Special Showcase: Sofia Di Vito, Europeana Online Creative Residency

​The Online Creative Residency run by Europeana - Europe’s digital platform for cultural heritage - brings students and emerging professionals who want to gain storytelling skills together with expert mentors in a range of formats, including creative writing. The theme uniting their work for 2026 was science. 
 
From inventions and inventors, through to discoveries both big and small, and things that make our lives better - or worse - science is the language that explains our world.
 
This year, the residency looked at how science shapes us, and used cultural heritage to question, interrogate, or muse upon how science sees and configures everything around us - our bodies, food, nature, time, and society. What can we learn from the past? What will we see in our future? What can looking at science in a creative way teach us about the nature of humankind?
 
Jana Gelder, Sofia Di Vito and Chiara Gottardo responded to science-themed artworks on Europeana to create new stories, and we’re delighted and grateful for their writing to be published on The Ekphrastic Review.

Beth Daley, Europeana Foundation, Audience Engagement, Editorial Adviser

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Sofia says, "’The Magician and the Scientists' is a conversation between three characters: a magician, a 19th-century astronomer, and Lisa, a scientist from our century. Each character represents something different. The magician embodies a belief in astrology and magic, in contrast with the astronomer’s rigid approach, who believes only in the power of science. However, both views are extreme and reductive interpretations of reality. Lisa, on the other hand, challenges their gender stereotypes and rigid beliefs, finding a new way of seeing and telling the story of science."

The planet Venus and its influence on the world, Maerten de Vos - 1585 - Rijksmuseum, Netherlands - Public Domain. Click on image to view at Europeana.

​The Magician and the Scientists
 
Lisa: I hope this isn’t a bad idea. I mean, of course it is. I have generated, with an AI program, a simulation of the personalities of a magician from the Middle Ages and a famous astronomer of the 19th century. The algorithm also created their holograms. It’s like I have brought them back to life. What could go wrong? Literally everything. Also, I’m not allowed to use this AI machine at the laboratory I work in…so I also have to be fast. My supervisor will really go crazy if she catches me!

Magician: What is this place? Where are we?

Lisa: Hello! Nice to meet you. Sorry if I was a little bit dramatic there; I’ve been a bit stressed out lately! I am Lisa, by the way, and this is a laboratory in the Astronomical Research Centre of London. 

Astronomer: Sorry, but I don’t think I’m following you. I don’t remember anything. How did I get here?

Lisa: I have brought you here thanks to an ultimate generation technology that in your centuries you couldn’t even imagine. You are not real; you are holograms created by a program we usually use to predict what aliens on other planets might look like. We still haven’t found evidence of extraterrestrial life, but we are working on it.

Astronomer: This is absurd! I can’t believe my ears.  Holograms, aliens, and most of all…women in laboratories! Do you think I am a fool, woman? I am one of the most important astronomers of England, but what am I saying? Of England? Of the whole world! My partner and I, the Lord of Rosse, were the first ones to observe nebulae and stars at the edge of our Universe. How dare you talk to me in such a manner, lady?

Magician: I don’t know you, young man, but it should be me asking you about your manners. You should have some respect for this witch. She must be very powerful if she could bring us here.  I know because I have never managed to enter the alternative reality and talk to the dead ones, even if I am the most famous magician in London. If you consider that she’s a woman, her results are even more impressive.

Lisa: What? This is not magic! This is science. I’m not a witch, and this isn’t an alternative dimension. You are just a simulation generated by Artificial Intelligence. You are not ghosts or spirits.

Magician: I don’t understand…that’s impossible.

Astronomer: Yes, as I was saying. A woman could never do this.

Lisa: Wait! Let’s put aside for a moment your very misogynistic comments since I need your help, and as I have said, we are running out of time. In the 21st century, people don’t believe in magic anymore, and people who practice witchcraft or believe in astrology are few and far between. I can assure you this is not magic, but I don’t think that a magician from the Middle Ages could ever really understand.

Magician: Where are the Middle Ages?

Lisa: Oh God…  

Astronomer: It’s the historical period you come from…if you are even a real magician, I’m not sure I believe anything at all right now. But how do you know me, young woman?

Lisa: I know you very well. I’m afraid to say you died at a young age, but you are part of history books. You are like a pop star for astronomers.

Astronomer: What do you mean, died at a young age? And what is a pop star? Have you found some new kind of stars that pop or something?

Lisa: What? No! I forgot you are from the 19th century.

Astronomer: Well, let’s go back to the “died at a young age” thing.

Lisa: Nevermind. The point is that I’m an astronomer myself, and in two days I will hold my first conference about a study I have conducted on the planet Venus. 

Astronomer: A lady being a scientist? I knew that society would have evolved, but I couldn’t imagine even in my darkest dreams that a woman could have become a scientist. Science…it’s for men! 

Lisa: Hey! I want to remind you that I am the one who brought you here, so show some respect! 

Magic: She’s right, young man. Let this woman talk.

Lisa: I was saying that I have this public conference to hold, and a lot of teenagers will be in the audience as well. My research is focused on the transit of Venus to test a new imaging technique capable of detecting tiny atmospheric changes. The results could improve future observations of potentially habitable exoplanets orbiting distant stars.

