This work shows the definition of the word NOZIONISMO (sciolism) visible to everyone, while the definition of SCIENZA (science) is apparently invisible or only slightly visible. The hidden words of the definition of SCIENZA are only visible if a person is willing to do a step more than just looking at the proposed image. The hidden words are also written on reverse and the only way to make them visible and readable, after removing the light, is to use a mirror to flip the image. In the darkness, the light of science will be visible, and that of sciolism, so evident to everyone’s gaze, will disappear. I was drawn by the idea that the viewer will have to do something more than just looking at the work. He will have to look further and find the hidden message. Only by applying a specific method (casting light for a certain time and then moving into complete darkness) the hidden print is revealed: a suggestion that in order to truly understand and advance our knowledge we need to go a step further than just knowing. We have to be able to “see” to know and to understand. Like for the ancient Greeks, for whom the word οἶδα “to know” was the same as the word “to have seen”. Because we learn trough observation and based on the observations we do, we try to understand the world around us. Sciolism does not see things, but only memorized them and does not build relationships between information, nor is able to discern among fake and reliable information. On the contrary, the scientific method observes and connects information, to make reasoned hypothesis that are proved by the data gathered by the observations and either proved or disproved as time passes. Also time plays a role in my work, as the fluorescent powder I have used is guaranteed to remain fluorescent for 10 years, so at one point it will fade away, like theories that are modified or disproved as time passes. What it will remain is the other materials composing the ink, which will be the consolidated knowledge, based on the data collected over time. The idea for this work came from the evidence, in these times of pandemic, that fake news are shared and valued as much as the truth information. Everyone can fall in the illusion of knowing more, like the known Dunning-Kruger effect, for which, who doesn't know is sure and who knows is full of doubts.
