In his Manifesto of Surrealism, Breton writes: “I believe in the future resolution of these two states, dream and reality, which are seemingly so contradictory, into a kind of absolute reality, a surreality, if one may so speak.” If we accept this idea of “resolution,” of absolute reality, then the existence of the marvelous in surrealist practices is possible as long as there is a mind that will experience it as such. In contrast, fiction (ficcioun) denotes what is imagined in the mind, i.e., fictitious or even, if we rely on the Old French meaning of ficcion, the concealment and trickery that constitutes an invention, a fabrication. It is, therefore, about the insistence on the difference that surrealism seeks to cancel.

Through the juxtaposition of fiction and absolute reality, technology can be understood as a field within which it is possible to compare and even connect these different conceptions. Does fiction then become a mechanism of surrealism? How does fiction enable the surreal? Is this connection even possible? The relations that emerge in these questions can be seen as crucial for thinking about technology, since they reconstruct the problem of the mind in the production of something genuinely new.

Focusing on this issue, the seminar relies on studies of two lives – that of Leonardo da Vinci and Nikola Tesla – which will be presented by Alexander Neuwahl and Branimir Jovanović, whose mutual cooperation has produced the idea of connecting the two geniuses of world history. Through a short study of their creativity, the seminar tries to open up the question of the subject in technological creation.

Alexander Neuwahl is a professional in the field of design and communication; from 1996 he works with the Leonardo Museum of Vinci for the creation of scientific and historical dissemination contents. He started in 2002 the collaboration for the design of the new exhibits of the Museum and the creation of multimedia itineraries, directing and coordinating teams of creatives to support the radical innovation process undertaken by the structure and still in progress today. He has designed and contributed to the creation of exhibitions and sections of Leonardo’s exhibitions all over Europe. He is an active promoter of the use of three-dimensional reconstruction techniques as historical-scientific research means.

Branimir Jovanović dedicated almost the entire research and scientific work to understanding the personality and work of Nikola Tesla. He graduated from the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering in Belgrade with the topic “Tesla’s contribution to the development of aviation”, he received his master’s degree in 1987 at the Faculty of Philosophy in Zagreb in the field of history and philosophy of science on Tesla’s mechanical oscillators, and his doctorate in 1995 at his home Faculty of Mechanical Engineering in Belgrade with the topic “Tesla’s contribution to research methodology in mechanical engineering”. Author of numerous professional and scientific works, books and lectures in the field of the history of science, especially about Tesla’s contributions. Since 2019, he is the president of the Nikola Tesla Foundation founded in New York and based in Miami.