The New Media Project of Emergence 3 (September 2024 till February 2025) aims to merge art and technology by developing an art installation that is inspired by quantum mechanics. 

 

About our project
 

Ambition and team

Our ambition is to introduce people to quantum mechanics and illustrate how the quantum way of thinking can provide us with useful insights within our digital society. We aim to achieve this with our 16-headed team, with which we work interdisciplinarily in a creative and enthusiasm-driven environment. We will be working closely together with two PhD students from QuTech (Laurens Feije and Gerben Timmer). We believe that when you combine different disciplines and viewpoints together, something can emerge that is greater than the sum of its components.

 

Introduction

By encouraging people to look beyond classical views and consider the principles underlying quantum mechanics, we aim to spark curiosity, raise awareness, and provide a meaningful entry point into the emerging realm of quantum technology. In doing so, we hope to offer insights that might otherwise remain hidden within the blackbox of quantum mechanics and enable people to reflect on quantum and its technologies. Without awareness or a basic understanding of this blackbox, it is impossible for people to critically engage with quantum technologies, both now and in a future where quantum technologies could have significant impacts on our society.

 

Moreover, we believe there is a lesson hidden in the principles of quantum mechanics, and through our art installation, we aim to make this insight approachable to the general public. Quantum principles point in the direction that complexity should not always be reduced; complexity holds a kind of beauty and richness that we cannot grasp by simplifying or splitting it into its components.

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About quantum
 

What even is quantum?
Quantum theory is the best way of describing the very small in physics. At the scale of atoms and molecules, everything can act very differently then what we see in the daily world around us. It is almost like at this scale is a whole other set of rules that they follow which makes things possible that feel impossible. 

 

But if it is so small, why do we care so much?
While quantum theory is relatively young (only around 100 years old), it has already had a big impact on the technologies we use today. Examples are lasers, MRI machines, GPS and development of other related theories such as nuclear physics. However, in the last decades, research has not stopped. Currently, the promise of new technologies in quantum computing has raised interest across the globe. To properly understand the potential of this emerging technology and make critical decisions on how to steer the application, a broad and accessible understanding should be generated.