JUST BECAUSE WE CANNOT PROVE IT EXISTS DOESN'T MEAN I CANNOT PAINT IT

Just Because We Cannot Prove It Exists Doesn't Mean I Cannot Paint It Oil on linen 50 x 50 cm

 

 

You ask:

 

What is she talking about?

Just Because We Cannot Prove It Exists Doesn't Mean I Cannot Paint It

 

I am talking about:

 

THE

 

MULTIVERSE!

 

 

I first read about the theory of a Multiverse a few years ago when I read Prof Martin Rees's fabulous book Just Six Numbers. He wrote, '...the ultimate theory might permit a multiverse whose evolution is punctuated by repeated Big Bangs; the underlying physical laws, applying throughout the multiverse, may then permit diversity in the individual universes.' Rees, M. Just Six Numbers: The Deep Froces That Shape the Universe, Basic Books, NY, 2000 p.174

Since reading Just Six Numbers I've read more and more about the possibility that our Universe is one of many. I love it!

I wrote a post in March this year called COSMOLOGY, BIG BANG AND THE MULTIVERSE There are a number of paintings that attempt to invite the Multiverse to revelation!

Now to my most recent encounter with the Multiverse...

!!!!!!

...I attended the fabulous Journey Through The Cosmos series of events here in Brisbane. I have written about the events, a collaboration between the Queensland Symphony Orchestra and Prof Brian Cox and other 'super stars', Darion Marianelli, Jack Liebeck, Prof Brian Foster, in my last couple of posts Lightning and Beyond Yesterday

Brian Cox ended his last event The Physics Of Time with a statement about the possibility that our Universe exists in a Multiverse of simultaneously occurring Big Bangs. He used the term 'a fractal tree of Universes', which he has used before. I love it...and regular readers will know why. My love of the age-old transcultural/religious tree-of-life has inspired me in many ways, including to paint the idea of a Multiverse using the tree! In fact a recent post with more paintings is UNIVERSES AND TREES

My first Multiverse 'tree' painting in 2010 is called...simply...Multiverse It is below.

Multiverse Oil on linen 80 x 100 cm 2010

In Multiverse I imagined that each little portal, created by a confluence of branches forming 'holes', was another universe. I imagined it to be like a peacock's feathers. When the bird opens his fantastic plumage you are invited to share secrets.

But what about:

Just Because We Cannot Prove It Exists Doesn't Mean I Cannot Paint It
Oil on linen 50 x 50 cm?

 

 

My new painting [top] is another 'tree of universes'. Each leaf may be a universe? Each branch may represent simultaneously occurring universes? The multi-coloured circle may be a portal, as if each colour is another incubus for more universes? The concentric rings remind me of a cut tree, which is forced to reveal its age and history. The symbol of the tree certainly provides amazing fodder for my imagination!

 

In Just Because We Cannot Prove It Exists Doesn't Mean I Cannot Paint It , like my recent painting Beyond Yesterday [bottom], an underlying 'scape' is revealed beneath the top layer of paint. The 'scape' in Just Because We Cannot Prove It Exists Doesn't Mean I Cannot Paint It is predominantly red, but on closer inspection a blue branching tree-like quality is revealed [see DETAIL photo below]. For me this alludes to a multi-dimensionality. Another horizon, or multi-horizon?

 

 

Just Because We Cannot Prove It Exists Doesn't Mean I Cannot Paint It [DETAIL]

 

 

So, the title Just Because We Cannot Prove It Exists Doesn't Mean I Cannot Paint It is actually self explanatory. Whilst physics provides hints that a Multiverse is possible, scientists cannot prove it...yet...

 

I am not a scientist, so I cannot prove it either, but the theory sure does stimulate my imagination!

 

I am not a science illustrator, nor an artist who paints 'artist impressions'. Rather, I like to use symbols to navigate my way across possibility. The tree-of-life has symbolised life for eons. In the 21st century it still potently holds symbolic meaning...systems, both human-made and naturally occurring, that can be 'read' as large or small or both simultaneously. The tree invites us to dance across the Multiverse!

 

 

Beyond Yesterday Oil on linen 80 x 55 cm

 

 

Cheers,

Kathryn

www.kathrynbrimblecombe-fox.com

 

 

 

BEYOND YESTERDAY

Beyond Yesterday Oil on linen 80 x 55 cm 2014

 

 

THROUGH THE COSMOS

 

In my last post Lightning I promised some more details about my experience attending the series of events Through The Cosmos, a fabulous few days of concerts and presentations 6-9 November here in Brisbane at the Queensland Performing Arts Centre [QPAC]. Journey Through The Cosmos was a collaboration of science and art/music hosted by the Queensland Symphony Orchestra [QSO]. The Queensland Government's Super Stars Fund brought famous physicist Prof Brian Cox to the collaboration, along with violinist Jack Leibeck, Prof Brian Foster and composer Dario Marianelli.

