Winners of our quantum art competition announced!
We're very excited to announce the winners of our quantum art competition!
It was a really tough decision—we were particularly impressed by the variety of artistic media. In fact, there were so many favourites that as well as a winner we're awarding runners-up and People's Choice prizes.
So, drum roll please…
The winning entry is by Jackson Used. Jackson's entry is a suite of five poems, written in response to different concepts from quantum physics.
In equal second place are Jess Hill and Amy Treloar, and Pramodh Senarath Yapa and Guy Whittall-Scherfee. Jess and Amy's entry takes the audience on a journey through a young physicist's discovery of quarks, in their infinite variety. Pramodh and Guy's entry uses the medium of hip-hop to introduce the audience to low-temperature physics and explain how fermions pair up to form Bose–Einstein condensates.
The People's Choice Prize goes to Toby Davis. Toby's entry is an abstract rendition of a particle–antiparticle pair in the process of annihilation.
Jackson receives AUD$400 for their winning entry; Jess and Amy, and Pramodh and Guy receive AUD$100 for each of their runner-up entries; and Toby receives a prize of AUD$100 as the People's Choice.
The winner and runners-up were determined by our panel of judges:
- Professor Andrew White, EQUS director
- Professor Gerard Milburn, EQUS chief investigator and former director
- Kristen Harley, EQUS communications and engagement officer
- Jennifer Burns, artworker on the scientific journal Nature
- Tilly Boleyn, curator at Science Gallery Melbourne
Gerard said the winning poems were elegant and lyrical. "They relate physical concepts to human emotions, not an easy thing to do. But most of all they are good poems."
We think this comment from Tilly sums up the competition perfectly: "I found all the entries fascinating and partially bamboozling—so very spot on for what I would expect from a quantum art competition!"
You can find all the shortlisted entries here. Thanks very much to everyone who entered!
Major funding support
The Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Engineered Quantum Systems (EQUS) acknowledges the Traditional Owners of Country throughout Australia and their continuing connection to lands, waters and communities. We pay our respects to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures and to Elders past and present.