RT Article
T1 Wonders and tremors in the aftershocks of high energy physics
JF Journal of religious and political practice
VO 3
IS 3
SP 120
OP 135
A1 Morgain, Rachel
LA English
PB Routledge, Taylor & Francis
YR 2017
UL https://ixtheo.de/Record/1663371989
AB This article addresses the quality of wonder that surrounds contemporary sites of high-energy physics, and the ethical implications of seeking to engage with these sites as sources of wonderment. It focuses on three pivot points in the emergence of high-energy physics that radiate with a quality of uncanny awe: the first atomic test, conducted under the codename Trinity; the statue of the dancing Nataraja outside the Large Hadron Collider at CERN; and the artistic engagements with particle physics of the Australian Synchrotron's first artist-in-residence, Chris Henschke. It explores how sites of high-energy physics resonate with potent fears, stemming from the aftershocks of the first nuclear weapons tests and the ultimate unknowability of scientific experiment with powerfully destructive technologies. Drawing on Mary-Jane Rubenstein's notion of 'strange wonder' and Karen Barad's philosophical work on quantum entanglement, it seeks to explore both the troubling qualities of wonder surrounding popular discourses in high-energy physics and the potential to remake our relationships with its sites and cosmologies, focusing on artistic approaches that suggest new registers for our strange wonder.
K1 science and technology studies
K1 Art and science
K1 nuclear tests
K1 PARTICLE physics
K1 quantum entanglement
K1 religious imagery
K1 Wonder
DO 10.1080/20566093.2017.1351168