quantum sheep - the science & inspiration
The project was inspired by watching sheep below the Roman Wall, with coloured marks on their backs, moving across the fields like the cloud shadows. The sheep and clouds reflected each other. Quantum Sheep celebrates three main principles of Quantum Theory. Randomness, which is at the heart of the universe (the 14 sheep move randomly to create over 80 billion poems): duality (the metaphorical duality of clouds and sheep): and the influence of the observer on the observed (the onlookers making sense of the formation, creating their own versions of the poems with punctuation & line-breaks).
Quantum mechanics is a branch of physics which a lot of people find hard to understand, as it seems to go against common sense. Randomness and uncertainty is at the centre of how the universe is put together, and is quite difficult for us as humans who rely on order. So I decided to explore randomness and some of the principles of quantum mechanics, through poetry, using the medium of sheep. The media thought it was quite funny and lots of sheep puns were generated but that's fine! Serious and funny at the same time, that's another example of duality.
Quantum mechanics is a branch of physics which a lot of people find hard to understand, as it seems to go against common sense. Randomness and uncertainty is at the centre of how the universe is put together, and is quite difficult for us as humans who rely on order. So I decided to explore randomness and some of the principles of quantum mechanics, through poetry, using the medium of sheep. The media thought it was quite funny and lots of sheep puns were generated but that's fine! Serious and funny at the same time, that's another example of duality.
