Leaning Out of Windows: In/visible Forces

Process Diagram by Ingrid Koenig

Leaning Out of Windows: In/visible Forces

February 28 – March 19, 2022

Emily Carr University of Art + Design
M. O’Brian Exhibition Commons + the RBC Gallery (main floor)
520 East 1st Avenue, Vancouver, BC Canada

Emily Carr University is situated on unceded, traditional and ancestral xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Úxwumixw (Squamish), and səl̓ilw̓ətaʔɬ(Tsleil-Waututh) territories.

Leaning Out of Windows: In/visible Forces is the third of three exhibitions.

Leaning Out of Windows/LOoW, a research creation project, explores how knowledge might be translated across the disciplinary communities of art and physics in order to develop a shared understanding of the cosmos. The project assesses methodologies of collaboration to develop ways to engage with the diverse languages employed by artists and physicists, namely between Emily Carr University and TRIUMF, Canada’s particle accelerator centre. What is shared is a space of mutual inspiration informing each other’s work in the search for new and emergent understanding of scientific phenomena.

THE LOoW PROCESS
Working with physicists at TRIUMF, Canada’s particle accelerator centre in Vancouver, we organized ten collaborative teams comprised of a physicist, two to three artists from diverse media, and in some cases a scholar from another discipline. The theme of Invisible Forces was launched with a science seminar in September 2021. From this point each team held a series of virtual meetings and worked collectively to respond to the science topic Invisible Forces and produced a network of artworks over a period of 6 months. The process was emergent, dependent on the individual team members and what they brought to the discussion.

IN/VISIBLE FORCES
“Invisible forces” references those physical properties that produce “exotic” phenomena such as weak and strong nuclear interactions, gravity, magnetism and the Higgs boson. Some “action-at-a-distance” or “non-contact” forces are thought to be mediated by virtual particles that may exhibit quantum entanglement. Such “hidden” forces used to be “invisible” but are now more or less understood. These forces allow remote parts of the environment (and the universe) to exert a force on an object without being in contact with it. What we do know is that such action-at-a-distance forces are very real and that we experience them every day.

Within the context of LOoW we understand In/visible Forces as fundamental physics properties. But we are also attracted to and invested in their metaphorical and social connotations as potential and probable influences on artistic practice. How is climate change an in/visible force on our daily lives? In what ways does herd mentality act as an in/visible force on human decision making? We hope to explore a network of ideas from physics as well as, social forces, force fields and fields of experience.

Translation Hub Symposium: April 2022
A Translation Hub Symposium will bring together artists, physicists, scholars and special guests to discuss the project process design, the collective fabric of art works in the exhibition and the exchange between team members.

TEAM 1 – Physicist: David Morrissey, Artist: Scott Massey, Artist: Ingrid Koenig, Scholar: Sanem Guvenc

TEAM 2 – Physicist: Jess Brewer, Artist: Barbara Lounder, Artist: Francisco Fernando Granados, Artist/Scholar: Jamie Hilder

TEAM 3 – Physicist: Sakshi Kakkar, Artist: Risa Horowitz, Artist: RA Arti Struyanskiy, Artist: RA Gwenyth Chao

TEAM 4 – Physicist: Ewan Hill, Artist: Christine Howard Sandoval, Artist: Otoniya J Okot Bitek, Scholar: Andrew Martindale

TEAM 5 – Physicist: Sarah Dunsiger, Artist: Woojae Kim, Artist: Mark Johnsen, Scholar: PJ Rayner

TEAM 6 – Physicist: David McKeen, Artist: Brenda Crabtree, Artist: Hyung-Min Yoon, Artist: RA Sidi Chen, Scholar: Ernesto Pena

TEAM 7 – Physicist: Nirmal Raj, Artist: Ranu Mukherjee, Artist: Haley Bassett, Artist: RA Kyla Gilbert

TEAM 8 – Physicist: Carla Babcock, Artist: Jay White, Artist: RA Scotty Alveberg, Artist: RA Claudia Fernandez

TEAM 9 – Physicist: Andrea Capra, Artist: Alan Poma, Artist: Miruna Dragan, Artist: RA Xinwei Che

TEAM 10 – Physicist: Patrick de Perio, Artist: Kieran Muller, Artist: Loretta Todd, Artist: RA David McGregor

*RA Research Assistant

Curated by Randy Lee Cutler + Ingrid Koenig
TRIUMF LOoW physicist design team: Carla Babcock, Jess Brewer, Ewan Hill, David Morrissey
TRIUMF Communication Advisors: Jess Abney, Scott Mallory, Stu Sheppard
Communication Design: Leea Contractor