Tiago Photography

Yesterday I went to the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich to listen to a lecture by Dr Omar Almaini from the University Of Nottingham.
The talk covered the nature of supermassive black holes, why we think that they exist and how to discover them which was fascinating.
However, as an artist, I was moved by the visual data that Dr Omar Almaini provided along with his talk.
This video shows a cluster of stars hidden behind the black dust of the milky way. The camera used to capture this information was specifically designed for this purpose, as scientists were fascinated to discover if there was a black hole lurking in our galaxy.
For scientists to determine if a black hole did exist in our galaxy, the scientists would need to track the movement of stars. If the stars were found to be moving around, then this would become evidence of a black hole in our galaxy.
Dr Omar Almaini described this clip as "pure unadulterated data straight from the telescope". This video shows that stars are in fact orbiting a central point of gravity within the space of a few decades, so most scientists now believe that a dormant black hole does exist in the Milky Way.
Using this definition of "dormant", there are no collisions of planets / there is no fuel for the black hole to emit any kind of radiation. It is also rather unlikely that we will get sucked in to the black hole any time soon!
Using this data, scientists have been able to make models of the stars orbiting the black hole as a visual aid. (Towards the end of this clip).
I am always impressed by any super-intelligent professor who can simplify complex ideas for consumption of the general public, so I found the talk by Dr Omar Almaini very educational.
I will leave you with an excerpt from "Physics Of The Impossible" by Michio Kaku, on the scientist Albert Einstein.
"What was the secret of his genius? Perhaps one clue to his genius was his ability to think in terms of physical pictures (e.g. moving trains, accelerating clocks, stretched fabrics) rather than pure mathematics.
Einstein once said that unless a theory can be explained to a small child, the theory was probably useless;
that is, the essence of a theory has to be captured by the physical picture; the mathematics would come later".

Labels: Albert Einstein, Dr Omar Almaini, Michio Kaku, National Maritime Museum, Physics Of The Impossible, Stellar Motions In The Galactic Centre, Supermassive Black Hole, The Milky Way, Video, Visualization, Youtube

The Guardian's Art & Design section is a great resource for Art & Science news.
Today I was alerted to the existence of the artist James Turrell.
The article today explains what the "Higgs Boson" is, a hypothetical massive elementary particle named after the British physicist Peter Higgs.
In Higgs' theory, the Higgs Boson is said to have turned the matter that shot out of the Big Bang, in to the universe that we see today.
Scientists are currently trying to find the Higgs Boson using The Large Hadron Collider at CERN.
The scientists do not know that this particle exists, but they are using a process of experimentation to find it. The scientists are using only their own intuition to move forward in their research.
In this piece by James Turrell, the flashing red screen mimicks the screens that the Higgs Boson researchers use.
In this article, Jonathan Jones explains that the recent art work of James Turrell plays on intuition. Jones compares this intuition to modern artists such as Kandinsky, who famously had synaesthesia. When a person has synaesthesia, they are able to see sound and hear colour.
If we can translate sound waves and light waves in this way, who says we can't pick up other information?
Perhaps our intuition is hinting to knowledge that we can not perceive yet.
As Jones says, James Turrells work forces us to view the world in abstract terms, just as the Cubists did at the advent of modern physics.
The idea of viewing the universe in an abstract manner is not exclusive to art.
In "Hyperspace: A Scientific Odyssey Through Parallel Universes", Michio Kaku eloquently describes dimensions and Superstring theory. Kaku explains that as we travel outside each dimension, the inner dimensions seem simpler. If you could view the Superstrings for example, from an outside perspective, you would see tiny vibrating strings or loops of energy, which is why superstrings are analogous to music (another form of art).
The relationship between intuition in both art and science is a fascinating one, and worth thinking about.

Labels: Cern, Higgs Boson, Intuition, James Turrell, Kandinsky, Michio Kaku, Superstring Theory, Synaesthesia, The Big Bang, The Large Hadron Collider

As an AS Level art student, I was introduced to the work of M. C. Escher and he quickly became my favourite artist. Aesthetically, I am a big fan of monochrome and bright popping colours, but I was also intrigued by the skill of his drawing. How do the tessellations fit together, for example?
I can barely draw tessellations of squares!

My interest has always stayed quite strong, though I am becoming more intrigued by the work of Escher as I read Hyperspace by Michio Kaku.
For example, Michio Kaku starts "Hyperspace" by sharing a story from his childhood.
"I remember that my parents would sometimes take me to visit the famous Japanese Tea Garden in San Francisco. One of my happiest childhood memories is of crouching next to the pond, memorised by the brilliantly coloured carp swimming slowly beneath the water lilies.
In these quiet moments, I felt free to let my imagination wander. I would ask myself silly questions that only a child might ask, such as how the carp in that pond would view the world around them. I thought, What a strange world theirs must be!
Living their entire lives in the shallow pond, the carp would believe that their "universe" consisted of murky water and the lilies. Spending most of their time foraging on the bottom of the pond, they would be only dimly aware that an alien world could exist above the surface.
The nature of our world was beyond their comprehension. I was intrigued that I could sit only a few inches from the carp, yet be separated from them by an immense chasm. The carp and I spent our lives in two distinct universes, never entering each other's world, yet were separated by only the thinnest barrier, the water's surface."
Michio Kaku then goes on to explain how rain would feel to the carp. The force of the rain drops would disturb the environment of the pond, and the carp would believe that the lilies could move without being touched. Similarly, we may see evidence of forces around us, but not understand their origin.
Kaku then suggests that a human could pull a carp from the "universe" of the pool, and the carp will have experienced a new "universe". Similarly, if there is a fifth dimension, it may be possible that we may be able to experience it by being pulled up out of it.

This image was designed by Escher to make us think of dimensions; beneath the water, the surface on which the leaves are resting, and the reflection of the trees above.
However, with the addition of Michio Kaku's carp theory, the image has new meaning to me.
I began reading "Hyperspace" as I found out that it was the book that inspired Muse to call their 2nd album "Origin Of Symmetry". I hoped that the book could inspire me in my art work, but I didn't know that it would enlighten my understanding of Eschers work!

Labels: Art, Carp, Catalyst, Dimensions, Escher, Fish, Hyperspace, Koi, M.C. Escher, Michio Kaku, Muse, Origin Of Symmetry, Physics, Science, Tesselation