Archetypes and the Dream of the Radioactive Nucleus: Artistic Research on Belief and Contamination

Abstract

This paper explores the concept of archetype in relation to the author’s artistic research, which engages with “myth” and “dream” as an expression of archetypal content. The notion of the archetype is followed as it has developed from the dialogue between psychiatrist Carl G. Jung and physicist Wolfgang Pauli, a pioneer of quantum physics, with an interest in the conjoined intention to find a new conception of reality that could overcome the boundaries between physics and philosophy. The archetype is further analysed within the context of ‘Nuclear Natures’; the term is introduced following Professor Anna Storm (2018) to describe how nature, as imaginary, entangles with human-created radioactive contaminants. Finally, the paper elaborates on the concept of archetype in artistic research, as seen through the lens of new materialism; the author considers that new materialist philosophies follow a path opened by Pauli in acknowledging that something has been lost in the understanding of matter. In a time of ecological crisis this can become relevant: a shift in understanding may relate to different actions regarding human-created contaminants. The authors’ artistic research, in particular, aims to reflect on how an embodied understanding of radioactive contamination can open up societal questions on the nature of reality and the boundaries of human knowledge.