Physicist-turned-artist Federico Federici works across visual poetry, asemic writing, and conceptual art. Drawing inspiration from physical and mathematical concepts, semiotics, philosophy, and music, he bridges the gap between science and art—two seemingly opposing disciplines—to interrogate the nature of writing, interpretation, and signification. Unbound by forms and conventions, Federici’s work alerts us to strange yet delightful observations of what language and art can do and the extent to which they can evolve. “What I sought was not a rejection of scientific reasoning but an extension of its methodologies into domains where ambiguity, rupture, and non-linearity were central. The aesthetic and, in a sense, the ethical dimension of meaning-making became my new field of research,” the artist declares.
In the following interview, Federici and I began our conversation on his career beginnings. We discuss the intersection of linguistics and physics, the structures of different languages in his practice, how asemic writing reconfigures meaning and the reception of meaning, and John Cage, one of his biggest artistic influences.—Junyi Zhou, Assistant Visual Editor
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