The representation of the brain in the drawing is essential since every single part of this work is based on models and ideas conceived by the human mind. The position is well chosen to demonstrate this fact. I placed it at the bottom of the drawing for the viewer to see that everything emerges from the cerebrum. Furthermore, its central position symbolizes its crucial role in the development of mental models like the ones present in my artwork.
In the central portion of the drawing, we see the multiple models of the atom organised in a historical fashion. I put it in the centre to show that it supports the whole work. Without the concept of the atom, the other concepts portrayed in this drawing would not make sense.
On the left side, we can see square boxes. There are two important aspects to them: their content and their size. The contents, Greek letter lambda and lowercase letter h, are respectively the variable for wavelength and the Planck’s constant. Both are constituents of the formula used to calculate the energy of a wave. As for the size of the boxes, they reflect an important Big Idea of Chemistry: Periodicity. They are arranged from top to bottom in ascending order of size, i.e. the size increases as we go down. The atomic radius is one particular periodic property that reflects this behaviour because as we go down any given family of the periodic table, the atomic radius increases.
The next Big Idea, that of chemical bonds forming when electrons pair, is shown by pairs of the letter e. These are placed among molecules to emphasize that they are the cause of bond formation in these molecules. Furthermore, the e pairs are a reference to the 9th Big Idea which states that there are four types of chemical reaction. One of them, the Lewis acid-base reaction, occurs when electron pairs are shared. This is clearly depicted in the artwork.
On the right side, a variety of molecules are shown. As can be seen, they have very different molecular shapes. This is a way for me to convey the Atkins’s Big Idea about molecular shape and since they occupy a significant part of the drawing, I insist on their importance.
Now, we get to the colours used. The background colour of the middle portion of my drawing symbolizes a very specific idea. We can see that the background is composed of three colours: white on top, grey in the middle, and black at the bottom. I chose this tonal pattern to specifically represent a concept that struck me throughout the course: the quantum state of things. The black portion illustrates the false state, the white portion shows the true state and the grey portion symbolizes the quantum state, where true and false overlap. Concerning the remaining colours, we can see that they are applied in a particularly disordered way. This is my way of symbolizing something that really struck me: the chaos and confusion of quantum theory. I find it confusing because we do not exactly know the electron’s position, speed, and state. Is it a wave or a particle? The only way to know is to look and alter its behaviour! There are indeed a lot of unanswered questions in the quantum world.
However, the catchiest section of the drawing is the statement at the top. Let me explain this disclaimer:
None of us have ever seen an atom. So we conceived models to REPRESENT them. By drawing the model, I am producing a representation of the model. Since the model is itself the representation of an atom, my drawing ends up being the REPRESENTATION OF THE REPRESENTATION of an atom and not simply its representation!