Visualising the Unseen: Art, Technology, and Fundamental Physics
GRIS – Gruppo Ricercatori Italiani a Singapore, with the support of the Embassy of Italy in Singapore
May 15, 2026 · Academia, 20 College Road, Singapore

This spring I had the honour of being invited by Dr Serenella Tolomeo, Coordinator of GRIS – Gruppo Ricercatori Italiani a Singapore, to speak at Visualising the Unseen: Art, Technology, and Fundamental Physics — an evening organised by GRIS with the support of the Embassy of Italy in Singapore, dedicated to a question I have spent the past decade working inside: how do different disciplines, from fundamental physics to digital art, help us visualise and understand phenomena that are otherwise invisible?

The event brought physicists, designers, and artists into the same room — which, as I said in my opening, is already half of what my talk was about.

The Speakers

The evening gathered four perspectives on the invisible:

• Ong Kian Peng — Assistant Professor, School of Art, Design and Media (ADM), NTU · Art–technology–ecology, immersive environments
• Yvonne Y. Gao — Associate Professor, Department of Physics, NUS · Quantum physics, microwave engineering, solid-state physics
• Ina Conradi-Chavez — Associate Professor, School of Art, Design and Media (ADM), NTU · Generative AI, experimental animation, media architecture
• Cesare Soci — Professor of Photonics, NTU · Nanophotonics, optical spectroscopy, photonic materials

Each speaker had 10–15 minutes, followed by discussion — an intentionally intimate format that made real interdisciplinary exchange possible, rather than a sequence of monologues.

My Talk: Threads of the Unseen: Quantum Physics, Cultural Memory and the Public Screen

We live inside forces we cannot see — quantum particles, cultural memory, entropy. This talk presents three works by the Quantum Travelers, an art–science collective founded in 2019, that seek to make these invisible forces something audiences can feel rather than merely understand. Beginning from the premise that the visual language of physics is not neutral, the talk explores what happens when the discoveries of contemporary quantum mechanics are expressed through Indigenous and decolonial visual traditions — paradigms of participation, continuity, and shared reality that sit remarkably close to quantum theory itself. Quantum Logos: Vision Serpent draws on Mesoamerican cosmology and the Double-Slit experiment to make the viewer part of the fabric being woven; Moirai: Thread of Life (Best in Show, SIGGRAPH Asia 2023) finds the logic of superposition already present in Southeast Asian ikat weaving; and Echoes, Whispers and Memories treats entropy as a generative force across monumental public screens from Hangzhou to Milano. The talk closes with EQUA — Emergent Quantum Aesthetics through AI-Enhanced Media, a newly awarded Ministry of Education grant exploring generative AI as a creative partner for translating quantum ideas into sensory experience. Not to explain physics — to make it felt.