Singularities and Infinites
American University’s Katzen Center has an exhibition titled ‘Singularities and Infinites’. The exhibition marries the two subjects that are dear to my heart, arts and science, or to be precise in the latter’s scope, astrophysics and particle physics. Each of the artist Shanthi Chandrasekar’s paintings in the exhibition is interpreted in Michael Albrow’s writing of the corresponding phenomenon in astrophysics or particle physics, next to it. These juxtapositions have raised the value and meaning of the individual artwork or its corresponding scientific interpretation by the power of two in its mathematical sense. The only difficulty I faced was that I would have required a lot of time to view the details of each artwork (whose beauty is really in its microscopic and macroscopic nature) and read each interpretation in a sensible timeframe. I had to solve this issue by taking pictures of the individual exhibits to view and read them later in my home comfort.
That brings me to the question of the lack of time at the exhibition. We did not plan to be there to view the exhibition but to see a play staged by the American University students. The play was based on Jane Austen’s novel, Sense, and Sensibility, with the same title. I could not help but notice the similarities between the play and the exhibition. Austen’s play draws the interplay between the two sisters’ personalities, Maryanne’s Sense which stands for her emotional spontaneity with Elinor’s Sensibility which stands for measured practicality. I emotionally felt that this interplay was similar to that in the juxtaposed arts and science exhibits.
My rational side now of course tells me that this comparison is far-fetched, too impetuous, and irrational. I can give ten different well-thought-out reasons for why that is the case. Maybe, I did not realize subconsciously, how close I was to Maryanne’s personality yesterday, even while receiving my education in science and spending my professional career in the technology field.
Attached are photos of a couple of the exhibits, one in astrophysics and another in particle physics.
