[Blog] The poetry of quantum with Chandrika Narayanan-Mohan and James Millen (2024-10-23)

[omarcostahamido]

URL: https://www.kcl.ac.uk/the-poetry-of-quantum-an-interview-with-artist-in-residence-chandrika-narayanan-mohan-and-kings-physicist-james-millen
Title: The poetry of quantum: An interview with artist-in-residence Chandrika Narayanan-Mohan and King's physicist James Millen

How can art share new perspectives on the mysterious world of quantum and the impact of emerging quantum technologies? This is the aim of Studio Quantum, a two-month artist-in-residence programme run by the Goethe-Institut, which King’s joins this year through the Science Gallery London.

• this refers to Studio Quantum AiR [Goethe Institut] #66
• this refers to FERTILE VOID: Quantum Paradoxes and the Physics of Living Matter @ Haus der Kulturen der Welt (HWK) [Berlin, DE] (1.-10.11.2024) #78
• this refers to Studio Quantum: Quantum Technology in Art and Science, Talk Series at ZKM | Hertzlab [Karlsruhe, DE] (4.9.-30.10.2024) #79

[omarcostahamido]

I find this article very interesting.
It was a great provocation to read Dr James Millen say 

"my first requirement was to not collaborate with a visual artist or a musician! In my opinion, much of the confusion around quantum physics is that we naturally try to picture the unknowable and see the unthinkable"

Which comes across as a simplification of those means of artistic expression to mere science communication or data visualization.
Likewise, super provocative from Chandrika Narayanan-Mohan to say

"One of my MA theses was a case study on the Festival of Curiosity in Dublin – where I surveyed both scientists and science organisations, and artists and arts organisations, and found that that the scientists got more out of it than the artists. It was an entirely new experience for them where they liked seeing their own work through someone else’s lens,"

I don't think that either one fully answered the last question of "What are you both hoping to get out of this collaboration, and how can art inspire scientists and science inspire artists?" which, to me, points towards a level of cross reinforcement to create something new, rather than plain translation - granted, with all it's amusing lost in translation artifacts. But maybe that has to do with the fact that this interview took place at an earlier stage of the collaboration?

In any case, these really resonated with me, and I feel they point in a good direction:
JM: "learn how each one of us thinks differently about these complex ways of deciphering reality."
CNM: "art and science are just different languages trying to understand the what, the why, and the how in everything around us"