Magician: Sorry, I didn’t understand a single word.

Astronomer: So you definitely are a magician from the Middle Ages.

Lisa: The point is that I don’t know how to talk about my work. I don’t know how to talk about science at all. I don’t want it to look like something plain and cold. I don’t want to see people look at the stars like they are just objects in the sky. But I also want to be precise, specific, and consistent. You are a famous magician who could inspire people and make stars and planets interesting to them. You are a famous and important astronomer. You have two different points of view, but maybe they could merge. So my question is. How should I talk about Venus?

Magician: Well, this is interesting. I am much older than you, and also wiser, so I will give you the correct answer. You should talk about how Venus, not just a planet but a goddess, influences our lives. She makes people fall in love, dance and sing and…

Astronomer: This is absurd! Miss Lisa, listen to me and not to this imposter. I am a great astronomer, and I will give you the right answer.

Magician: Behold, young man. In my century, people used to respect the elderly, and I’m not just some old fool; I am the greatest magician of my gene...

Astronomer: Yes, yes…we know. 

Lisa: Can you just stop being this childish? I can’t believe you think it’s women who are too emotional. Anyway, what were you saying?

Astronomer: Miss Lisa, you should describe the transit of Venus in the sky, maybe presenting some drawings of the planet; this will surely keep the public engaged. Venus, my dear magician, is just a planet, not a goddess. I know it: I have observed it with my own telescope and also drawn with my own hands what I have seen.

Magician: You have seen how she moves, but can you say why?

Astronomer: Of course I can, since I have studied the laws of nature. But what about you?

Magician: I bend the laws of nature to my will; I am a magician, or at least I was…one of the most famous in London; everybody came to me for help or for advice, and magic always showed I was right.

Scientist: You almost made me laugh with these stories.

Magician: If you are so smart and better than everyone else, tell me: how can your observations be free from error?

Scientist: Because they can be tested. If I claim that Venus will transit across the Sun, anyone with the proper instruments can verify it. Science does not ask for faith.

Magician: No, but it asks for trust in those instruments, and in those who built them.

Lisa: Please stop being so dramatic! I must admit that this AI-generated simulation is really impressive; it depicts perfectly how men always fight to prove they are better than each other. 

Magician and Astronomer in chorus: How dare you?!

Lisa: It’s true. You are too stubborn, and each one of you wants to prove to the other that he’s right, without even looking for dialogue. This isn’t appropriate behaviour for a scientist or for a magician. And most importantly, you are both wrong. And I don’t just mean in your views of women.

Astronomer: What do you mean?

Lisa: Magician, you believe that the stars govern human destiny. You are convinced your interpretation is true. And you, “the great fantastic astronomer,” believe science will eventually explain everything. You even dream of a future with no religion and no governments because science will guide humanity. 

Astronomer: I believe reason will overcome superstition.

Lisa: But reason hasn’t solved every problem. We discovered atoms, galaxies, black holes, DNA, and still we have wars, inequality, fanaticism, and loneliness.

Astronomer: Science was never responsible for human morality.

Lisa: Exactly. That's why it cannot replace everything else.

Magician: Wise words. Especially for a woman.

Lisa: Ok that’s enough! At the next misogynist comment, I will shut the program down. Let’s go back to my work: I kept trying to choose between wonder and accuracy, as if they couldn't exist together. But now I understand they can. I don't have to tell people that Venus is magical, and I don't have to bury them under technical terms either. I just have to make them curious enough to want to know more.

Astronomer: Curiosity is not a bad place to begin. Indeed, when I was a child, I was fascinated by the stars, and I spent many nights wondering about life on other planets.  It was curiosity and wonder that made me passionate about astronomy. Miss Lisa, I must admit you made a good point. I underestimated you.

Magician: Even if not everything you are saying is comprehensible to me, I must say that although you are a woman, you are wise. I can’t say the same for this man here.

Astronomer: Oh, you - 

Lisa: Wait! The alarm!

Magician: What is that noise?

Lisa: Oh no, my supervisor is coming! Sorry, guys, but I really have to shoot the program down. 

Astronomer: What? Does it mean we will disappear forever?

Lisa: Unfortunately, yes. It was a pleasure to meet you. Not really, actually, you are pretty sexist, but somehow also funny. 

Magician: But, I don’t want to go.

Astronomer: Wait!

Lisa: Goodbye!

The holograms disappear. Lisa looks at the slide of her presentation before her supervisor enters the room.
​
Lisa: Now I know what changes I have to make. Delete this…add another picture. I could start with a question for the public: “What can a tiny black dot crossing the Sun tell us about worlds we have never seen?” Now, that’s a conference I’d like to attend. 

Sofia Di Vito

Sofia Di Vito is a Philosophy graduate with a strong interest in science communication, journalism, and digital storytelling. Her academic background in philosophy and history of science has led her to explore the relationship between science, society, and visual communication, particularly in astronomy.

Astronomy: a large reflecting telescope, and projection of the transit of Venus. Engraving. - Wellcome Collection, United Kingdom - CC BY. Click on image to view at Europeana.