Serena Scapagnini’s work is deeply rooted in interdisciplinary collaboration. For the past decade, she has focused her artistic research on neurons, working closely with Professor Michael Higley, a neuroscientist at Yale School of Medicine, on a project titled SYNAPSES, dedicated to exploring the mind. Using fluorescent neuroimaging techniques to visualize neurons, Serena creates media works that define an internal landscape, following the flow of neurons like the tributaries of a river, connecting through synapses to form the shapes of our thoughts. Her body of work spans painting, drawing, video art, and installations.
During her residency, Serena focused on integrating the work of researchers on quantum memory into her collaborative installations. One of the three installations is called Refractions, a site-specific installation conceived in collaboration with Yale Quantum Institute researchers for the atrium space of the Robert B. Haas Family Arts Library at Yale University. The work investigates how information is encoded in quantum memory with states of light. Each one of the 10 suspended hand-made paper element encapsulate a thin plate of copper engraved with a quantum state. Like in a quantum device where the information is not accessible to the researcher with collapse of the information, here the states are not visible to the visitor without a destructive process.
In her exploration of the osmotic relationships between cells—and more broadly, between structure and space—Serena creates spatial works supported by delicate copper cables, forming complex systemic organizations. These compositions suggest a rhythm that runs through overlapping papers, echoing natural dynamics. The proportions, order, and quality of these works evoke the geometric structures underlying various forms in nature. Paper, Serena’s preferred medium, is transformed as dense layers of paint on one part of the picture gradually evolve into ethereal forms, allowing the dendritic branches to dissolve into the white surface of the paper. Transparencies and the rarefaction of neurons on the empty white spaces create an environment where images rest, and perception unfolds into silence, as if thoughts could extend into a moment of transcendence.
The creative team
Concept and realization: Serena Scapagnini
Production: Florian Carle
Scientific Advisor: Harsh Babla
Modeling: Jason Nuttle
Engraving: Veloce Engineering, Oxford CT
Papermill: Manualis, Fabriano in Italy
Earlier in the residency, Serena delivered a public talk at YQI titled “The Shape of Thoughts: Down the Flowing River of Tributary Neurons,” as part of our non-technical talk series, where she shared insights into her work and practice.
