atomic length: a basic unit in physics: as a visual metaphor in art

Leonardo

Atomic Length: A Basic Unit in Physics: As a Visual Metaphor in ArtAuthor(s): Bettina BrendelSource: Leonardo, Vol. 21, No. 3 (1988), pp. 247-250Published by: The MIT PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1578650 .

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Atomic Length - A Basic Unit in Physics - As a

Visual Metaphor in Art

Bettina Brendel

Abstract-The author continues to derive inspiration and new themes for her paintings from recent research in atomic physics. Referring to a conversation with the late physicist Werner Heisenberg, who was among the first to propose the concept of a universal atomic length in respect to quantum physics, she discusses various processes in experimental physics in which this unit can be seen as playing an important role. A diagram illustrates the process of abstraction that led to her visual metaphor. In conclusion, the artist suggests that art can contribute to the understanding of the mysteries of the physical world we live in.

I. INTRODUCTION

Many years have passed since I last contributed to Leonardo. The article entitled "The Influence of Atomic Physics on My Paintings" was published in 1973 [1]. In it, I discussed some of the theories in atomic and elementary particle physics that have led to current views of the atomic and nuclear structure of matter and energy, theories that have inspired my art and thought since the 1960s.

I received my training in art and art history in post-war Germany. My interest in physics grew out of an early inclination towards abstraction and symbolism in art as well as in poetry. While living in New York in 1968, I decided to study the history and theory of physics. What interested me most was atomism, the theory that deals with the constituents of matter and energy [2].

II. HEISENBERG AND ATOMIC LENGTH

An introduction to the German physicist and philosopher Werner Heisenberg resulted in an invitation to visit him at the Max-Planck-Institute in Munich in 1972. We had a lengthy conversation about the state of elementary particle physics and the search for the smallest particle. Heisenberg considered this search irrelevant since there was a strong possibility that many particles were composites of a few fundamentals.

When the subject of visual imagery in physics came up, Heisenberg said that its use should be avoided in modern physics,

especially in quantum physics, and he

emphasized that mathematics was the purest and most exact means to describe quantum processes. I then pointed out several examples of visual images that had been introduced by descriptive language. It is common to talk, for example, about the electron 'orbit', the 'collision' of particles and their 'sym- metry', and the 'shape' of the nucleus. Heisenberg agreed that in order to understand science it is necessary to use common language and that through usage the word acquires its proper meaning in time [3].

Having been encouraged to work independently during my studies, I

developed a kinetic model of the atom based on the oscillations of the electron

or electrons in relation to the nucleus. This kinetic model deviated fundamentally from the one introduced by Rutherford and Bohr and from later shell models.

Although Heisenberg was compli- mentary about my design, he cautioned me as an artist not to become involved in a controversial area of science. I

corresponded with him until his death in 1976 [4].

In his book Physics and Philosophy, Heisenberg had stated that at least three fundamental units were needed to determine the scale of nature. Thus, to the

speed of light and Planck's quantum of action he added a third unit, a quantum of length: "the assumption of a universal

length the value of which should be

roughly 10-13 cm, somewhat smaller

Bettina Brendel (artist, lecturer), 1061 N. Kenter Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90049, U.S.A.

Received 30 March 1987.

? 1988 ISAST Pergamon Press pic. Printed in Great Britain. 0024-094X/88 $3.00+0.00

? Bettina Brendel

Fig. 1. From Circle to Line: Optical Distortions, diagram (pencil), 10 x 14 in, 1987. (Photo: B. Howell) Optical distortion occurs when a two-dimensional shape-a circle-is

seen from different focal points.

LEONARDO, Vol. 21, No. 3, pp. 247-250, 1988



than the radii of the light atomic nuclei" [5]. This unit of length is now called the 'Fermi' (after Enrico Fermi) and is considered the smallest characteristic length in quantum physics that can be detected and defined.

In my search for a visual metaphor to represent the microstructure of matter and energy (light being electromagnetic energy), I had chosen a thin, short line used in repetition as my basic element of design. With it I was suggesting that a particle is not a point but a linear probability in time and space.

I therefore easily adopted the concept of atomic length and I freely extended its meaning to include the far greater energy radius of the electron or the photon, the particle of light, depending on the theme I was exploring in my painting. I arbitrarily chose the 3-inch line as the degree of magnification in accordance with the size of canvas I was primarily working on. (I used a shorter line in smaller paintings.) This 3-inch line was later calculated to be about 400 million times the size of the diameter of the simple hydrogen atom.

III. VISUAL IMAGERY AND INTERPRETATION

In his recent article "Illusion and Delusion: The Media and the Natural Scientist", Michael J. Clark points out that visual images and their interpretation play a significant role in science as well as in art and design [6].

Discussing the role of the photographer or filmmaker as the creator of 'artificial' images that act as symbols to be interpreted, Clark states that "the implications of the debate on the nature of imagery have pragmatic as well as philosophical connotations" [7]. In photo- graphy, the nature of imagery is based on visual appearance, whereas in physics it is often dependent on complicated experiments or even on prognosis and intuition.

