root in our imagination, becoming a determinant of the hierarchical systematization of nature from Aristotle's dendrogram to Charles Darwin's phylogenetic Tree of Life. According to Darwin's concept, its trunk was made up of LUCA, a primitive bacterial species or a group of cooperating bacterial species. As a result of evolution and natural selection, branches of new species began to grow. They ramified further forming a large branchy tree. Its highest branches represent organisms that have survived to this day. For Darwin, the phylogenetic tree was the basis for understanding the history of life on Earth based on the evolutionary \"battle for life\" and “survival of the fittest” His clear concept, however, could not be kept long. The progress of scientific research methods and accompanying technologies deepens our understanding of the relationships and kinships connecting the world of nature. Today, we know that in addition to 'vertical gene inheritance', evolution has been affected by phenomena that cannot be represented in the form of a branching tree, such as horizontal gene transfer, endosymbiosis, and interspecies hybrids. Today, epigenetics explores the impact of the environment and extra-genic inheritance processes, playing a growing role in evolution studies. The image of a lonely tree, both as a model of the evolution of life on earth and a metaphor for life, has lost its power. The Great Web of Life defies dogma. It is constantly growing, transforming, becoming more and more complicated and surprising. Our place in it resembles the place of the Earth in the Milky Way galaxy. It is neither central nor the most important, blue point on the periphery. Anxious fractal of life We live in a time when man begins to have the power to shape himself and the environment to an extent he has never been able to imagine. After almost four billion years of biological evolution based on natural algorithms, we are entering a new era of the evolution of life, which is driven by the marriage of the digital and biotechnological revolutions.

Vitruvian WoMan

RNA LABIRYNTH OF SHIFTING \"imposed from the outside\" as in many IDENTITIES cultural narratives and myths. It is an im- manent feature, the \"essence\" of the The RNA molecule is essential for life. It molecule, and its path is determined by transfers genetic information from DNA laws of physics (such as thermodyna- to proteins, catalyses chemical reactions mics) and environmental factors. and regulates metabolic processes in the cell. It is the basis of a phylogenetic ne- However, there are RNA molecules cal- twork, the key to understand evolutiona- led riboswitches that, like a \"molecular ry relationships and connections betwe- werewolf\", can take on two (or more) en different species and biological enti- alternative and even different structures ties. and functions depending on the condi- tions. It has recently been discovered The study of basic molecular mecha- that shape-shifting or form variation is a nisms not only affects our understanding common feature of many RNA molecu- of the evolution and dynamics of com- les, including naturally occurring sequ- plex systems, but opens up the possibili- ences that play biological roles, as well ty of designing new molecular structures as completely random chemically syn- and functions of great importance for thesized sequences. modern medicine and for the future of society. The mechanism of structural and functional RNA variability can be considered as one of Although the chemical structure of the the basic mechanisms of variability of forms RNA molecule resembles DNA (it is a and evolution of the living world. polymer of nucleotide residues A, C, G and U), it rarely forms long double- stranded helixes, assuming various spa- tial forms that determine its function. While DNA is often associated with sta- bility, continuity and determinism, RNA means instability, diversity, variability and a multitude of possibilities. The RNA biomolecule is not a static com- position of \"balls and sticks\", but a dyna- mic labyrinth of all possible structural conformations that it must \"pass\" to achieve the final form determining its identity and function. This maze is not

The mechanisms of structural and functional variability of RNA has become an inspiration for the Vitruvian Woman, an artistic Labyrinth of our Shifting Identities

RNA—LABIRYNTH OF SHIFTING IDENTITIES



VITRUVIAN WOMAN A Labirynth of Shifting Identities · Is any identity then a momentary state of data? · A transient “snapshot” within a larger dynamical enfolding? · A complex algorithm of different assembling of entangled data?









