Quantum Conversations 


Projected video installation
4k video (silent, color, 10:00 minutes, looped)
9 audio tracks of various lengths (from 30 sec. to 3 min.) looped

2023

Dimensions variable


[ The above is an excerpt from Quantum Conversations I ]



Quantum Conversations is a series of experimental exchanges between myself and cosmic rays.

Anomalous. Galactic. Abundant. Ultra-high energy. Cosmic rays are particles traveling through the universe at nearly the speed of light. While many originate from our sun, some shower down on us from far-flung galaxies and exploding stars. Others are more mysterious, hailing from unknown sources and earning names like the Oh-My-God particle.

Though beyond the bounds of our ordinary perception, cosmic rays are passing all around—and through—us at every moment. They are seemingly everywhere and nowhere, silent and unseen. Yet their presence becomes visible when sensed through a cloud chamber particle viewer. Cloud chambers are closed environments that contain a supersaturated vapor cloud. As cosmic rays pass through the chamber, they leave behind tracks in the vapor, much like the wake emanating from a passing boat. Their ghostly trails are gestures in time, momentarily inscribed in the mist, leaving a fleeting trace of their presence with us.

Long enchanted by devices used to matter the invisible, I built a cloud chamber to converse with cosmic rays. It is intriguing that language associated with paranormal research, such as anomalous, extrasensory, invisible, and supernormal, share similarities with descriptions of cosmic rays. Indeed, looking into a cloud chamber is an extraordinary experience. Mesmerizing and gravitational, it recalls the esoteric veil between worlds and the sensation of scrying into bowls of water.

The visual phenomena the rays produce within the chamber speaks to our relationship with the invisible. It asks how we communicate with it. Do we hear it, dream it, incant it? How can we translate what is wordless? In an effort to establish a dialogue with the rays, I gazed deeply into the cloud chamber. Entering in and out of trance, I recorded a series of whispered poems, which serve as companion pieces to the videos when the work is installed.

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