| JULIAN VOSS-ANDREAE
Creating a Visual Language
for the Quantum World
Quantum Man II, 2007
Stainless steel, 98" x 44" x 20" (250 m x 110 cm x 50 cm)
[above are two views of the same sculpture]
According to quantum physics, the world is fundamentally quite different than it seems. For example, matter can be demonstrated to have a wave-like quality associated with its motion. Quantum physics describes a moving object as consisting of waves oriented perpendicular to its direction of motion. Drawing inspiration from that aspect of nature, Julian created a sculpture of a walking human as a quantum object. Made up of thin, vertically oriented steel sheets representing those waves, the over 8’ (2.50 m) tall sculpture is a metaphor for the counter-intuitive world of quantum physics. Symbolizing the dual nature of matter with the appearance of classical reality on the surface and cloudy quantum behavior underneath, the sculpture seems to consist of solid steel when seen from the front, but dissolves into almost nothing when seen from the side. The first version of "Quantum Man" is now in the City of Moses Lake, Washington's permanent collection, and was featured in "Science Magazine" (Vol. 313, August 18, 2006, p. 913). See video and more images and A feature, "Quantum Sculptures with Julian Voss-Andreae," aired on Oregon Public Broadcasting TV in December 2008.
Julian's "Quantum Objects" exhibition
is at the American Center for Physics
College Park, Maryland, USA
October 2009 - April 2010
Curated by Sarah Tanguy
[below is a selection of images & text from the show]
Quantum Corral, 2009
Gilded wood, 13" x 12" x 3" (34 cm x 31 cm x 6 cm)
Inspired by the landmark experiment by IBM researchers that first visualized the standing wave pattern formed inside a circular arrangement of atoms. Julian asked the researchers for their data, which they kindly provided, and he wrote software to translate the experimental data into the code used to mill the shape out of wood. The object was then gilded with pure gold.
"The term 'Quantum Object', although regularly used in physics, is really an oxymoron. An ‘object’ is something that lives completely in the paradigm of classical physics -- it has an independent reality in itself, it behaves deterministically, and it has definite physical properties, such as occupying a well-defined spot in time and space. For the ‘quantum,’ all those seemingly self-evident truths become false. Its reality is one that is relative to the observer, the principle of causality is violated, and other features of materiality such as clear boundaries in space and time, objective locatedness or even identity, do not pertain." Julian Voss-Andreae
Night Path, 2009
Painted steel and gold thread
18" x 19" x 6" (46 cm x 48 cm x 15 cm)
Night Path was inspired by Richard Feynman’s "path integral" approach to quantum mechanics. Feynman calculated quantum mechanical probabilities by adding up all the possible paths between two points. He did this by ‘slicing up’ time and filling each slice with a continuum of paths.
"After struggling with quantum physics for the last hundred years, we cannot escape the fact that there simply are no consistent mental images we can create to understand the world as it is portrayed in quantum physics, because our brains are exquisitely adapted to making sense of the world on our scale, as perceived through our unaided senses. My hope is that the unique ability of art to transcend the confines of logic and literal representation and to offer glimpses of something beyond can help us open up to a deeper understanding of the world and to wean ourselves from the powerful grip classical physics has had over the last centuries on our every perception of reality."
Julian Voss-Andreae, 2009
Spin Family (Bosons and Fermions), 2009
Series of five objects
Steel and silk; largest object 7" x 6" x 6" (18 cm x 15 cm x 15 cm)
Spin Family (Bosons and Fermions) playfully equates the two fundamental kinds of matter in the universe with the two human genders. Due to their difference in a quantum physical property called spin, fermions have a tendency to stay isolated whereas bosons tend to attract each other. Spin Family is a series of objects displaying the three-dimensional structure of the spin as it follows from the rules of quantum mechanics.
A continuous silk thread representing the spin is woven in and out of tiny circular metal frames giving a diaphanous quality to the overall forms. The single, well-defined direction of the spin in classical physics expands in quantum physics into a continuum of possibilities.
Abbreviated Bio
Julian Voss-Andreae is a German-born sculptor based in Portland (Oregon). Starting as a painter, he changed course and studied physics at the Universities of Berlin, Edinburgh and Vienna. His graduate research in quantum physics involved participating in a seminal experiment demonstrating quantum behavior for the largest objects thus far. In 2000, he moved to the United States with his passion for art rekindled and graduated from Art College in 2004.
Voss-Andreae’s sculpture, heavily influenced by his background in science, has captured the attention of the news media, many museums and collectors in the U.S. and abroad. Recent commissions include a large-scale outdoor piece for the new Scripps Research Institute in Florida and a sculpture for chemistry Nobel Laureate, Roderick MacKinnon, at Rockefeller University in New York City. Voss-Andreae’s work has been featured in several publications, including Nature and Science, the world’s two leading science journals.
Website: www.JulianVossAndreae.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Julian-Voss-Andreae/48915067342 |
