Throughout the Spring Semester of 2107 the students in Phys498-Art met twice a week for presentations, discussion and dedicated project time. In these sessions, they explored the mechanics and philosophy of various art forms as well as a variety of physics concepts presented in both mathematical language and striking visuals. Class Explorations presented at the Krannert Art Museum on April 17th were intended to demonstrate this approach to learning and creating to the general public.
Within the hour, all students spoke about the work they had put into their exhibit pieces and the physics they had pondered and used as inspiration for them. These short presentations fully illustrated the amazing breadth of the course and the incredible energy the students had brought into it. From discussing how to design and build a dark, reflective chamber large enough for multiple people occupancy from scratch to identifying mathematical structures that produce similar patterns in yogurt sliding down the side of a glass and in sublimating CO2 on Mars, exploring gravitational waves by both projecting them in a hovering hologram and hand-sewing tangible three-dimensional models, and bringing to life the excitement of the debates on the nature of reality that marked the early days of quantum mechanics, a large variety of topics was covered thus fully conveying the seriousness of thought behind the Flowing from Quantum to Cosmic exhibit. At the same time, the conversational style and the casual tone of these mini-talks showed that even serious explorations can be fun and instructive at the same time.