Visual models have been part of classical physics ever since Greek philo- sophers in 500 B.C. proposed that all matter in nature was composed of small indestructible objects called atoms, thus laying the foundation for atomic theory. Most recently, the atomic nucleus has been described as changing its 'shape' from spherical or ellipsoidal to pear- shaped according to its modes of vibration [8]. These descriptions have been based on quantum mechanical calculations rather than on actual observation.

Observation itself is subject to optical distortion. My diagram, From Circle to Line: OpticalDistortions (Fig. 1), illustrates the optical distortion that occurs when a two-dimensional shape is viewed from different focal points. The diagram also shows the process of abstraction that led me to derive the visual metaphor-the 3-inch line-that appears in many of my paintings.

Frieda A. Stahl has also pointed out that physics uses non-verbal metaphors to explore, describe, identify and explain

............, :.... '~ .. ........ .. t,. .t./S.

Fig. 2. Parallel, colored pencil, 10 x 14 in, 1985. (Photo: B. Howell) The proliferation of electromagnetic energy is visualized in terms of particle pulses in parallel, horizontal directions.

scientific data. In her article "Physics as Metaphor and Vice Versa", which features several Feynman diagrams, Stahl writes:

These diagrams are essentially primitive drawings devised by Richard Feynman to represent processes of quantum creation and annihilation.... [The ele- ments] constitute a highly specific vocabulary and syntax for the repre- sentation of particle events and interactions [9].

There is, of course, a big difference between a diagram that illustrates a scientific process and the symbols that an artist invents to evoke, in a general sense, the mystery and inherent order of unseen worlds. (My paintings are not textbook illustrations.)

IV. THOUGHT EXPERIMENTS

Although I. have visited physics laboratories, I derive inspiration for my work from reading technical papers and descriptions of scientific experiments. I like to follow the different processes mentally. Sometimes I object to a certain predisposition in the setup of the experiment when it seems to guarantee a desired result. By visualizing the steps involved, I am conducting what Einstein called a 'thought experiment'.

In my large canvases, I try to project a multidimensional space through the use of multidirectional lines that cross and intersect. This space is not the Renaissance space of perspective and vanishing point nor the realistic view of the photographic lens that is based on it; rather my method is based on the phenomenon by which the eye and the mind perceive the layering of signs as if they happen successively in time and space [10].

One of the recurring themes in my work is the process of ionization, i.e. when, in an electrically excited gas (also called a plasma) an electron is stripped from an atom by collision with other atoms.

In my painting Plasma 11(1972), which consists of two huge panels of intersecting black, red, gray and white lines, I sought to express the random motion of particles. The different colors of the lines represent different types of charged or neutral particles. Their paths are short and straight between collisions and the whole surface appears to vibrate in its own light [11].

Another theme that has interested me is the propagation of electromagnetic energy as, for example, in light. In my drawing Parallel(Fig. 2), I have visualized this propagation in terms of particle pulses, not waves, that are travelling in parallel, horizontal directions.

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Fig. 3. Solar Energy Conversion, acrylic on canvas, 50 x 80 in, 1983. (Photo: Bruce Howell) Brightly colored orange and blue intersecting lines are shown on a black gridlike background. A narrow band in the colors of the spectrum at either side of the panel suggests the use of a visual thermometer to 'read' the

degree of heat obtained through the conversion of solar energy into electrical energy via photovoltaic cells.

I have also worked on a series of paintings dealing with the conversion of sunlight into electrical energy via photo- electric cells on the surface of solar energy panels. In Solar Energy Conversion (Fig. 3), for example, I show the process once again as particle interaction. Brightly colored orange and blue intersecting lines are shown within the black squares of a gridlike background. On the right and left sides of the canvas, narrow vertical bands in the colors of the spectrum suggest a visual thermometer for reading the degree of heat obtained through the solar energy conversion process.

The term 'resonance', referring to the vibrations produced by the combined forces of two separate systems, serves as the title for a black-and-white canvas (Fig. 4). Here the black and the white short line segments represent the two systems. The vertically oriented half of the painting is in 'resonance', with the other half that 'oscillates' horizontally.

For many years I have been interested in the physical properties of light-how it can be reflected and refracted by various surfaces. When laser technology was first discussed in the early 1960s, I visited Bell Laboratories and other physics labs to

understand the process. What fascinated me was that, though laser light itself is invisible, it could be made visible through particles or vapor in the air [12].

My painting Metal-Vapor Lasers (Color

Plate B No. 3) is part of a series that deals with a process during which the laser light produced by a metal-vapor system passes through a diffraction grating and is dispersed at various angles into the strong

Fig. 4. Resonance, acrylic on canvas, 40 X 60 in, 1980. (Photo: Bruce Howell). The black-and- white line segments suggest two systems, one oriented vertically and one horizontally, oscillating

in resonance.

