VISUALIZING DURATION: A QUANTUM PERSPECTIVE
This presentation offers an artist’s perspective on the fascinating interplay between science and fine art, particularly exploring the roles of duration, observer, chance, and uncertainty. Throughout the 20th century, radical experimental artists have challenged the fundamental questions brought to the surface by quantum mechanics, highlighting the invisible forces at play. Here, the observer is integral to quantum physics, becoming part of what is observed, shaping the visualisations of the elusive quantum phenomena.
Drawing examples of two artists, Thomas Wilfred, and Takis from the David Bermant Foundation, and artwork from Dr. Paul Thomas’ own practice, he will discuss the concepts of duration from a quantum perspective in connection to related visualising phenomena. The artworks create visual sensations and expressions of the immense complexity of visualising the invisible, ineffable, and intangible.
Dr. Paul Thomas, Honorary Professor at UNSW Art and Design and founder of the Studio for Transdisciplinary Art Research as well as the founder and series-chair of the Transdisciplinary Imaging Conference series 2010-2022. 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.
Thomas’s internationally exhibited research projects have been based on working with scientists inquiring into specific areas of physics. The current creative practice ‘Quantum Chaos’ artworks in collaboration with the Centre for Quantum Computation and Communication Technology, UNSW. Publications, Concerning the Quantum in Art (2026), Quantum Art and Uncertainty (2018), Nanoart: The Immateriality of Art (2013).
Responders
New York based Austrian artist Kurt Hentschläger creates performative installations for both physical and virtual venues. Hentschläger’s works have characteristically been visceral and immersive, as in ZEE, FEED & more recently in FLUX, EKO, SUB and SOL, and are known for their perceptual effects. They challenge an audience psychologically but also offer a meditative respite from the many stresses of today’s life. His representational body of work, like EVER MORE, ORT & MEASURE, suggests a semi-synthetic form of nature, in the Anthropocene. Hentschläger’s work practice embraces experiment and interdisciplinary approach, most prominently displayed in his ephemeral audiovisual environments and live shows in between fine arts, music and theater.
ANDREA RASSELL is a filmmaker, media artist and creative researcher in science art. She creates documentaries and moving image installations that explore technological mediation and the multisensory perception of the sub-molecular realm. Her work has been shown at the New York Imagine Science Festival, Oaxaca FilmFest in Mexico, the New Zealand International Film Festival, White Night in Australia and Sónar+D in Spain. Andrea was the 2019 recipient of the Australian Network for Art and Technology’s Synapse residency. She has been a Research Fellow at SymbioticA, University of Western Australia and a Creative and Performance Leadership Fellow at the Curtin HIVE (Hub for Immersive Visualisation and eResearch).
BILL SEAMAN is a media artist and a computational media researcher. He is pioneer in the field of interactive media. In particular, his PhD (1999) explored emergent meaning production in a specific generative virtual environment. This research focused on new forms of highly complex interactive generative computation and related articulated visualization. He began collaborating from the mid 1980s with media computer scientists / programmers, articulating new experimental forms of interactive media production. He has collaborated on a number of Art/Science publications and projects. In 2021 Seaman was awarded a lifetime achievement award from ACM SIGGRAPH for his pioneering work in “Recombinant Poetics / Recombinant Informatics / Neosentience.”
