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Universitat Oberta de Catalunya artnodes E-JOURNAL ON ART, SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY http://artnodes.uoc.edu Article NODO «DIALOGS BETWEEN ART AND FUNDAMENTAL SCIENCE» THUTOAH - The Holographic Universe Theory of Art History Suzanne Treister CERN Date of submission: October 2019 Accepted in: December 2019 Published in: January 2020 Recommended citation Treister, Suzanne. 2020. «THUTOAH - The Holographic Universe Theory Of Art History». Artnodes, Nº. 25: 1-8. UOC. [Consulta: dd/mm/yy]. http://doi.org/10.7238/a.v0i25.3323 The texts published in this journal are – unless otherwise indicated – covered by the Creative Commons Spain Attribution 4.0 International license. The full text of the license can be consulted here: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Abstract This text is an edit of the audio transcript of interviews with scientists John Ellis, Alessandra Gnecchi and Wolfgang Lerche from my video, The Holographic Universe Theory of Art History (THUTOAH). THUTOAH investigates the holographic principle and the theory that our universe could be understood as a vast and complex hologram, and hypothesises that, beyond acknowledged art historical contexts and imperatives, artists may have also been unconsciously attempting to describe the holographic nature of the universe. Projecting over 25,000 chronological images from art history (from cave painting to global contemporary art, including outsider and psychedelic art), THUTOAH echoes conceptually the actions of CERN’s particle accelerator, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), accelerating at 25 images per second in a looped sequence. Alongside this colossal library of images is a soundtrack of interviews with, and watercolours by, the scientists at CERN - illustrations and articulations of the holographic principle. THUTOAH hypothesises a reality that has perhaps been intuited over the ages, a reality beyond the already documented intentional depictions of spiritual, mystical or transcendent realities or altered states of con- sciousness; the reality of the holographic nature of the universe. Artnodes, no. 25 (2020) I ISSN 1695-5951 A UOC scientific e-journal 1 CC Suzanne Treister CC FUOC, 2020 Universitat Oberta de Catalunya artnodes http://artnodes.uoc.edu THUTOAH - The Holographic Universe Theory of Art History Keywords holographic universe, CERN, Treister THUTOAH - La teoría holográfica del universo de la historia del arte Resumen Este texto es una edición de la transcripción de audio de entrevistas con los científicos John Ellis, Alessandra Gnecch y Wolfgang Lerche contenidas en mi vídeo La teoría holográfica del universo de la historia del arte (THUTOAH). THUTOAH investiga el principio holográfico del universo y la teoría de que nuestro universo podría entenderse como un vasto y complejo holograma. Además, plantea la hipótesis de que, más allá de los contextos e imperativos históricos del arte reconocidos, los artistas podrían haber estado intentando describir inconscientemente la naturaleza holográfica del universo. Al proyectar más de 25.000 imágenes cronológicas de la historia del arte (desde las pinturas rupestres hasta arte contemporáneo global, incluyendo arte alternativo y psicodélico), THUTOAH también nos remite a las acciones del acelerador de partículas del CERN, el Gran Colisionador de Hadrones (LHC) mediante una secuencia en bucle de 25 imágenes por segundo. En paralelo a esta colosal librería de imágenes, tenemos una banda sonora de entrevistas y acuarelas de los físicos teóricos del CERN, ilustraciones y articulaciones del principio holográfico. THUTOAH hipotetiza acerca de una realidad que tal vez se haya intuido a lo largo de los siglos, una realidad más allá de las representaciones intencionales documentadas de las realidades o estados alterados de consciencia de carácter espiritual, místico o transcendental: la realidad de la naturaleza holográfica del universo. Palabras clave universo holográfico, cern, treister This text is a transcript of interviews I made with a group of theoretical hibitions and Research), composed of FACT (Foundation for Art and physicists at CERN in Geneva in 2018. The spoken interviews comprise Creative Technology, Liverpool); Arts at CERN, Geneva; CCCB (Centro the audio component of my artwork, The Holographic Universe Theory of de Cultural Contemporania de Barcelona); iMAL (interactive Media Art Art History (THUTOAH), which investigates the holographic principle and Laboratory, Brussels); and LLU (Le Lieu Unique, Nantes) the theory that our universe could be understood as a vast and complex HD video 16:54 mins looped hologram, and hypothesises that, beyond acknowledged art historical Audio 51:16 mins looped contexts and imperatives, artists may have also been unconsciously Audio transcript: attempting to describe the holographic nature of the universe John Ellis: Hi, I’m John Ellis, I’m a theoretical physicist. I’m