A Product Design elective I am taking this semester.
Biometric Identity - Wellcome Collection at Ico Design
Conceptual Statement
We are a species defined by our insatiable thirst for knowledge, and this thirst impels us to continually develop our image of the universe. Until recently we understood the natural world primarily through religion and philosophy, but the flowering of science in the last five hundred years has given us a new perspective on the universe. Science is a field defined by its methodology, the scientific method, rather than its content. The scientific method is based on evidence, scepticism and curiosity. These defining characteristics have allowed scientists to discover many of the wonders of the universe.
I chose a scientific approach to time because the scientific method appeals to me and I find recent breakthroughs in physics fascinating. As a result I decided to take advantage of both the content and methodology of science; I delved into the areas of physics pertaining to time and I employed an evidence-based, inquisitive approach to my work. By learning as much as I could about the history and the ground-breaking recent advances in physics, specifically within the fields of quantum physics and relativity, I was able to represent the theories in an artistic discourse. Through the use of different media, electronics, high speed photography and holography I have depicted the nature of light, entropy, the Holographic Principle, the multiverse theory and the ‘many worlds’ theory.
In addition to science inspiring art, artistic media can inspire scientists in forming innovative theories. Holography, an artistic medium, is the basis for the scientific theory the Holographic Principle, which argues that a region of space can be defined by its event horizon, the two dimensional boundary that encompasses it. Therefore, as holography had inspired the holographic principle, I decided to employ holography to depict the holographic principle. My final project consists of ten holographic plates, each representing the event horizon of a universe, demonstrating that the three dimensional nature of a universe could be a mere projection of a two dimensional surface. Furthermore, the Holographic Principle encompasses the multiverse theory and the ‘many worlds’ theory, and these are depicted in my final project by the existence of ten, similar, parallel holograms.
Completing this project would not have been possible had I not employed a scientific method. Scientists always question and doubt their own work and the work of their peers and this critical review process allows theories that better explain the evidence to develop. Throughout this semester I have continually critiqued my work to ensure that my artistic creations do justice to the scientific theories that I have tried to represent.
In an attempting to represent the Holographic Principle on a hologram, I’ve experimented with the ideas of superposition and parallel universes. The images I am using in my final holographic display, are stacked scrabble pieces. I will place ten holographic plates, showing slightly different stacks, in a wooden frame and use LEDs to illuminate them. Each hologram represents a different holographic universe, with the ten holographic plates in line illustrating the multiverse scenario. The slight differences between the holograms, represent the slightly different realities proposed by the ‘many worlds’ theory. By using ten simple holograms to represent ten parallel universes I believe I can successfully created an artistic illustration of the Holographic Principle, the multiverse theory and the ‘many worlds’ theory.
Are you completely confused by the theory of quantum mechanics? Perhaps this video will help. Stephen Hawking, Brian Cox, Richard Feynman and Morgan Freeman singing about the quantum world - this is why I love physics!
As I was unhappy with the high speed photos I’d produced after our second exercise, I continued to practice, developing the programming and triggers to try and get better results. By adjusting the threshold and delay readings for the light sensor I was able to capture these images.
Many Worlds and Multiverses
One aspect of String Theory and M-theory, which the Holographic Principle adopts, is the idea of parallel universes (McMaster & Cort, 2003). The concept of parallel worlds has existed in science fiction since the late 1800s. Since the idea was first proposed it has jumped from science fiction to science and parallel universes are now an element of many cosmological hypotheses. The multiverse theory contends that many universes exist parallel to one another, whereas the ‘many worlds’ hypothesis argues that an infinite number of universes exist within our universe. Both the multiverse and ’many worlds’ hypotheses are incorporated into the Holographic Principle.
The double slit experiment, used in the discovery of the wave-particle duality, resulted in another startling development, quantum superposition. Quantum superposition states that a physical system exists in all of its possible states simultaneously. In the double slit experiment, when single photons were fired at the two slits, an interference pattern was created. This is because the photon, simultaneously, went through both slits, existing in two places at once (Shariatmadari, 2011). But if atoms can be in two places at once, is it possible for large objects, such as humans, to simultaneously exist in different locations?
Decoherence, a subject of active research since the 1980s, has provided a solution to this problem. Decoherence states that a physical system, while interacting with its environment, will leak information about its superposition, leaving only information of a single state. The universe itself must also exist in superposition until it can leak information, leaving a single state. However, for the universe, there is nowhere for this information to leak. Leonard Susskind and Rapheal Bousso theorised that the existence of a multiverse could provide a solution to this problem (Bousso & Susskind, 2011). They argue that the information from our universe can leak into a parallel universe, allowing ours to decohere into a single state. Susskind and Bousso have also linked this theory with the ‘many worlds’ theory, arguing that, whenever a physical system exists in a superposition, it creates a new universe within ours. “This results in an infinite number of parallel universes in which every conceivable outcome of every event actually happens” (Mullins, 2011).
