Synergy
Issue 95 April 2026
Beauty Found (Where it Wasn’t Meant to Be)
Stephen Nowlin is Los Angeles-based artist, curator, and writer whose practice is inspired by science, the histories of science and art, and theories of knowledge. His work employs the use of digital tools, photography, and scanning technology, resulting in small and large-scale limited edition archival pigment prints.
Pilgrimage to Myyrmäki – The Silent Music of Things
Taney Roniger is a visual artist, writer, and educator based in New York. Since the late 90s she has been exploring the relationship between art, science, and the spirituality of immanence in both her work as an artist and in numerous essays and symposia. ‘Pilgrimage to Myyrmaki – The Silent Music of Things’ recounts her visit to a church in Finland and her recent artworks it inspired.
JOSEPH NECHVATÁL interviewed by CHRIS DORLAND
Joseph Nechvatal’s contemporary art practice engages in the fragile wedding of image production and image resistance. Through his version of an art-of-noise, he brings a subversive reading to the human body through computational viruses, articulating concerns regarding safety, identity and objectivity. He is interviewed by New York–based artist, Chris Dorland.
Info/Eco – The Nature of Information
As an artist, planner/designer and eco-cultural activist, Richard Lowenberg has dedicated his creative life to investigations, understandings and artful realization of works presenting and collaboratively setting examples for ‘an ecology of the information environment’, and resulting opportunities for development of a culturally and ecologically rooted society.
Three In One Nature of Consciousness & Dream Sequence
Alan MacDonald was a graphic designer and illustrator for 40 years.
“As a metaphysical artist I am concerned with a three-way comparison between: metaphysics (science of subject / why), Science of object (how), and information technology, the most important metaphor we have for the nature of consciousness. Vedic philosophy, describes the three in one nature of consciousness; rishi, devata, chandas (knower, known, process of knowing). My ‘Dream Sequence’ series proposes dreams as daily status reports from the source regarding our level of alignment with the source. I record every dream, interpret upon waking and illustrate it.”
Can contemporary sculptor Antony Gormley be seen as a successor of Auguste Rodin and Jean‑Baptiste Pigalle?
Joël Chevrier has been Physics Professor at Université Grenoble Alpes (UGA) since 1998. In this article he examines Antony Gormley’s sculptures, which prompt questions: How far does the human body extend? Where are its limits? Are there even limits?
Gayle Chong Kwan: The Great Instauration
During April 2026, Gayle Chong Kwan interrogated the history of the scientific canon with a major installation in the Grand Gallery of the National Museum of Scotland for Edinburgh Science Festival. Through a large-scale site-specific sculptural installation, the work reflects on the cultural legacy of science, exploring and rethinking scientific histories through Chong Kwan’s detailed research into scientific artefacts and archives across eight major collections and speaking with communities.
String theory: scientists are trying new ways to verify the idea that could unite all of physics
Professor Marika Taylor is Pro Vice Chancellor and Head of the College of Engineering and Physical Sciences. Marika commenced her career as an undergraduate student studying Natural Sciences at the University of Cambridge, inspired to follow this pathway having read “A Brief History of Time” by Stephen Hawking. After completing her undergraduate studies, Marika undertook a PhD with Hawking; her thesis “Problems in M-Theory” focused on black holes, string theory and holography.
Following a research fellowship at St John’s College, Cambridge, Marika moved to the Netherlands, working first at Utrecht University in the group of Nobel Laureate Gerard ‘t Hooft and then at the University of Amsterdam. In 2012 she moved to the University of Southampton as part of a strategic investment to establish a new research centre (STAG) bringing together gravity, high energy physics and astronomy. She later took on a variety of leadership roles at Southampton including Head of the School of Mathematical Sciences. She became a fellow of the Alan Turing Institute in 2019.
Her research interests range from mathematical and theoretical physics through to geometric AI and its applications; mathematical modelling for defence, security and finance, and the sociology of science. Marika has held many academic leadership roles nationally and internationally, including REF2021 panel member; advisory board of the Academy for Mathematical Sciences; advisory roles to government departments and agencies; chairing of research council committees and divisions in the UK and Europe, and leadership of the CERN GenHET initiative.
Human vision: what we actually see – and don’t see – tells us a lot about consciousness
Henry Taylor is an associate professor in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Birmingham.
“I’m interested in philosophy of cognitive science, philosophy of mind, metaphysics, and robotics. I have worked on perception, consciousness, attention, peripheral vision, the development of scientific concepts, scientific taxonomy, and robotics. Most of my research involves drawing together work from natural science and philosophy”.
Could dark matter be made of black holes from a different universe?
Enrique Gaztanaga is Professor of Astrophysics at Institute of Cosmology and Gravitation, University of Portsmouth.
“I also have a civil servant (on leave) appointment as Research Professor in the Institute of Space Studies (ICE) working for the Spanish National Research Council (www.csic.es) and the IEEC in Barcelona. My background is in Physics, Astrophysics and Cosmology. My expertise is in the area of theoretical models of Cosmology and the building and analysis of the largest Cosmic maps. I am currently director of the PAU Survey (pausurvey.org) and the Science Coordinator of ESA ARRAKIHS (arrakihs-mission.eu) space mission. I have lead and co-lead hundreds of publication in referee journals.”