The innovative theories and ideas of 20^th century scientific development can be arguably characterized as the first stages of the genuine unravelling of the understanding of the complexity of the universe by mankind - an understanding perhaps not in the conventional sense where scientific knowledge is gained and applied to the surrounding world but one where the intricacies of science slowly reveal themselves to man - which has permitted humans to come to terms with the grand notions of uncertainty that we now know are central to the universe. Quantum Theory and the ideas proposed by Louis de Broglie and Albert Einstein, the latter of which would go on to, through his postulations, radically alter our view on space and time, represent the pinnacle of this concept.

In taking this course, I have come to a better understanding and appreciation of the true nature of the complexity of science. Quantum theory proves that what humans see or believe to see does not always correspond to the truth of the matter. In my artwork I sought to encapsulate this aforementioned idea by referencing two integral modern scientific theories of the 20^th century: Louis de Broglie's theory of wave-particle duality and Einstein's theory of general relativity. One of the main aspects that my artwork draws attention to is the word 'space' written in large bold letters in the bottom right-hand corner of the page. The image was inspired by an internet image I came across by an unknown artist. Next to it there is a magnifying glass which is zooming in on the letter 'c' of the word 'space' revealing that the word is actually comprised of numerous smaller letters that are packed together tightly and together form the word 'time' which repeats itself throughout. There are two notions that are being conveyed in this instance. Firstly, the idea that matter and atoms are made up of mostly empty space is evidently presented as seen in the magnified image which shows that, although the word 'time' is indeed what the bigger word is made up of, a great deal of the space within the bigger word is simply empty space. The second notion being presented is the revelation of the profound interconnectedness between the two mediums of space and time which, until the arrival of Einstein, had been considered to be two different concepts entirely. The depiction of 'time' within 'space' compliments the image in the upper left-hand side which illustrates a sun - which for aesthetic purposes was drawn in the style of a less realistic and more ancient looking image of a celestial sun as seen on ancient maps and drawings of space - on top of what at first glance appears to be a distorted grid of sorts. In fact, this image is communicating an aspect of Einstein's general theory of relativity and space-time (again connecting to the 'space/time' image) which stated that gravity was not instantaneous as Isaac Newton had posited so long ago but that gravity was in reality the result of celestial bodies causing the fabric of space itself to bend resulting in the remarkable curvature of space.

The sun, in my artwork, is also depicted with a beam of light shining down which highlights numerous waves and particles. With this I evidently chose to reference the notion of wave-particle duality as posited by Louis De Broglie and corroborated by Albert Einstein. The beam of light places a spotlight on De Broglie's mathematical formula for wave-particle duality. This theory proposed that if light can have material properties then matter should exhibit wave properties. In other words, light acts as a wave and a particle at the same time.

This brings to light the notion of objects in superpositions where objects can theoretically be in two states simultaneously. This provides a good segue into the final component of my artwork. On the far-right one finds the head of the well-known cartoon house cat Garfield. The cat's bright orange coloring is arguably what viewers are most quickly drawn to but I feel the image bears as much importance as any of the other images. My decision to use Garfield the cartoon cat is one of the benefits of having artistic licence as the creator of the work. However, the cat is a crucial aspect to the artwork nevertheless. On his collar is written ''Return to: E. Schrödinger'' making reference to the Austrian physicist who posited a thought-experiment where a cat was placed inside a box with a vile of poison. The vile had an equal chance of breaking or not breaking and releasing toxic fumes that would kill the cat. In this hypothetical situation, the cat is in a theoretical superposition where it can be considered both dead and alive similar to De Broglie's wave-particle duality. Above the cat's head we see an arrow pointing towards the mathematical formula for Heisenberg's uncertainty principle. This formula really provides finality to my piece which, I believe, effectively ties together all the above-mentioned concepts. Uncertainty is one of the fundamental and all-pervading notions that I have tried to evoke in my work with art and Quantum Theory. In defying the long-held notions of physics by the faithful of Isaac Newton, Einstein threw the scientific community into uncertainty with his two ground-breaking papers and the development of Quantum Theory, wave-particle duality and theoretical superpositions are all further testament to this idea.