Two Recent Quantum Inspired Works from Oliver Endahl
Zooey Kraemer in “Efflorescere Decoherence”
This piece is titled “Efflorescere Decoherence” and it features dancer, Zooey Kraemer.
“Efflorescere” is Latin for “begin to bloom” or “flourish”, and “decoherence” is a process in quantum mechanics.
When a quantum system interacts with its surroundings, like an air molecule, light, or heat. This interaction causes the quantum system’s information to spread out and become entangled with the environment. As a result, the system loses its quantum "superposition" capability and begins to behave like a normal, everyday classical object. (Which we humans can then interact with.)
I intentionally went into creating this work with themes of nature, balance, spring and wind in mind. Spring, while being about rebirth, is also about death. A garden itself is in a constant balance of life and death which creates the reality of the garden in the first place. While new plants are sprouting, they draw from plants of the past, now decomposed in the soil. Bugs, birds, and other creatures continually participate in a cycle of life and death through the means in the garden, which in turn, changes the structure of the garden itself. A garden is a great example of balance because life and death constantly occur and support the creation of the system as a whole.
The process of quantum “decoherence” compelled me because it also falls in line with this theme. When decoherence occurs, it isn’t “destructive” as much as it is a process of “reallocating.” Yes, some information is lost, but it is redistributed, just like in a garden.
I was drawn to combining these two words in the title for this work because my intention for the piece was to visually and emotionally convey these themes of balance, and redistribution.
Zooey Kraemer in the piece titled “The Anthropic Principle”
In this piece titled “The Anthropic Principle” featuring Zooey Kraemer, I was inspired by the “observation” effect in quantum mechanics and wanted to reflect that in the work.
In quantum mechanics, when you observe a particle, it actually forces the particle to change its own state. In a way, the fabric of the universe itself “reacts” to being witnessed. The left side of this piece is supposed to be those unobserved particles and the right side are those same particles, but observed.
Zooey Kraemer is featured towards the right side of the frame in the area with the swirling colors. I intentionally framed her there because if you look at the piece as a whole, she doesn’t stand out and blends into the big picture. You have to intentionally observe her figure in order to discern her, which further reflects the theme of observation.
More artworks to come,
-Oliver Endahl