The Quantum Drawing Day workshop was part of the Design Informatics Research Webinar series. You can re-watch all recorded webinars on Vimeo: vimeo.com/showcase/7608320
Exhibition details
Inspace City Screen at Potterrow in Edinburgh
from Monday, 22 November to Friday, 3 December 2021
The Quantum Drawing workshop was designed by Honorary Professor Paul Thomas to benefit scientists, physicists, artists and designers. In the workshop, the participants explored via drawing concepts of John Bell’s 1964 provocation, to try and capture reality in the act of happening. Bell’s theorem was designed to prove or disprove the fundamental concept of quantum mechanics.
The Quantum Drawing workshop draws an analogous relationship with probability and uncertainty prevalent in science where the observer affects what is observed. The workshop questions the role of the observer influencing what is seen and experienced whilst measuring the world through drawn marks. By the act of drawing, the participants will question their roles in observing and measuring the world.
About Paul Thomas
Paul Thomas is an Honorary Professor University of New South Wales, Sydney: Art and Design is the coordinator of the Studio for Transdisciplinary Art Research (STAR) as well as the Chair of the Transdisciplinary Imaging Conference series 2010-2020. In 2000 He instigated and was the founding Director of the Biennale of Electronic Arts Perth 2002, 2004 and 2007. As an artist, he is a pioneer of transdisciplinary art practice. His practice-led research takes not only inspiration from nanoscience and quantum theory, but actually operates there, currently exploring concepts of visualising the liminal space between the classical and quantum world. My current practice-led research projects have been based on working with a scientist developing the artworks ‘Quantum Chaos and Quantum Consciousness’. These artworks were based on experiments done in collaboration with Professor Andrea Morello, Centre for Quantum Computation and Communication Technology, UNSW.
Thomas’s current publication Quantum Art and Uncertainty, (2018) and Nanoart: The Immateriality of Art, (2013) are based on the concept that at the core of both art and science we find the twin forces of probability and uncertainty.