This was one of questions that stuck with me following my chat with poet Chandrika Narayanan-Mohan and King’s Physicist and director of King’s Quantum Dr James Millen in the lead-up to their event, ‘The Quantum State of Us’.
I went along to find answers and hear about quantum science, poetry and discussions. Narayanan-Mohan and Millen were joined by writer and activist lisa minerva luxx at the Science Gallery London to celebrate the end of Narayanan-Mohan’s residency as part of Studio Quantum, a two-month-long international artist-in-resident programme run by the Goethe-Institut. The project connected artists and audiences with partners in technology, culture, science, and education, with the aim to explore emerging quantum technologies through art.
A crash course in quantum physics
“Everything that fundamentally can happen in nature depends on everything else that could happen. This is the essence of quantum physics.” – Dr James Millen
We began with Millen breaking down the basics of quantum physics. Using a narrative approach, Millen guided the audience through the history of quantum mechanics, starting in the early 20th century with its birth under Planck, who predicted that energy is emitted in discrete packets i.e. quanta, to more current research including the feasibility of putting viruses in quantum superposition.
“Early on, quantum ideas were seen as more human, poetic, and closer to nature in a way that maybe now we've lost,” he mused at one point.
Drawing quantum analogies through poetry
Narayanan-Mohan then took to the stage, delivering readings from some of the poems she wrote during her residency.
“We’re all really familiar with Schrödinger's cat, but there are so many other analogies that we can use, and I was thinking about quantum pregnancy,” started Narayanan-Mohan, introducing her first poem of the night. The poem was an ode to a hypothetical daughter, using quantum analogies to try and detangle the complicated emotions that surround pregnancy and motherhood.
Following that emotional ride came a series of poems inspired by researchers and their experiences. Using vibrant imagery, Narayanan-Mohan captured glimpses of day-to-day life in the lab. The researchers’ personalities bled through her descriptions, making it all the more human and tangible.
The journey of discovery—as told through fiction
The final speaker of the night, luxx, read an excerpt from her short story published in the anthology, Collision: Stories from the Science of CERN – which actually sparked Narayanan-Mohan’s interest in science in the first place. In the excerpt, luxx uses descriptions of physical forces — the weak force — and the thrill of the Higgs boson discovery, as a backdrop to explore the forces at play between family members, and coming to terms with new revelations about oneself.
With elements echoing luxx’s own experiences and feelings surrounding her adoption, our fictional protagonist grapples with her feelings about her identity, using physical analogies to ground themselves in a way.
Following on, luxx closed with a heartfelt reading of one of her poems, dedicating it to the people of Lebanon.
Art as a form of science communication
As the event neared its end, we moved to a panel discussion featuring all three speakers, delving into their experiences with quantum, and reflecting on their experiences with art as a form of science communication. A recurring theme was how interdisciplinary pursuits can unlock new lenses by which to see the world around us, and by extension, ourselves. Replying to an audience question on intersectionality, luxx drew links to quantum superposition, reflecting:
“The idea that two things happening at once, of equal value and measure, that is something we carry over to our understanding of intersectionality, or even joint struggle. […] When arguments are made in places where arguments can be made, there can be so many back and forth arguments and nuances that we get completely caught up in, [so that we] end up stalling and stalemating. If we can just take that structure [superposition] so we can take two things to be correct at once and move forward—sort of, ‘yes and’ it.”
Levitating dancing diamonds
Throughout the event, the backdrop on the stage featured a zoomed-in projection of ‘Seeing the Unthinkable’, a collaboration between Dr James Millen and artist Steven Claydon, which was exhibited at the Science Gallery London’s Testing Ground exhibition. The demonstration consists of charged diamond microparticles trapped inside of a 2,000-year-old Chinese coin, which ‘dance’ in response to audio inputs from a connected microphone setup. Throughout the talks, the movement of the diamonds shifted with the speakers.
“It was really interesting how visible the difference in [the diamonds’] movement was when [Chandrika and lisa] were performing compared to normal speech” noted Millen. The visual effect really added to our immersion in the stories being told on stage.
As a physics student, this event deepened my appreciation for the field. It’s clear that poetry (and by extension, the arts) can be a powerful tool to explore complex scientific topics through a more accessible lens, humanising the discipline and encouraging one to think beyond the confines of equations and lines of code.