Brendel, Atomic Length as Visual Metaphor 249



colors of the spectrum. The wave-coherent (monochromatic) light of the laser consists of a beam of photons.

V. NEW DIRECTIONS

Physicists today are displaying a new interest in the interactions of forces. Heisenberg's 'Uncertainty Principle' (also called the 'Uncertainty Relation'), which states that we cannot determine exactly the simultaneous velocity and position of a particle, and Einstein's Special Theory of Relativity, which considers time the fourth dimension, have made us realize that we live in a four-dimensional space. The latest research in particle physics even discusses a multi-dimensional space that was once part of the early universe [13].

A new theory called the superstring theory incorporates gravitational forces with other forces in a fundamentally new

way and generalizes the notion of a point particle to that of a string-like object. Due to the highly mathematical nature of

string theory, this attempt to reformulate

the foundations of physics is being made without experimental input [14].

The role of visual metaphors as symbols in art and in science has a long history from the days of antiquity to modern times. I believe that knowledge in one field can bring enrichment to the other [15]. If painting is communication, then everything so communicated has to be expressed through visual means. To communicate through visual means precisely and accurately is one of the challenges of great art.

REFERENCES AND NOTES

1. Bettina Brendel, "The Influence of Atomic Physics on My Paintings", Leonardo 6, No. 2, 137-139 (1973).

2. See Gerald Feinberg, What Is the World Made Of?(New York: Doubleday, 1977).

3. Werner Heisenberg, "Language and Reality in Modern Physics", Physics and Philosophy (New York: Harper Torch Books, 1962).

4. My correspondence with Werner Heisenberg has been deposited at the Archives of the Werner-Heisenberg-Insti- tut fur Physik at the Max-Planck-Institut fur Physik und Astrophysik in Munich, West Germany.

5. Heisenberg [3] p. 165, and his Schritte iiber Grenzen (Munich: Piper & Co., 1972) p. 26.

6. Michael J. Clark, "Illusion and Delusion: The Media and the Natural Scientist", Leonardo 19, No. 1, 65-70 (1986).

7. Clark [6] p. 68. 8. George F. Bertsch, "Vibrations of the

Atomic Nucleus", Scientific American (May 1983) pp. 62-73. See also J.H. Hamilton and J.A. Maruhn, "Exotic Atomic Nuclei", Scientific American (July 1986) pp. 80-89.

9. Frieda A. Stahl, "Physics as Metaphor and Vice Versa", Leonardo 20, No. 1 (1987) p. 59.

10. R.F. Gregory, Eye and Brain (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1973).

11. For a discussion of some of my works, read the interpretations of physicist John F. Marburger, "On the Paintings with Themes from Physics by Bettina Brendel", in Bettina Brendel, Paintings, 1970-1982. Catalogue (Los Angeles, 1983.)

12. Arthur L. Shalow, Lasers and Light (San Francisco: Freeman, 1969) pp. 241, 246.

13. Murray Gell-Mann, in a lecture delivered in Fall 1984 at the University of California-Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, U.S.A.

14. Jeffrey A. Harvey, "Elementary Particles", Physics Today (January 1987) p. 27.

15. See also Bettina Brendel, "The Painter and the New Physics", Art Journal (Fall 1971) p. 41.

Brendel, Atomic Length as Visual Metaphor 250



No. 1. Top left. Tomis G. Salgado, interior design by means of Modular Perspective, Prismacolor, 50 X 50cm. This perspective drawing shows an interior of a house by means of the author's Modular Scale given in a 90? angle aperture of visual field. A smaller angle will reduce the picture scene. Control of the aperture of the visual field for a given observer station is one of the advantages of the Modular Network

method.

No. 2. Top right. Evelyn Rosenberg, Forest Floor, brass and copper on stainless steel, 3 X 4 ft, 1987. Animals, because of their diversity of shape and range of color and size, fulfill many of the artist's design needs. The author has often used more conventionally unattractive animals, some of which appear in this bas-relief metal

sculpture formed by detonography.

No. 3. Center. Bettina Brendel, Metal-Vapor Lasers, acrylic on canvas, 50 X 80 in, 1985. (Collection Pepperdine College, Malibu, CA, U.S.A.) The painting depicts laser light that has been produced by a metal-vapor system, passed through a diffraction grating and dispersed at various angles in the colors of the

spectrum.

No. 4. Bottom. Tom Nunn, EarwargII, plywood, steel, plastic, rubber, 48 x 67 x 55 in, 1987. (Photo: James R. Russell) Refinement of the original Earwarg, with larger size and denser (14-ply) birch plywood body. This electroacoustic percussion board (EPB) and its twin, Earwarg III, might be considered the concert grand

pianos of EPBs.


method.




spectrum.


pianos of EPBs.


method.




spectrum.


pianos of EPBs.


method.




spectrum.


pianos of EPBs.



atomic length: a basic unit in physics: as a visual metaphor in art

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