2017 Bridges Conference Nominees' Gallery

Laura De Decker and Raymond Laflamme

Artists

Laura De Decker and Raymond Laflamme

Artist and Scientific Collaborator

Waterloo ON, Canada

http://www.lauradedecker.com

Statement

I'm a visual artist using computer programming as an artistic tool to create large-format abstract prints, video sequences, or interactive multimedia environments. My artistic interests intersect with concerns of quantum information because both are engaged with the dualistic properties of our world including: object and subject, theory and practice, art and science, modernism and post-modernism, classical and quantum, wave and particle, psychological and physical, and digital and analogue; these are at the heart of fundamental physics and my creative explorations using colour and geometry. This work resulted from my artist residency, and collaboration with Raymond Laflamme, at the Institute for Quantum Computing at University of Waterloo.

Artworks

Image for entry 'Interference Pattern of Quantum Random Walk'

Interference Pattern of Quantum Random Walk

50 x 50 x 5 cm

giclee print

2017

This image shows the interference pattern of potential quantum random states over time. Time is represented in rows starting from the bottom of the image. I created a graphical notation that translates Dirac or matrix notations; I changed the spin order for aesthetic compositional reasons. The colour and triangle orientation correspond to sign (positive or negative numbers) and spin: black are plus up; grey are minus up; bright red are plus down and dark red are minus down. For each particular quantum random walk, it’s more uncertain (than classical) what path has been taken because of the interference created by superposition and entanglement between position and spin states, and indeterminate because a measurement would affect the result.