I have come a long way since the Great Beginning thrown into physicality increasingly complex and complicated I remember the taste of quartzite and sharp morning air like a razor cuts through lungs of swaying tree I spin faster and faster spreading arms of dimensions I pulse with the heat of the fluid that feeds me inside everything living dendrites of my being humid restless blind are searching





I don't know if Vutruvian WoMan is my avatar or if I'm her Avatar. The relationship between the creator and the work is ambiguous. Vitruvian WoMan is not a character but an evolving system: A dynamic set of data; of what I know and what I don't know, but also the vastness of what I don't know that I can imagine a dream that dreams its reality a thought that no language found an idea that is looking for its shape a rhythm of arrested breath a laboratory Vitruvian WoMan is a search for equilibrium, internal balance between structure and chaos, logic and emotions, rationality and intuition, the individual and the world. Vitruvian WoMan is a maze that undergoes constant transformation, it is an opening of form for a change, for otherness that fills with fear, but cannot be avoided a chance Like a larva in a cocoon, I want to trust her. soft susceptible to turbulence indestructible.



The labyrinth structure assumes various variants of choices and paths that one can follow. Vitruvian WoMan, as an artpiece, is a closed form. However, it suggests the possibility of going beyond the limits of oneself. After all, this is inescapable .



A breath for Leonardo / Vitruvian WoMan 7th Central European Congress of Life Sciences EUROBIO- TECH, EXPO Kraków, PL EUROBIOTECH EUROBIOTECH 2019

Interactive 3D projection

A breath for Leonardo / A Vitruvian Woman as a part of EpiMimezis: Epizone V Shifting Identities XII Florence Biennale, Forteza da Basso, Florence, IT Intercative 3D pseudo-hologram—part of the imultimedia instlation



Nie wiem czy Vutruvian WoMan jest moim awatarem, czy to raczej ja jestem jej Awatarą. Relacja między twórca a dziełem jest niejednoznaczna. Vitruvian WoMan nie jest postacią, jest ewoluującym systemem: dynamicznym zbiorem danych. tego co wiem i tego czego nie wiem, ale również ogromu tego, czego nie wiem, że nie wiem. Marzeniem, które śni swoją realność Myślą, której nie znalazł język Ideą, która poszukuje swojego kształtu Rytmem zatrzymanego oddechu laboratorium Vitruvian WoMan jest poszukiwaniem równowagi, wewnętrznego balansu między strukturą a chaosem, logiką a emocjami, racjonalnością a intuicją, jednostką i światem. Vitruvian WoMan jest labiryntem, który ulega nieustannym przekształceniom, jest otwarciem formy na przemianę, na inność, która napawa lękiem, przed którą nie można uciec Szansą jak larwa w kokonie, pragnę jej zaufać, delikatna podatna na turbulencje niezniszczalna.





Dokumentacja wystaw

A breath for Leonardo / Vitruvian Woman 7th Central European Congress of Life Sciences EUROBIO- TECH, EXPO Kraków, PL EUROBIOTECH EUROBIOTECH 2019

Instalacja multimedialna, interaktywna projekcja 3D

A breath for Leonardo / Vitruvian Woman EpiMimezis: Epizone V Shifting Identities XII Florence Biennale, Forteza da Basso, Florence, IT Instalacja multimedialna, interaktywny pseudeo-hologram





Przypisy 1, http://genesilico.pl/ 2. Nina Witoszek Leonardo da Vinci Our Contemporary? The \"Ecohumanist\" Code of Renaissance Sages, w Worldviews, Vol. 18, No. 2 (2014), pp. 122-143 3. Stanisław Lem. Golem XIV (Kindle Locations 1263-1266). Pro Auctore Wojciech Zemek. Kindle Edition. 4. Max Tegmark „Our mathematical Universe”, Knopf 2014 5. Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, Oration on the Dignity of Man, trans. A. Robert Gaponigri, Gateway Edi- tions 1996 (first published 1496) 6. A New Reneissance, ed.David Lorimer and Oliver Robinson, Floris Book 2010, pp.12 Utwór realizowany jest w ramach większego projektu EpiMmezis / Epizone V (Shifting Identities) dzięki wsparciu: Instytutu Chemii Bioorganicznej Polskiej Akademii Nauk Międzynarodowego Instytutu Biologii Molekularnej I Komórkowej w Warszawie Uniwersytetu Artystycznego w Poznaniu FASSF / Art & Science Node w Berlinie