Curated education project with Fine Art undergraduate students which explored the link between art and particle physics
“The project set up a really interesting visual platform. The students have all got a lot out of it and the knock on effect in the studio has been really beneficial. Is this a platform for future collaborations?” Duncan Higgins, Lecturer at Nottingham Trent University
“quark antiquark was an extremely useful project for the students to take part in, providing an interesting and relevant focus both in terms of creative work and professional practice. It has also offered an added dimension to the culture with the Fine Art Studio” Penny McCarthy, Lecturer at University of Hull
quark antiquark aimed to draw together the activities of the visual arts and those involved in particle physics. The aim was to produce a visual response to this area of scientific practice. Scientific practice would seem intent on finding answers or establishing ‘truths’. Yet its enquiry is rooted in concepts that are abstract, inconceivable: communicated through languages that are obtuse and obscure; scripted as though in code. Art, it could be argued, shares some of these agendas and tendencies: posing questions in the abstract, offering answers that are drafted in languages often peculiar to the visual arts or responses only in the form of further visual enquiry. quark-antiquark involved undergraduate visual arts students from Derby, Hull, Nottingham Trent, and Sheffield Hallam Universities who worked to produce new visual artwork for exhibition on the projection window at Site Gallery (April 2001) and at Jodrell Bank Science Centre (Summer 2001).
Over a 3 month period there were a series of presentations and discussions led by artists as well as scientists, and practical sessions where visual artists introduced aspects of the work and some of the processes, techniques and approaches that were integral to their practice. Artists involved in the project at Site Gallery included Luke Jerram, Tracey Holland, Penny McCarthy and James Pyman. Students had the opportunity to discuss and research into the motivations, methods and models of particle physics. They also had access to Site Gallery’s professional quality digital and photographic facilities throughout to develop individual visual work in response to the project.
The way that the project could be developed was open. Some students approached the project through a visual examination of some of the questions posed through particle physics; others focused upon the exploration, exploitation, appropriation of those models, languages, structures and systems; a visual deconstruction of the seemingly impenetrable codes and concepts of this field of scientific practice. The images that were produced during the project were presented as a collaborative piece, but also reflected a diverse range of responses to the notion of particle physics and to this field of scientific discourse. Touching on issues of memory, perception, the natural world, and notions truth and beauty; the work produced reflected both the diversity and complexity of the concepts and ideas explored during the project.
