2014 Bridges Conference

Suzanne McGhee

Artists

Suzanne McGhee

Post-Doctoral Physicist / Mathematics Student / Artist

The Open University

Scotland

sm27572@my.open.ac.uk

Statement

Suzanne McGhee lives and works on the Isle of Bute. She is a trained research physicist and is now mid-way studying a degree in mathematics with The Open University. She has been drawn to maths because of the great abundance of opportunities exploring new mathematical ideas. Suzanne has always created art pieces throughout her life and was lucky enough to combine her research with her love of art at the Courtauld Institute of Art, London, where she used maths and physics to help improve the conservation techniques for old paintings. At present, she uses art for investigating and visualising abstract mathematical theorems and their context in the physical world.

Artworks

Image for entry 'Life in a Negative World = 0'

Life in a Negative World = 0

16.5 x 22 Inches

Acrylic on paper.

2013

What would happen to a leaf, if slowly, positive numbers ceased existing. This is depicted in six stages, starting from the largest to the smallest segment. Stage 1: the world as we know it. Stage 2: positive number are starting to diminish, light is being blue shifted and its rigid patterns are collapsing to a hyperbolic based geometry. Gravity is dominating the upward forces. Stage 3: the original leaf punches through with striking comparison. Stage 4: negativity takes hold. The inability of light to be reflected brings the fall of darkness and the leaf is now crushed under the extreme downward forces. Stage 5: a glimmer of the world we live in. Stage 6: pure black, life cannot exist without positive numbers.