Particle/Wave
Melbourne Festival
An immersive multimedia experience in the planetarium dome
6, 10 and 13 October 7pm and 9pm shows
"The Universe has spoken and we have understood."
David Blair, astrophysicist at the UWA and LIGO collaboration member.
Particle/Wave is an exploration of art and science showcased under the spectacular dome of the planetarium. Poets, musicians, sound and video artists – alongside renowned scientists – have collaborated to present a creative glimpse of the incredible story of gravitational waves.
Over one hundred years ago Albert Einstein suggested gravitational waves could be a natural outcome of his general theory of relativity, which states that very massive objects distort the fabric of space and time—an effect we perceive as gravity.
Gravitational waves are the ripples in that spacetime, traveling away from their original source: exploding stars, collisions between neutron stars, merging black holes or a single star rotating briskly and irregularly. These waves are washing over Earth all the time, but our instruments have not been sensitive enough to detect them until recently. This breakthrough has been recognised with the 2017 Nobel Prize for Physics.
Theoretical physicist and cosmologist Stephen Hawking said, ‘Gravitational waves provide a completely new way of looking at the universe.’ How do we observe this discovery through the lens of humanity? What stories do gravitational waves tell?
With writers ALICIA SOMETIMES, KRISSY KNEEN, MAXINE BENEBA CLARKE, LISA GORTON, OMAR MUSA, JORDIE ALBISTON and sound artists ANDREW WATSON, CAMILLA HANNAN and NAT BATES and video by ANDREW WATSON, ISOBEL KNOWLES, BENJAMIN PORTAS, MARK MYERS, TOBIAS EDWARDS, AI YAMAMOTO, CARL KNOX, DEE MASON and SAR RUDDENKLAU. Scientists: KATIE MACK, KENDALL ACKLEY, ALAN DUFFY and LING SUN.
Director and producer: Alicia Sometimes
Co-producer & Musical Director: Andrew Watson
With support from OzGrav, Museums Victoria, Creative Victoria, Australia Council and Hobsons Bay City Council.
