Quantum Art

November 17, 2009 2:36 PM

Julian Voss-Andreae makes art based on quantum physics.
posted by jefficator (13 comments total)

Thanks to that third link, I now completely understand quantum physics.
posted by Joe Beese at 3:16 PM on November 17, 2009 [2 favorites]

science + art = uhoh
posted by mhjb at 3:16 PM on November 17, 2009 [1 favorite]

Cool sculpture - especially liked "Symmetry break".

The "quantum physics" link is a bit silly though. Wikipedia does better.
posted by Salvor Hardin at 3:23 PM on November 17, 2009

Some of these are quite nice, but boy do the descriptions ruin things. And what's up with the novelty grids-of-pins toy thing? I mean, she's seen one of those, right?
posted by cmoj at 3:28 PM on November 17, 2009 [2 favorites]

Skilled sculpting and welding and whatnot - i particularly like the bamboo collagen piece.

But that quantum physics stuff is just bollocks. What The Beep/Edgar Martins level bollocks.
posted by the cuban at 4:28 PM on November 17, 2009

cmoj: "I mean, she's he's seen one of those, right?"

ftfy
posted by Hairy Lobster at 4:58 PM on November 17, 2009

Quantum physics, eh?

I guess I prefer my art be based on classical mechanics.
posted by mazola at 6:03 PM on November 17, 2009

It must be hard for critics to review this, as the piece is different when they observe it.
posted by gc at 6:17 PM on November 17, 2009 [2 favorites]

the cuban But that quantum physics stuff is just bollocks. What The Beep/Edgar Martins level bollocks.

The relationship between truth and beauty involves occasional domestic violence, in both directions. But they have such pretty children.
posted by aeschenkarnos at 6:43 PM on November 17, 2009

This is great stuff.

There is a tendency with a lot of art styles for the viewer to think "I could do that". Paint thrown at a wall, or rolled in huge straight lines down a canvas. A urinal, just put there. We know the drill.

The truth is, for art of (much of) this kind, which is heavily dependent upon mathematically driven industrial processes like laser-cutting and CNC routing and 3D printing and scanning and so on ... you really could do that. That it is made with such supreme precision renders it, no matter how vulgar or boring the underlying numbers, into a beautiful thing.

That said, choosing the aesthetically appealing set of numbers, and generating underlying pictures to be converted into numbers (eg this) requires artistic skill.
posted by aeschenkarnos at 6:54 PM on November 17, 2009

I wanted to love this, I really really did.

But I don't.
posted by grapefruitmoon at 5:10 AM on November 18, 2009

"Some of these are quite nice, but boy do the descriptions ruin things."

I had the equal and opposite reaction. The descriptions made it for me.
posted by Eideteker at 5:44 PM on November 18, 2009

Then why bother with the piece?
posted by cmoj at 4:36 PM on November 19, 2009