A long time ago, Plato said that what we see is not what is truly present around us. Scientists contradicted him and concluded that the human being is complex enough to be able to perceive everything that surrounds it. The discovery of Quantum Theory disturbed the way life was once seen, in a sense defeating the notion of common sense. Thus, Quantum Theory proved that Plato’s prediction was correct.

I wanted my work of art to be based on our notion of common sense, which refers to the idea of what the human being can see and cannot see. This is the reason why I have a large eye in the middle of my work. Since everything is based on what humans see or create, I thought it would be necessary to have the eye to represent everything that we visualize. I decided to deal with two main ideas that defeat our common sense and to consider these two ideas in the function of our perception. These two ideas were the double duality of light in the visible electromagnetic spectrum and the double duality of electrons. In my artwork, the two themes are developed to respond to what the eye sees (everything on top of the eye) and when the eye does not see (everything in the bottom of the eye).

Before explaining how I decided to explore the two ideas, it is necessary to understand the concept of the eye. Since the human eye has a black hole in the middle and white on the surroundings, the eye I drew is the opposite. The white hole in the middle represents the place from where human sees. It is white because, in the white light, there is the presence of all the colours and it is only this visible spectrum that is perceived by us. The wavelengths around the white hole represent the colors perceived by the eye and present in the white light. On the other hand, the black around the eye represents the absence of all colors. The surrounding of the eye is black because it is a part of the eye where we cannot see. That is why I changed the colors of the natural eye.

The idea of the visible range of the electromagnetic spectrum fascinated me. It was difficult for me to conceive the idea that human beings are not able to see 1 nm beyond the interval from 400 nm to 750 nm. To demonstrate the double duality of light, I showed the wave particle on top of the eye coming from the sun. I chose the visible range because they are the only colors we can see. In the bottom of the eye, I showed the particle duality of light because the wavelength is made of many photons. Thus, the wavelengths become photons. This defeats our common sense because it is absurd how light could be a wave and a particle at the same time. Also, I showed the photoelectric effect when a photon dislodges an electron from a metal. We can observe, in my artwork, that it is the waves that are the most energetic that could dislodge electrons.

Furthermore, for the double duality of electrons, when there’s an observer, the electron behaves as a particle. The absence of an observer makes the electron behave like a wave. In my artwork, two of the electrons dislodged from the photoelectric effect pass through a double slit. On top of the eye, there is no interference pattern because the electron behaves as a particle. Thus, there are two slits and two lines instead of an interference pattern. On the other hand, the absence of an observer (on the bottom of the eye) makes the electron split in two and then go through the double slit. In this case, an interference pattern will be the result of this double slit experiment, making us believe that the electron has a wave-duality.

In conclusion, Plato’s theory of life inspired me and made me develop a piece of artwork that illustrates the fact that common sense is in a way defeated by Quantum Theory. Finally, I am proud of my artwork because it is the first time that I have painted on a big canvas. I have worked hard to make the best painting I am capable of on a very interesting subject: the discovery of Quantum Theory.