Quantum nature, holism and the space between
The quantum interplay of chaos and order in nature, and it’s role in a holistic interpretation of nature
Artist, Liu Yue, and curator, Fu Xiaodong, in conversation with leading theoretical physicist, Prof. Cristiane Morais Smith in a conversation that combines quantum physics with traditional Chinese epistemology. Together we discussed the complex dynamics of chaos and order, and how the spaces between these states help support a holistic understanding of nature, including our own consciousness. The conversation explores these topics through the lens of cutting edge research into quantum fractals, daoist belief systems, uncertainty and the process of art making. This online event was curated and moderated by Lucy Rose Sollitt.
Dreaming Quantum Futures is part of a conversation series curated by Lucy Rose Sollitt on behalf of the Goethe Institut's Living in a Quantum State programme.
Bios
Fu Xiaodong, currently lives in Beijing, curator, artist, founder of Space Station, appointed teacher of China Academy of Art. She has been the executive editor of Fine Art Literature magazine, the artistic director of CYAP China Youth Art Promotion Program, the artistic director of Ladder Art Center, the editor-in-chief of Contemporary Art News in Taiwan. She has been a visiting curator of 24HR ART in Australia, 2010, and a visiting curator of Fondation Lorraine, Pompidou Metz, France, 2014. She has served as a jury member of Photo levallois, Pierre Huber New Media Creation Award, Asian Youth Art Award in Korea, and CONTECT Video Festival in Toronto. She has curated several contemporary art exhibitions for art museums and art centers at home and abroad, including group exhibitions Figure of Speech: Archetypal Research (The 8th Shenzhen International Ink and Wash Biennale), Becoming: Nature, Technology and Human Production (The 5th Hubei Art Documentary Exhibition), Broken Tongue: Contemporary Art Texts in Post-Centralized Society, and the Post-traditional series. She has curated several thematic exhibitions for University of Toronto Art Museum, Suzhou Museum, Ullens Art Center, a4 Art Museum, Space Station and many other art spaces and galleries. She has given lectures at Columbia University, Centre Pompidou, University of Toronto and Queen’s University in Canada, the Peking University, Central Academy of Fine Arts etc.
Liu Yue (b. 1981) was born and currently resides in Shanghai. Liu Yue's works often take objective things as the starting point, through the extreme intervention of cognitive experience, making the process of in-depth research have a strong sense of agnosticism and the unknown. Liu Yue was nominated for the Art Sanya Huayu Youth Award in 2017, and nominated for the Jimei Arles Discovery Award in 2021. Recent exhibitions include: Liu Yue: Origin, ShanghART M50, Shanghai (2022); Liu Yue: Incarnation, CLC Gallery Venture, Beijing (2019); Liu Yue: Volume, ShanghART M50, Shanghai (2019); The Exhibition of Annual of Contemporary Art of China, Beijing Minsheng Art Museum, Beijing (2019); Liu Yue: OWL, C-Space+Local, Beijing (2018); LIU Yue: Maxim, ShanghART Beijing, Beijing (2016); Mass – Liu Yue Solo Project, Local Space, Beijing (2016); The Gentle Slope – Liu Yue Solo Project, AM Art Space, Shanghai (2015); Nonfigurative, Shanghai Twenty-First Century Minsheng Art Museum, Shanghai (2015), Anthem – Xiao Ming & Xiao Hong, AM Art Space, Shanghai (2012); Alexandria Biennale (2011); Photoquai Photo Biennale(2011).
Christiane Morais Smith is a worldwide recognised researcher working on the theory of strongly-correlated systems. She was awarded the Winter 2019 Emmy Noether Distinction of the European Physical Society, “for her outstanding contributions to the theory of condensed matter systems and ultracold atoms to unveil novel quantum states of matter" and the 2016 Dresselhaus Prize CUI Hamburg University, Senior scientist, “for her outstanding contribution to the understanding of topological phases in two-dimensional atomic and electronic systems”.
A philosopher by training, Lucy Rose Sollitt’s research-led practice maps the contours of emerging art and how it intersects with technologies, economies and ecologies. Lucy works across scales, exploring systemic phenomena and co-/subjective embodied experience. She is motivated by a belief in art as felt knowledge, wonder and the pursuit of fairer and more meaningful forms of coexistence.
Lucy’s work includes writing, curation, strategy and policy development - for organisations ranging from FACT, Serpentine Galleries and Rhizome to the Goethe-Institut, DACS, Tate, Arts Council England and UK government. Lucy regularly teaches and participates in panel discussions, for example, at V&A, QUAD, Christie’s and the RCA.
Lucy’s approach is artist centred. She enjoys working as an artist mentor for SPACE Studios alongside her other projects.