McMaster, J., & Cort, J. (Writer/Producer/Director). (2003). The Elegant Universe
Shariatmadari, H. (Writer/Producer/Director). (2011). What is Reality?: Horizon.
Bousso, R., & Susskind, L. (2011). The Multiverse Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics. High Energy Physics, 46.
Mullins, J. (2011, 01/06/11). When the multiverse and many-worlds collide NewScientist(2815), 8-9.
Retrieved from http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21028154.200-when-the-multiverse-and-manyworlds-collide.html
Needing to be in a completely dark space while exposing the hologram and minimising all vibrations, limits the places and times that you can actually make them.
I’ve been setting up the hologram kit on the floor of my garage, as it is concrete and therefore reduces the vibrations. However, this has meant I’ve had to make holograms only at night, as there is a lot of light pollution in my garage during the day. As for sound, the constant traffic noises day and night are not something I can just switch off. The instructions of the Litiholo Hologram Kit also say that from the moment you first expose the holograms you must stay completely still and not make a sound so to prevent creating any further vibrations.
I had to find a way to solve these issues if I was going to be successful in making multiple holograms. I added a switch into the laser circuit and stuck it through a plastic half spherical dish I had lying around at home. I painted the dish black to cut out all light and padded it with foam to restrict the sound. This way, I can set up the hologram under the dish, switch on the laser and come back when it is done. I still need to set it up in the dark as I cannot allow the holographic film to be exposed to light before placing the dish over it, but a dark blanket will work well for that.
As the laser beam is red, only red, white or reflective objects will show up well on the hologram. Green or blue objects absorb the red light instead of reflecting it, making a very poor hologram.
With my second experiment with holograms, I used a white chess piece. I also tried to double expose the film with a second image, however this did not work.
"How can you continue to see the world as real if the self that is determining it to be real is intangible?"
— Ramtha, Master Teacher of Ramtha School of Enlightenment
Two Pictures of Time
General Relativity’s picture of time is that it is always there, just like space. Every moment in time is occurring somewhere within space-time. Therefore, our future already exists.
In Quantum Mechanics, the study of sub-atomic particles, nothing is certain. It is a world of possibilities and the future is definitely not determined.
These two very different theories, both correct in their own way, contradict each other and the aim to unify them into ‘The Theory of Everything’ will mean finding the true explanation of time.
Theoretical physics, Fay Dowker, explains one idea of a unified time, in the documentary ‘Do You Know What Time It Is?’. She says that at a quantum level, space-time is made up of bits or grains. Each grain represents an event and these events accumulate, stacking up on top of each other. In this theory, space-time would grow grain by grain, rather than always existing. This growth would act as the passage of time - time would grow out of the past.
When Time Stops
General Relativity says that space-time warps and bends around large bodies, slowing down time. The larger the object, the stronger its gravitational force and the more time slows. This effect has been observed and is called the Shapiro Time Delay. In the 1960s, the Haystack radio antenna was used to send a light signal to Mercury. The time it took the echo of the signal to return, showed, by a spike in the reading, that time stretched as it passed the Sun.
Brian Cox’ asked if there was a place it the Universe where time would stop completely. According to cosmologist Max Tegmark, black holes bend and warp space-time so much that they do exactly that, stop time. If you were to watch someone fall into a black hole, their time, relative to you, would continue to slow down, until it looked like they were frozen on the event horizon. As far as you were concerned, time for them would have stopped.
The event horizon of a black hole is an example of the Holographic Principle. It is like a hologram, capturing the 3 dimensionality of whatever falls into it. The Holographic Principle also describes our reality as a hologram, projected from our own event horizon at the far edges of the Universe.
What does Max Tegmark’s description mean for time in the Holographic Principle? Is the time dimension so distorted there is essentially no time at all? Or would only someone observing our Universe from the outside experience our time as un-moving? Would an outsider even see the projection of our reality?
Back to Time
One of the questions that was brought up during my presentation and whilst talking to people about my project was - how does what I’m doing relate to time? It’s a valid question, the development of my work, from space-time to the arrows of time to entropic gravity to the Holographic Principle has lead me away from an obvious link to time, however I don’t think this is a bad thing. It does of course still relate to time, everything in a sense relates to time. The Holographic Principle fits into Einstein’s theory of space-time and the questions I’ve been asking link the theories and principles I’m exploring back to time. If my work was to develop further away from time it would still relate to time as that is where I started.
I was, however, feeling a little lost in my exploration as it stemmed deeper into the new, theoretical and specialised territory. I decided to stop and reflect back over everything I’d covered and possibly link my ideas in a new way.
I watched the documentary, ‘Do You Know What Time It Is?’, a look at time from the ancient Mayans to space-time, as Brian Cox, a particle physicist, tries to answer the question, what time is it? This documentary and the process of reflecting over everything I’ve been looking at and doing, has really helped clarify some of my ideas and has given me new motivation to push my project further.
