iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Sylvia Wenmackers

@sylviawenmackers.be

183 followers 195 following 135 posts

Philosopher of science stuck between two infinities. ε<🦉<∞ Exploring the scenic route to wisdom. 🍀 Avatar: sketch by former student. Banner: Cousin's 1560 Livre de Perspective. 🦣>🦋 My primary social media account is scholar.social/@SylviaFysica

Posts Replies Media

Sylvia Wenmackers @sylviawenmackers.be · 30/09/2026

Tonight's graphite on paper.

Pencil drawing. Slightly surrealistic composition of two heads and a right hand.

070 0

Sylvia Wenmackers @sylviawenmackers.be · 23/09/2026

Maar niet alles van waarde heeft (economisch) nut! Dus vertelde ik ook over de knoestige boom van Zhuangzhi. Ik dacht natuurlijk aan @helendecruz.net, die dit verhaal meermaals illustreerde. helendecruz.substack.com/p/drawing-zh... Dit fragment is ook apart te beluisteren www.vrt.be/vrtmax/luist...

Tekening in kleurpotlood van een knoestige boom waar iemand onder ligt te rusten. Illustratie door Helen De Cruz.

010 0

Sylvia Wenmackers @sylviawenmackers.be · 23/09/2026

Unlikely that you've never seen it, but I thought of you when I first saw this one shared recently. By Jim Benton.

Four-panel comic with red birds. Or is it?

18517 0

Sylvia Wenmackers @sylviawenmackers.be · 22/09/2026

Earlier this year, Alicja Kwade had a magnificent solo-exhibition in museum M Leuven. In the catalogue, I compare her sculptures with scientific models: "In the sway of a simple model; A philosophical reflection on Alicja Kwade’s pendulum". Pdf: www.sylviawenmackers.be/documents/We... #Art #PhilSci

Exhibition catalogue of Alicja Kwade, called Dusty Die. The cover shows a white door.

Double-page photo of ParaPosition, in which a heavy rock balances above a chair. The wall in the background shows a photo of gray clouds; a real window shows the inner garden.

Fragment of my chapter. Scientists usually think and communicate about fictional systems by means of equations and specific names, such as the ‘simple pendulum’, ‘frictionless plane’ or ‘ideal gas’. In doing so, they simulate these abstract model systems mentally. At best, they leave behind cryptic squiggles on a blackboard. In Kwade’s work we encounter similar conceptual abstractions, but she renders them as physical, material objects. She presents us with massive rocks that appear to defy gravity in works like Superheavy Skies and ParaPosition, which make tangible the kind of configurations that scientists only imagine.
It’s like Kwade read Godfrey-Smith’s concept of scientific models as ‘imagined concrete systems’ that ‘would be concrete if real’ (or ‘fictional concreta’) and called his bluff. As if Kwade decided: let’s make them real, then!

0112 0

Sylvia Wenmackers @sylviawenmackers.be · 19/09/2026

Column voor Eos: Dat mag niet! Over de Doomsday-formule, delen door nul en extrapolaties. www.sylviawenmackers.be/blog/2026091...

Foto van de column, met citaat: "Ik kwam erachter dat sommige wetenschappers het nog steeds proberen: delen door nul". Link naar volledige tekst staat in de skeet.

163 0

Sylvia Wenmackers @sylviawenmackers.be · 08/09/2026

Back in 2015, my footnotes in "Children of the Cosmos" were mentioned in the jury report of the @fqxi.org essay competition. I still believe it was mainly due to this one. 🤠💃

Footnote 9: Here, I recommend humming a Shania Twain song: “So, you’re a rocket scientist. That don’t impress me much.” If you are too young to know this song, consult your inner teenager for the appropriate dose of underwhelmedness.

051 0

Sylvia Wenmackers @sylviawenmackers.be · 18/08/2026

Normaal hóór ik ze alleen, behalve die ene keer dat er eentje zat te chillen op onze gevel. Voeg voor schaal. ✅

Groene boomkikker met karakteristieke streep van oog naar flank. Niet in een boom maar op een bakstenen muur.

120 0

Sylvia Wenmackers @sylviawenmackers.be · 12/08/2026

When your dog is called Luna, you have to show her the power of the moon. 🐶🌚🌞 Mandatory #eclipse picture as seen from Belgium, using a colander for pinholes.

Closeup of a cute puppy with white and brown fur looking toward the right. On the white part of her fur, there are multiple projections of the partially eclipsed sun.

030 0

Sylvia Wenmackers @sylviawenmackers.be · 07/02/2025

In a course on natural sciences for philosophy students, I talk about how these disciplines developed and show them this schematic of the current situation. I tell them that the picture loops from top to bottom 🤓 and that in German (& Dutch etc.) everything falls under one umbrella: Wissenschaft. ☂️

Vertically sorted list of academic disciplines grouped into two broad domains: nature and culture. Subdivided into formal sciences, physical sciences, life sciences, social sciences and humanities. It has arts & classics and the Greek letter alpha at the same level as the label humanities - and (practicing) arts in grey on that level, too.

210 0

Sylvia Wenmackers @sylviawenmackers.be · 01/02/2025

Happy #GlobalSwitchDay to those who celebrate! Today I will start looking into moving my old YouTube channel to PeerTube. It's a non-profit, decentralized and open-source project. joinpeertube.org

Join the Fediverse #GlobalSwitchDay.
8 suggestions for switching platforms:
WhatsApp to Signal,
Reddit to Lemmy,
X to Mastodon,
Instagram to Pixelfed,
Facebook Messenger to Signal,
Facebook to friendica,
YouTube to PeerTube,
TikTok to Loops.video.
Made by @sylv_a@mastodon.social (different Sylvia!).

001 0

Sylvia Wenmackers @sylviawenmackers.be · 28/01/2025

In fairness, the song is probably about tangerines. This is my favourite brand.

010 0

Sylvia Wenmackers @sylviawenmackers.be · 27/01/2025

Well, sure, why shouldn't a conference poster be a limited-edition art print? #EPSA25 🤩 philsci.eu/EPSA25/CfP

Conference poster for EPSA25. It shows the head of a bird in blue, with some green and red spots. Marked in pencil at the bottom: this is print 9 of 100.

132 0