Bronna Butler
My early interest in both the Arts and Science/Math resulted in two rotating careers, one in art and another in finance/science. My current artwork - multifaceted glass, mirror and metal sculptures focused on recreational mathematics, portraits of mathematicians and physicists, and science in general - unites my two passions. I strive to include puzzles, enigmas and optical illusions in my pieces. Stylistically, my glass and oil painting techniques are derived from the Baroque and Renaissance periods when artists were involved in the “science” of the arts such as the chemistry of their paints/materials, precise anatomy and perspective. The content and purpose of art during these two periods frequently embraced science and mathematics.
Inspired by the depiction of a (double) null cone in Roger Penrose’s recent book, "Fashion Faith and Fantasy in the New Physics of the Universe", I created a five-paneled, transparent, painted glass sculpture intended to “suggest” the fourth dimension, space-time. My piece shows the binary code 1011, for the decimal number 11, swirling down into “slices” of the “past” null/light cone interior and swirling up out of “slices” of the “future” null/light cone interior as the binary code 1101, for the decimal number 13, (the mirror image of 1011). 1101 is visible through the transparent panels, on the back side of the last panel (viewed from either side). For my art-piece, the future of 11 in space-time is 13 (the consecutive prime number).
A laser beam fired through a certain type of crystal can cause individual photons, at the quantum level, to be split into pairs of entangled photons....actions performed on one affect the other, even when they are separated by great distances. My piece, "Entangled", depicts two pairs of entangled particles. I painted (and fired in a kiln) 2D de Bruijn 4 X 4 arrays (window length four) on two clear glass panels, with spinning red and yellow particles in the corresponding 2 X 2 windows - separated by the space between the panels. For one of the pairs, one of the photons has been "observed/measured". From observation of the painted particles, you can determine which of the two painted pairs has been "measured".