My art and science project is a project based on quantum theory. It includes the difference of electrons acting as particles and electrons in wave-particle duality. It is a drawing done on a canvas and colored in with wax crayons, also with a border painted around it in acrylic paint. This was done for personal preferences and desired effects to enhance a message that will be discussed in this rationale.
There are particles, and there are waves... and then... there are electrons. In quantum theory, electrons act as both waves and particles. This can be described as wave-particle duality. In my art and science project, I have separated my drawing into two parts, where one side shows particles and a world that our brain perceives, and the other side shows wave-particle duality, in a quantum world.
On the particle side, there are clouds in the sky, where one says the time (11:00 AM) to show that it is day-time and that there has to be light. There is also a very quiet mountain with no activity. And most importantly, there is the light source, which is the sun. The light that comes from the sun can be described as particles that act in the world that our brains perceive the world today. Down the lower middle of the project, there is an ocean in between the two mountains. This is simply to separate the mountains and without meaning. To sum up, the left side of the drawing is what we humans can perceive. But on the quantum side, it's much more different.
Similar to the left side, there is a sky, there are clouds, and there is a mountain. But the different part is that the clouds have faces, the mountain has electrons playing as a musical band, and most importantly, the light source is sleeping on the clouds. This is to show that there is no light and that nothing is being observed. The right side shows quantum theory because the electrons are now behaving not only as a particle, but also as a wave. This represents wave-particle duality. This scenario is what our brains CANNOT perceive and that is why the right side of this drawing defies common sense. In the quantum world, when electrons are not being observed, they behave differently, and so we humans do not know what is going on because we are not there to see it. The electrons playing in a musical band is just a way of showing something that we can never see, or something that our brains can never interpret in the real world other than in art.
Now that the science has been interpreted, the art will be discussed. The project was done as a drawing rather than a painting because there is no way this project would have had the same end result as a painting. By this, I mean that I cannot paint if my life depended on it, so I drew my idea on a canvas. Also, the wax crayons were used for a special effect which I personally desired. I preferred wax crayons over pencil crayons because pencil crayons are dull and light, whereas wax crayons are strong and bright. The color stands out and I find that wax crayons add a certain texture. By texture, I mean that when I would color on the canvas, the color would not fill every spot. I purposely did not fill in these empty holes because the project would look to plain and simple, when now it has an effect, almost like pointillism. This texture is my way of being artistic, along with the fact that I only colored in one pattern so that the drawing would not look messy. Also, as irrelevant as it is, I like the feeling of the wax crayons on the canvas. The dark painted borders allow the drawing to stand out more.
To conclude, I feel that this drawing expresses the idea of quantum theory and wave-particle duality extremely well. All content in this project was inspired by Dr. Quantum's double slit experiment.