{"id":126914,"date":"2026-03-02T16:50:36","date_gmt":"2026-03-02T16:50:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/physicsworld.com\/?p=126914"},"modified":"2026-03-02T16:50:36","modified_gmt":"2026-03-02T16:50:36","slug":"shadow-sculptures-evoke-quantum-physics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/physicsworld.com\/a\/shadow-sculptures-evoke-quantum-physics\/","title":{"rendered":"Shadow sculptures evoke quantum physics"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>This winter in Bristol has been even gloomier than usual \u2013 so I was really looking forward to the <a href=\"https:\/\/bristollightfestival.org\/bristol-light-festival-2026\/\">Bristol Light Festival 2026<\/a>. We went on the last evening of the event (28 February) and we were blessed with dry weather and warmish temperatures.<\/p>\n<span class=\"mpu align-right\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><div id='div-gpt-ad-3759129-1'class=\"advert\" >\r\n  <script>\r\n    googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-3759129-1'); });\r\n  <\/script>\r\n<\/div><\/span>\n<p>The festival featured 10 illuminated installations that were scattered throughout Bristol and the crowds were out in force to enjoy them. I wasn\u2019t expecting to be thinking about physics as I wandered through town, but that\u2019s exactly what I found myself doing at an installation called <em>The Midnight Ballet<\/em> by the British sculptor <a href=\"https:\/\/www.willbudgett.co.uk\/\">Will Budgett<\/a>. Rather appropriately, it was located next to the HH Wills Physics Laboratory at the University of Bristol.<\/p>\n<p>The display comprises seven sculptures that are illuminated from two different directions. The result is two very different images of ballerinas projected onto two screens (see image).<\/p>\n<h3>Art and science<\/h3>\n<p>So, why was I thinking about physics while admiring the work? To me the pieces embody \u2013 in a purely artistic way \u2013 the idea of superposition and measurement in quantum mechanics. A sculpture is capable of producing two different images (a superposition of states), but neither of these images is observable until a sculpture is illuminated from specific directions (the measurements).<\/p>\n<p>Now, I know that this analogy is far from perfect. Measurements can be made simultaneously in two orthogonal planes, for example. But, Budgett\u2019s beautiful artworks really made me think about quantum physics. Given the exhibit\u2019s close proximity to the university\u2019s physics department, I suspect I am not the only one.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p><em>The Midnight Ballet<\/em> by Will Budgett is a treat for the eyes<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":135,"featured_media":126916,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[148],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-126914","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-art-science","article-type-blog"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/physicsworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126914","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/physicsworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/physicsworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/physicsworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/135"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/physicsworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=126914"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/physicsworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126914\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/physicsworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/126916"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/physicsworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=126914"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/physicsworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=126914"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/physicsworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=126914"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}