 

After writing my last post I attended two more events - Composing For Hollywood, a truly fascinating discussion with composer Dario Marianelli, and a performance/lecture with Brian Cox called The Physics of Time. The inspiring lecture was followed by a performance Quartet for the End of Time written by Messiaen when he was a prisoner in a World War II concentration camp. Messiaen composed the work for himself and three other prisoners who all played musical instruments. The performance I saw/heard included violinist Jack Liebeck, pianist Zubin Kanga, cellist Li Wei Qin and clarinettist Paul Dean.

 

COMPOSING FOR HOLLYWOOD

The discussion with Dario Marianelli and author, composer, musicologist Stephen Johnson really highlighted the complexities of movie production. Whilst Marianelli spoke mainly about his life, composing, performing, recording music for films, it was evident that the interconnectedness of every aspect of production is highly complex with each bit requiring excellence. It was fascinating to hear a man talk about his career with such passion. Johnson was a great person to have as the fellow conversationalist. Marianelli was commissioned by the QSO to compose a piece for Journey Through The Cosmos. His Voyager violin concerto, inspired by spacecraft Voyafer 1 and II, was performed by the QSO, with violinist Jack Leibeck, at the Journey Through The Cosmos concerts.

 

THE PHYSICS OF TIME

The Physics Of Time lecture was delivered by Brian Cox with his trademark conversational style. He explained Einstein's Theory of General Relativity, quantum physics, spoke a bit about time travel, cosmic time, the beginning and end of the Universe, the large Hadron Collider at Cern. He also mentioned a fractal tree of universes [see my previous post Universes and Trees] in the context that our Universe may be just one in a Multiverse characterised by an infinite number of simultaneously occurring Big Bangs. He ended the lecture with a quote:

For small creatures such as we, the vastness is bearable only through love......Carl Sagan.

 

AND!!! Below is a photo of me with Brian Cox, taken after the Journey Through The Cosmos concert!

 

 

 

Photo Kathryn Brimblecombe-Fox and Prof Brian Cox courtesy Queensland Symphony Orchestra

 

 

 

Now to my new painting Beyond Yesterday [above]

Regular readers will know that I have been interested in the idea of a Multiverse for some time. Please see my earlier 2010 painting simply called Multiverse [below]. So, what was I thinking when I painted Beyond Yesterday, which I had started before going to Journey Through The Cosmos?

 

I wanted to create a cosmic-like landscape ie: an ambiguous one...where the viewer has some trouble orienting him/herself. The background colour [see detail photo below] is textured, as if there is another 'scape' behind the one on the surface, where there are 'landscape'-like contours and perhaps a hazy horizon. Yet the background colour and texture is a constant, suggesting a much larger essence, perhaps the 'reality' that an horizon-less existence is possible? If our Universe exists in a Multiverse, that is characterised by ongoing simultaneous Big Bangs, then our Universal horizon is merely the end point of our Universe, but not of cosmological existence. The red ball, painted like a 'scape' is perhaps another Universe? It shares the same background colour and texture with the other 'landscape', yet it seems to both recede into the distance at the same time as appearing to be propelled forward out of the painting.

 

Beyond Yesterday, as regular readers will identify, is another of my 'landscapes' that attempt to untether notions of landscape from Earth-bound horizons.

 

 

DETAIL Beyond Yesterday Oil on linen 80 x 55 cm 2014

 

 

WHY THE TITLE BEYOND YESTERDAY?

Well, to me at least, it does not immediately suggest a single trajectory of time and existence. 'Beyond yesterday' could mean back into the past, but equally moving into the future, it could be simply an ever present NOW or it could mean some other dimension.

 

Light that we see, or detect, from space comes from a long ago 'yesterday', yet we 'see' it in the present and can deduce things that will or might happen in the future. 'Yesterday' is in some kind of perpetual 'beyond-ness'.

 

AND, then think about all those other potential Universes being created by simultaneous Big Bangs. If we think of time in a Multiverse something seemingly nonsensical as Beyond Yesterday helps us lose grip on the 'safety net', or perhaps 'shackle' of TIME [as we think we perceive it]. 

 

 

 

 Multiverse Oil on linen 80 x 100 cm 2010

 

 

 

OOO [Object Oriented Ontology] SYMPOSIUM 

 

 

 

 

My proposal for a paper/presentation was accepted and I am one of the speakers at:

Seeing Things: OOO Symposium For Creative Researchers

 

Queensland University of Technology, Kelvin Grove, Queensland, Australia.

Thursday 20 November 8.30am  - 4.30 am

 

My topic is:

Cosmic Perspectives

 

 

Cheers,

Kathryn

www.kathrynbrimblecombe-fox.com

 



LIGHTNING

Storm Oil on linen 85 x 150 cm 2012

 

JOURNEY THROUGH THE COSMOS

 

Before I ramble on about lightning I will fill you in on some recent exciting events I have been to and thoroughly enjoyed. They are part of Journey Through The Cosmos a fabulous series of concerts and presentations 6-9 November here in Brisbane at the Queensland Performing Arts Centre [QPAC]. I bought my package of tickets a year ago!

