I have recently started working on a project which is ideal for me, it is called danceroom Spectroscopy (dS) and it ticks a lot of Becky boxes! I would describe dS as a system that visualises the nano-world and enables human “energy fields” to interact with it. The visualisations come from up-to-date chemical physics models that scientists use to describe what happens in the world of atoms, molecules and other tiny invisible particles. Quantum physics has always been one of my favourite parts of science as it is a bit of a fantasy world that doesn’t necessary behave in an obvious way and, therefore, it opens up a whole world of possibility.
dS has mainly been used as an art installation and an education tool, a collaborative project with dancers, musicians, scientists, computer scientists, digital creatives.
What dS shows us is that the world is made up of so many invisible forces that we don’t know much about. At dS the way the nano-world is projected is just a representation, but it is based on a lot of evidence and it allows us to walk through it, manipulate, interact with it and begin to understand things just a little bit better. I also find it completely beautiful, especially when paired with the human form that the dancers provide. Hidden Fields, a dS performance interprets dancers as fields whose movement creates ripples and waves in an invisible sea of energy, I cannot tell you how excited the performer in me is to start looking at expressing ourselves as beings who interact with the universe via our energy fields.
My way of understanding spirituality has been through the idea of energy. Whether that energy comes from a God, or just exists in the universe it powers everything about us and the other bodies in the universe. Why do we interact in certain ways with certain people/things? It is to do with energy transfer. Sometimes the resonance is constructive, our fields so beautifully overlap that the energy multiplies giving strength and growth. Alternatively sometimes we are just “not on the same wavelength” and the results can be destructive. Our bodies are driven by electrical impulses and chemical reactions, these impulses and reactions are completely dependent on the energy of interactions. Just like when we hear the vibrations of a song we like it makes us move or feel good small inputs can have a large impact on our spiritual/emotional state.
One thing that this project is teaching me is that science requires a huge imagination. I always thought I was good at science because the perfectionist in me liked black and white, right and wrong, objectivity not subjectivity. Over the years, I have adjusted my way of thinking and I find subjectivity preferable these days, and I have understood that science requires creativity. However, by doing this project I have begun to understand more about myself as a scientist, I have begun to realise that I am good at science for another reason, I can picture it, I can take words, symbols and formula and turn them into animations in my mind. I can see colours, light dark, interactions repulsions and reactions. It makes sense to me because I created a narrative and I always have (so two fingers up to everyone who told me that I wasn’t the creative one :p).
The laser I used in my PhD (in my head) produced “little green men”, like the incredible hulk, full of power and fury ready to smash apart anything that stood in their way, turn down the power and you turn down the size of their muscles, turn down the intensity and you turn down the number of little green men! And in the same way every atom is a little being with its own characteristics.
Instead of seeing science as a clinical subject which rips out humanity and creativity, turn the tables, make the science human too. The best scientists of the future will be the ones who are creative and human. Those with a world view who want to combine science, arts, technology, compassion to create a positive outlook.
