There’s more to it than meets the eye 2019
Single-screen video, stereo sound (7'15"); pencil on paper (1310x2100mm)
Commissioned by Science Gallery London, Yu-Chen Wang's installation There’s more to it than meets the eye shines a light on the personal stories inspiring physicists to dedicate their working lives to researching dark matter.
Research into dark matter is multi-disciplinary. Scientists work with extreme scales - from quantum to cosmic, from particle physics to astrophysics. Wang chronicles the three different methodologies scientists use to try and detect it: conducting experiments deep underground; searching for it in outer space; or attempting to make it at places like CERN “as long as you have the right ingredients”.
Central to the artist’s practice is drawing, which allows her to explore and meditate on the mechanisms used to understand the fundamental nature of reality. In painstaking detail her new pencil drawing depicts in hybrid form various machine parts from scientific instruments used in physics, including those that look for dark matter.
Her script is based on the many conversations she's had with physicists at King’s College London, UCL, University of Liverpool, LJMU and at CERN, and is testimony to her own personal “brain bending and mind boggling” journey. She ponders on philosophical questions around scientific truth and the limits of knowledge. Is the theory of dark matter untestable?
EXHIBITIONS
11 Aug - 25 Oct 2020
Science Gallery Dublin
7 May 2020
Online panel discussion with physicist Malcolm Fairbairn and Chamkaur Ghag
INVISIBLE virtual exhibition
dublin.sciencegallery.com/latest/explore-our-first-virtual-exhibition-with-a-360-trip-to-invisible
DARK MATTER: 95% Of The Universe Is Missing
6 Jun - 26 Aug 2019
Science Gallery London
Into the Void 11 Jun 2019
Panel discussion with physicist Malcolm Fairbairn; philosopher Eleanor Knox; artist Yu-Chen Wang; chaired by science presenter Helen Arney
Curated by Sandra Ross, DARK MATTER: 95% Of The Universe Is Missing included works by Agnieszka Kurant, Aura Satz, Tomás Saraceno, Carey Young, Andy Holden, Yu-Chen Wang, Gianni Motti, Semiconductor, Steven Claydon, Enrico Sacchetti, Nina Canell and Robin Watkins, Emilija Skarnulyte, Agnieszka Kurant and Tavares Strachan.
One of the biggest mysteries in physics today is what exactly makes up our Universe, and why – according to the world’s leading scientists – 95 per cent of it cannot be observed. Imagining the unseen and questioning the invisible, DARK MATTER explored matter and materiality, the concept of invisibility and infinite divisibility, and the human quest for absolute truth and knowledge.
Through a free exhibition and events programme, DARK MATTER combined art, physics and philosophy and drawn on the latest research from the Department of Physics at King’s College London. The season highlighted the critical role of artists, philosophers and storytellers in our understanding of the world around us and invited audiences to question their understanding of physics and even reality itself.
Voiceover: Helen Arney; sound design: Capitol K; special thanks to Dr. Malcolm Fairbairn, King’s College London; Dr. Mairi Sakellariadou, King’s College London; Dr. Christopher McCabe, King’s College London; Dr. Chamkaur Ghag, University College London; Dr. Jon Butterworth, University College London; Dr. Tara Shears, University of Liverpool; Dr. Mike Houlden, University of Liverpool; Dr. Andy Newsam, Liverpool John Moores University; Arts at CERN; FACT, Liverpool. Image courtesy of CERN, The LZ Dark Matter Experiment, SLAC, The XENON experiment, SLAC, SNOLAB and NASA.
INVISIBLE at Science Gallery at Trinity College Dublin 2020-2021