RADICAL OBSERVATION PRACTICE
Sergio Carbajo & Justin Streichman

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This work-in-progress video sketch offers an early glimpse into the process of a documentary film-essay exploring “quantum filmmaking,” the pursuit of knowledge, and the political forces that shape our ability to inquire freely. Following physicist Sergio Carbajo and his research into phenomena beyond direct human perception, the film asks how we come to know what we know, and what the limits of observation might reveal about ourselves and the systems through which we traverse the world.







Radical Observation Practice is an interdisciplinary collaboration between Basque-Spanish-American physicist Dr. Sergio Carbajo and American filmmaker Justin Streichman. Rooted in exchange between art and science, the collective explores experimental audiovisual forms as a means of engaging social and political questions. Their work examines how we perceive and understand the world, and how our ways of knowing are shaped by the positions from which we observe it. Their practice approaches immersive, experiential research as an ongoing process, allowing their distinct scientific and artistic perspectives to merge, collide, and reshape one another. The collaboration began through video work bringing together Carbajo’s practice as a physicist, musician, and multi-instrumentalist with Streichman’s practice as a filmmaker and editor.



Dr. Sergio Carbajo is an associate professor in Electrical & Computer Engineering and Physics & Astronomy at UCLA and a visiting professor at Stanford University’s Photon Science Division at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. He is founder and director of the Quantum Light-Matter Cooperative, which investigates light-driven physical processes to inform and help solve interconnected socio-technological challenges. Central to this research is “quantum filmmaking,” using advanced photon and electron instrumentation to capture sequential images of electronic, atomic, and molecular processes otherwise inaccessible to direct human perception. He is also founder and director of UCLA’s Queered Science and Technology Center. His work extends beyond scientific research to examine science and technology in society through queer, radical feminist, and Black analyses, developing frameworks for diversity and critical representation in STEM. He earned his Ph.D. in Physics through joint doctoral research at MIT’s Research Laboratory of Electronics and the Center for Free-Electron Laser Science at DESY. He has received numerous honors for his contributions to ultrafast photon sciences, including the 2026 Adolph Lomb Medal and 2024 Humboldt Fellowship.

Justin Streichman is a queer filmmaker and editor working across documentary, narrative, and the spaces between fiction and nonfiction. His award-winning documentary DALE has screened internationally, including at Le FIFA, San Francisco DocFest, and In-Edit Barcelona. Currently on the international festival circuit is his experimental horror film Lady Puritan, co-directed with Gustine Füdickar. His editorial work has appeared on PBS and at MoMA, MASS MoCA, the Bienal de La Habana, and Ars Electronica. With foundations in experimental performance, dance, and classical music, his practice uses immersive cinematic forms to explore the complexities of human experience. He holds an MFA from UC Davis and a BA from UCLA.