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Summer 2011 Edition
Published: 24 March 2010
Ancient Heroes in the Campus Corridors

The art of physics

It started with a very practical idea. As a young student, Lorraine Hanlon had walked this corridor countless times, followed by the eyes of bearded gentlemen who stared out from their dusty, black and white portraits.

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These men were amongst UCD's first physics professors, and their contribution had been immense. But as Head of UCD School of Physics, the now Professor Hanlon wanted to illustrate the modern work of the university's physicists. Her initial idea seemed very simple: commission a few posters depicting images of research, and dot them around the school.

Emer O'Boyle, a graduate of the National College of Art and Design (NCAD), was called in to create the posters. It would take about a week – or so she thought.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That was last year. O'Boyle had no scientific background, but she was interested in the human stories behind science, and the people who move the discipline along. Over several months, she spoke to physics staff and students about their research, their ideas, and their passions and translated these into works of art.

"We wanted to show the face of modern physics and to illustrate what we are doing now," says Hanlon. "The idea persists that science is a dry, abstract, inhuman exercise. But it is, in my view, the greatest adventure that mankind has embarked on; the most exciting things we know about the world have emerged from science. We knew that modern physics would surprise people."

One of the pieces juxtaposes three pictures of UCD student John Eves, a PhD researcher in the UCD School of Physics. Framed as a memorial card, in one of these images, he is a young boy. In the others, the student researcher Eves smiles out from the frame. Each image is captioned by a date of death, one of which is hidden. These images, caused some controversy – because he is, in fact, alive and well.

O'Boyle wanted to depict the John's fascination with the possibilities of quantum physics, the subject of his PhD. One view of the piece is as a provocative illustration of the Many-Worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics. In some of these worlds, Eves – and indeed many other people who are alive and well in our world – are long dead and buried.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Another portrait captures one of the most significant eureka moments for UCD scientists within the past decade. Last year, Dr Ronan McNulty and his PhD student James Keaveney made front-page headlines across the world for their "rediscovery" of two hugely significant sub-atomic particles (the W and Z bosons) at the new LHC in CERN, Switzerland, the largest atom smasher in the world.

Both O'Boyle and Hanlon were keen that, as well as showing the people behind the science, the portraits should challenge popular perceptions of what physics entails. "We wanted to capture the trail-blazing, often inter-disciplinary, work of contemporary physicists," says Hanlon.

To this end, one image looks at the thought processes underpinning the work of UCD physicists. Suzi Jarvis, UCD Professor of Biophysics, is investigating the misfolding of human proteins, a process associated with Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease. One of O'Boyle's works uses graph paper, folded in parts, to explore the various layers of Jarvis' life and the intersection between her roles as researcher, supervisor, colleague, partner and mother.

"The project led us in a different direction to what was initially envisaged," says Hanlon. "It was a lot of fun, and it quickly persuaded us that there was enough potential here for students to take the idea of collaborating across art and physics and run with it."

Realising the profound impact physics has on artistic concepts and practice, Emer proposed to further the art physics collaboration by bringing students from Physics and Fine Art together, to explore previously unknown common ground.
Staff from NCAD and UCD acted swiftly. Within months the two colleges were collaborating on "Tunnelling Art and Physics" a pilot module.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Eleven students are enrolled on the module, with sessions held in UCD and NCAD on alternating weeks. In keeping with the innovative nature of the project, students won't sit an exam. Instead, they will be assessed by a radical format: their ability to have an open-minded conversation with one another.

"We wanted to create a space where art and physics students would feel comfortable working together," says O'Boyle, who coordinated the module. "The challenge was to keep the process open-ended and not insist on a pre-determined outcome. We had to allow students to lead the process, identify common points of interest and work from there."

The module culminates in a presentation in a warehouse space in Dublin's city centre. Exhibits include a video installation based on interviews with artists and physicists about time, space, and the nature of reality. Another will look at the possibility of forms that may exist in nature, but are too small to be detected.

"Artists and scientists have more in common than you'd expect," says O'Boyle. "Both have an innate and passionate curiosity which leads them to explore the world. What this project shows is that when people have an opportunity for dialogue, good ideas will come out of it."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

More possibilities await. Hanlon wants to involve O'Boyle in her astronomical work, seeing many possibilities for further collaboration through observing the stars, nebulae, and the vast cosmos which enthralls the imagination of the scientist. This summer, meanwhile, an art installation at Belfield's O'Reilly Hall will explore a key area of common interest for physicists and artists – light.

Loraine Hanlon & Emer O'BoyleProfessor Lorraine Hanlon and artist Emer  photographed in the UCD School of Physics in front of ‘The Msrtyeyof Eye Mnid Fncutoin - Dr Brain Vohnsen’

"I've learned a lot from this process," says O'Boyle. "In school, my passion was art. Science had nothing to do with me. But this project has blown open my idea of the world, the universe we live in, our sense of scale, and the dominant position of physics in shaping our world and our society."

 

Professor Lorraine Hanlon and artist Emer O'Boyle spoke to freelance journalist Peter McGuire (BA, MLitt)
Produced by UCD University Relations