em- Projecting over 25,000 chronological images from art history ployed by Kings. I share my time between King’s College London and (from cave painting to global contemporary art, including outsider and CERN. I’m mainly interested in possible physics beyond the Standard psychedelic art), THUTOAH echoes conceptually the actions of CERN’s Model. I’m particularly interested in the problem of dark matter. And particle accelerator, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), accelerating at so, that gets me involved in the physics of the LHC and also various 25 images per second in a looped sequence. astrophysical experiments, cosmological observations. THUTOAH hypothesises a reality that has perhaps been intuited For me the source of the earliest realisation of the holographic over the ages, a reality beyond the already documented intentional principle in some sense was always Plato. So, he imagines that you depictions of spiritual, mystical or transcendent realities or altered states look inside this cave, which is very topical just at this moment and of consciousness; the reality of the holographic nature of the universe. then you see on the wall of this cave some sort of shadow. And this The ideas behind this work manifested in several diagrams in shadow, of course, is some sort of reflection of something there, which the project, HFT The Gardener (2014-15) and watercolours in the actually has more dimensions than, this is just a two-dimensional project, SURVIVOR (F) (2016-ongoing). Eight works on paper from surface, right, this is a real three-dimensional object, and it also these projects form part of the installation. evolves with time. So, this has more dimensions than that reflection. THUTOAH was developed as part of the Collide International But, you just can’t see it. Award, a partnership programme between Arts at CERN and FACT. So, this is… horizon. And you just have to make sense of that It was co-produced by ScANNER (Science-Art Network for New Ex- while looking at that. Artnodes, no. 25 (2020) I ISSN 1695-5951 A UOC scientific e-journal 2 CC Suzanne Treister CC FUOC, 2020 Universitat Oberta de Catalunya artnodes http://artnodes.uoc.edu THUTOAH - The Holographic Universe Theory of Art History Suzanne: Hold on so… you’ve got the person, you’ve got the Suzanne: You do, you separate it. You don’t think that particle shadow in the cave and then, that wiggly line you’ve drawn around physics will explain it. it, is the horizon. Is it the edge of the cave? John Ellis: So, consciousness I think is very much an emergent John Ellis: So, you’re looking into the cave, so your field of view phenomenon. And this is part of the flak that was fired at people is limited, you can only see the shadow, you can’t see the underlying such as myself talking about a theory of everything. In some sense reality, if you like. well it may be a theory of fundamental equations that you can write But then by observing this you try to figure out what’s going on down on a T-shirt, but it’s not a theory of everything in the sense that, there. you know, given that, you can calculate everything. And somehow, Suzanne: That’s what scientists are doing by using the hologra- that’s a situation where string theory still is. I still think it’s the best, phic universe principle? maybe the only candidate that we have for the theory of everything. John Ellis: Right and of course, Plato uses to illustrate his concept But, so far, they haven’t succeeded in coming up with any definite the world of ideas out there. And what we perceive is just some sort predictions for anything. So, right now, it’s still a theory of nothing. of, if you like, lower dimensional projection of those ideas. And that Consciousness, I think is going to be a… an incredibly complex, is in some sense of what we physicists, what we artists, are doing all complex phenomenon to explain. the time, and as the holographic principle is a modern incarnation of §§§ that. I mean, the holographic principle is a very mathematical way of Alessandra Gnecchi: Hi, I am Alessandra Gnecchi. I am a fellow of realising this idea, but… so... in some sense it’s more precise and in the CERN Theoretical Physics Department, I am a researcher and my some sense it’s more limited. So, it’s a different way of cave thinking. interests are on black holes and superstring theory and super gravity. Suzanne: So, one of the other scientists said to me that the We have various tools to study gravity and the unified theories, and boundary, which you’ve got there as the edge of the cave, exists what I’m interested in is to exploit holography as a tool to understand everywhere and nowhere at the same time. Would you agree with the physics of black holes at a quantum level. that? Suzanne: So, could you… could you explain the holographic John Ellis: I certainly agree with the everywhere. That’s what I universe principle? was saying before, that every point that we perceive in the universe, Alessandra Gnecchi: I’ll try.