 

What is Journey Through The Cosmos? It's a collaboration of science and art/music hosted by the Queensland Symphony Orchestra [QSO]. So, you ask, where's the science? Through the Queensland Government's Super Stars Fund Journey Through The Cosmos features famous physicist Prof Brian Cox. During the concert on Thursday night he gave short and fascinating insights into our solar system. The accompanying music included a new piece Voyager, a violin concerto, which was specially commissioned. The 'Super Star' composer Dario Marianelli was inspired by the spacecraft Voyager 1 and 2 and their journeys through, and beyond, the solar system. And, the 'Super Star' violinist was Jack Leibeck...fantastic. Jack also played a number of pieces at Einstein's Universe which was a fabulous presentation by another physicist Prof Brian Foster from Oxford University. This is a 'gig' Jack and the Professor have previously given in other parts of the world. You can read about it on their website Einstein's Universe

 

There are still a couple of events to go. So I shall write about the whole series in my next post.

 

AND......I met Brian Cox!

 

 

LIGHTNING

 

PLANETS

There's lightning on other planets, but not all in our solar system. The planets we are sure about, apart from Earth, are Jupiter and Saturn, plus Venus. But, lightning on Venus is the most different, because it is not related to water clouds, but rather...clouds of sulphuric acid. Brian Cox, when he talked about Venus during the QSO's performance of Gustav Holtz's The Planet Suites at the Journey Through The Cosmos concert, described it as hellish. He said it did not live up to the name of Venus, normally associated with love and beauty. Just imagine what lighting generated from clouds of sulphuric acid might be like?  

 

 

Cosmic Address Oil on linen 90 x 180 cm 2013
Note the lightning bottom left!

 

 

SYMBOL

Lightning, as a symbol, is normally associated with power and might. Mythological deities who wielded bolts of lightning held enormous prestige and engendered great fear.

 

STORM SEASON

And, in Queensland we are entering Summer storm season. Mother Nature often produces spectacular shows of lightning streaking across night skies, momentarily lighting up landscape or cityscape in majestic silhouette. These storms can be really wild, noisy and not necessarily very wet! These types of storms can be very dangerous, because lightning can spark fires in dry bush and grasslands.

 

 

Night Time Electric Storm [Across The Flat Plain] Oil on linen 55 x 80 cm 2012

 

 

A STORY

And, now to a story. A week ago my 20 year old daughter went to Goondiwindi by bus. It's a five hour journey from Brisbane and she went armed with various devices to keep her occupied...oh and a book! But, after she arrived in Goondiwindi she made a few comments to me that made my heart sing. As night settled the bus was travelling through bush and the sky was dark with storm clouds. The roads are long and fairly straight, and on a bus passengers are quite high off the ground, thus allowing for a more panoramic view. So what did my daughter say?

 

My daughter said, 'Mum, I decided to just look out the windows.' 

My heart starts to flutter!
 

And then she said, 'I watched the lighting. It was so beautiful.'

 

And then she said. 'I looked around at the other passengers and they all had earphones in, and were looking at phones or their computers or iPads. Mum, they missed out on so much!'

 

Yes....I jumped up and down with excitement, with my heart singing.  

 

Regular readers will know why my heart sang....I have previously written about the literal and metaphoric importance of looking out the window. Yes, if life is largely experienced and observed via phone, computer and tv screens what happens to 'experience' if the power goes off ?

 

In my previous post called Looking Out The Windows I wrote:

I tell my children that people have to be careful not to abdicate their brains to technology because come the apocalypse [natural disaster, space debris hitting an important satellite or whatever] when GPS systems, computers etc etc stop working, people won't have the practical skills to survive...OR... even think to simply look out the windows, literally and metaphorically! I get told...Mum you're so weird...!

 

BUT, weird Mum or not, my daughter looked out the windows of the bus!!!!

...and saw beauty!

 

 

Stormy Weather - Where? Oil on linen 120 x 150 cm 2013

 

AND JUST IN CASE YOU MISSED MY EXCITING NEWS

PANDORA WEB ARCHIVE  AND MY BLOGI received an official request from the State Library of Queensland to allow PANDORA [Australia's web archive - National Library of Australia and partners] to archive my Blog...

 

YES this one you are reading now! 

 

PANDORA is an official site for archiving 'online publications and websites of lasting significance' and 'research value' in perpetuity. Check out the State Library of Queensland's selection criteria page and you will see why I am really so very happy that my eight year old Blog has been acknowledged this way. 

 

PLUS

 

OOO SYMPOSIUM 

 

 

 

 

My proposal for a paper/presentation was accepted and I am one of the speakers at:

Seeing Things: OOO Symposium For Creative Researchers

 

Queensland University of Technology, Kelvin Grove, Queensland, Australia.

Thursday 20 November 8.30am  - 4.30 am

 

My topic is:

Cosmic Perspectives

 

Cheers,

Kathryn

www.kathrynbrimblecombe-fox.com