Schrödinger's Cat - Superposition

Question: In a world where art is classified in two categories, black and white on the one hand and colour on the other, is it possible to create an artwork that is both?

Erwin Schrödinger was an Austrian physicist and scientific theorist from the early 20th century who established a thought experiment, imagining a cat that is enclosed in a hermetically sealed opaque box. Inside this box is also a radioactive source and a mechanism which, above a certain radiation threshold, releases poison and kills the cat. As long as we do not open the box, there is no way of knowing whether the cat is dead or alive. Erwin Schrödinger suggests the following solution: the cat is both dead and alive.

This experiment perfectly illustrates one of the fundamental principles of quantum physics, called quantum superposition. This principle states that a quantum system (such as an atom or a particle) can have several values for a certain observable quantity (such as its position or state of excitation). As long as no measurement is made, this system is in a state of superposition and can take all its possible values at random.

Wanting to design a work of art that is both in black and white and in colour, I used this principle of superposition to create a series of installations. By watching through the magnifying glass, the viewer takes a measurement, defining the state of the artwork. As long as this measurement has not been taken, the artwork is in a state of superposition and therefore both at the same time.

The series of 16 installations was entirely handmade, where each artwork is unique.

• The New Me
• Kramer's Dream
• Peace
• Violence
• Portspectives
• Urban Distortion