THE GAME OF ORDER AND SYMMETRY IN MATTER AND IN CULTURE

Symmetry, symmetry breaking and broken symmetries play a central role in science and art, as well as in our daily life. Symmetry - a no-chan ge as the outcome of a change - is synonym of invariance or indiscerni bility. As a permanent reference of a structure it is associated with the meaning of the structures and it is fundamental in order to descri be them. But symmetry implies the impossibility to discern, that is to measure and to perceive. In order to measure and to perceive, that is to create information and knowledge, symmetry has to be broken. The g ame of life - a life made of selfreproducing information - develops on the watershed of broken symmetries: an ambiguous and indented ridge o f symmetries that break and recover themselves in a continuous series of choices. But even the masterpieces of art of all time run on the sa me ridge. The musical language, for instance, is a universal language - it can be enjoyed without being translated -just because the two con tradictory attitudes of the human soul - the symmetric or dreaming att itude and the ''informed'' or conscious one - compose themselves in it . Similarly, the most successful trademarks exhibit a measured combina tion of symmetric and therefore reassuring elements, and elements that break symmetry and, in this way, evoke dynamically the rising of new perspectives. During the conference many examples will be proposed, as well as some suggestive similarities between visual arts, music and s cience.