Insigℏt is the collective name of three Italian theoretical physicists working in quantum optics — Salvatore Savasta, Omar Di Stefano and Alberto Mercurio — who translate quantum mechanical processes into generative digital art. Their practice treats quantum superposition and uncertainty as an artistic language for exploring the complexity and indefiniteness of human experience.
Savasta and Di Stefano, longtime collaborators in quantum optics research, began experimenting with digital art in 2015. The starting point was a simulation of the thermalization of a quantum superposition state, which left them with a feeling of sadness and decay and reinforced their sense that quantum processes could speak to human complexity. Alberto Mercurio joined the team in 2020, and his technical skills helped drive the project forward. In March 2021 the trio published a manifesto for what they call the Quantizing Art movement, describing quantum phenomena such as the coexistence of uncertainty and fixed rules, and the impossibility of cloning a quantum state, as ways of expressing the uniqueness and unpredictability of human relationships.
