I chose to draw a portrait on canvas as my Art and Science Project. This was done because I had inspiration to draw something after the assignment was given. The drawing was done without any use of paint due to my lack of overall skill with paint.

The centerpiece of my drawing is the “hour glass” comprised of two cubes. These cubes represent the box that houses Schrodinger’s cat. Schrodinger’s Cat was a thought experiment proposed by Erwin Schrodinger in 1935 in order to disprove the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics being applied to objects around us. The experiment leads to the conclusion that the cat inside the box, whose fate is determined by the emission of a random particle, is both dead and alive until the box is opened. This is seen in my drawn interpretation where the two boxes are linked at the middle of the hour glass shape.

However I took my true inspiration to Hugh Everett’s “Many-Worlds” interpretation of the experiment, wherein the cat persists to be both dead and alive at the same time, but split into two different dimensions. In one dimension or world, the cat is alive, while in the other, the cat is dead. This is seen from the distinctive differences between the two linked boxes I had drawn.

I also applied the theory of relativity to my portrait. Through drawing the distorted clocks at the side of the hour glass, and the “contents” of the lower half of the hour glass inversing by seemingly going the opposite direction that it should (the bottom contents going up while the top contents are going down, as it should) , to illustrate the relativity of time. I also used the classic graphic interpretation of the relativity of space, a grid of lines with the center of the grid distorted to either sink under the grid or rise above it. I also used mirrors as internal walls for the box in order to give the illusion of a never ending corridor within the box. This was done to also represent relativity of space.

I also used colours from the opposite ends of the colour spectrum to be present in the boxes. For the top box, I used lively, bright, warm colours to reflect the presence of life in the cat. The opposite yields true for the bottom box, where the colours are cold and gradually darker. This represented the cold, dead corpse of the cat. There were also stains made using pencil and pen on the bottom half to once again represent the dead cat.

The colours also show the connection between the two boxes, as the colours transition into each other, both at the narrow connection in the hour glass and the transition in colours of the clocks on the side.

In the box, more specifically the reflections on the walls of the box, the cats on the top side or alive and the cats on the bottom side are dead. However the walls of these reflections must be taken into account. Logic would state that the walls inside the reflection should also reflect the image of the cat as well, as all walls in the box are mirrors. In a sense, I did make them reflect the cat’s image, whoever the image I gave the cat is that of an electron. It is important to carefully look at the pattern of the walls on the top and bottom boxes. On the top, the colours expand in a wavelike fashion, representing the wave property of the electron, while the bottom walls show a linear transition from colour to colour, representing the particle property of the electron.

The transitions in shades of colours were used solely for aesthetic purposes.

Overall the link to quantum mechanics can be seen through: 1.The use of Schrodinger’s cat to represent the bizarreness of quantum mechanics itself through the paradox of having an observer (the cat) present during a quantum event, something deemed impossible in quantum mechanics. 2. The representation of an electron in wave and particle forms using living and dead cats.

The title chosen is a play on the saying that cats have nine lives, which is obviously scientifically impossible. The title was used to illustrate how in Schrodinger’s experiment, the cat indeed had more than 1 life; it had 2. One life continued while the other died.

The drawing was signed using my Romanised signature and the (failed) imprint of my Chinese name seal.