If there’s one thing in common between working in the arts and working in science, it’s that both require great leaps of imagination as a starting point and great daring to forge ahead. While the scientist attempts to prove or disprove what they’ve posited, the artist attempts to turn their idea into a completed artwork. Neither knows whether they’ll succeed.
Particle/Wave, a new audiovisual work presented in the Melbourne Planetarium as part of Melbourne Festival, brings artists and scientists together to create a 60-minute experience about the first ever detection of gravitational waves, on September 14, 2015. According to one of the scientists involved in this project, directed by Alicia Sometimes, that detection marks the world’s most significant scientific discovery in several decades. More than a century ago, Einstein predicted that gravitational waves existed in the universe, based on his theory of relativity, but this was the first time there’s been proof of their existence.
It’s probably best that we quote from the program so we get our physics right here: the theory of relativity states that “very massive objects distort the fabric of space and time”, and that distortion is what we perceive as gravity. According to the program: “Gravitational waves are ripples in that spacetime that travel away from their original source – exploding stars, collisions between neutron stars, merging black holes, or a single star rotating briskly and irregularly. These waves are washing over Earth all the time, but our instruments have not been sensitive enough to detect them until recently.”
Not only does Particle/Wave make all of this easily digestible (although please don’t ask us non-science folk to explain gravitational waves to you without the aide of a program), it’s a surprisingly moving experience that inspires wonder in its audience. Across 11 sections, scientists (Alan Duffy, Katie Mack, Kandell Ackley, Ling Sun and David Reitze) explain the story of these scientific discoveries while video, ranging from starry sci-fi dreamscapes to abstract imagery and cartoons of Einstein, flashes past on the dome of the planetarium. They take full advantage of the immersive planetarium environment: as you recline in your chair and stare at the dome, it feels very much like you’re among the stars; or that there’s a field of light flying towards your body.
While this visual feast unfolds, poets offer more reflective responses, posing the big and small questions raised by the science; Omar Musa’s evocative poem wonders how these universal principles impact on personal relationships, and Maxine Beneba Clarke challenges the patriarchal orthodoxy of the science world in a gently humorous way. They’re accompanied by a gorgeously cinematic score, enhanced by musical director Andrew Watson’s live violin.
There are moments when the various pieces of Particle/Wave don’t fit perfectly together – you might find yourself wanting to learn more about the science of a particular point when a poet comes in, or vica versa, when you’re lost in a particular poet’s work and the audio cuts back to a scientist. But for the most part, it’s a gorgeous melding of science and art, and a fitting celebration of human ingenuity.