Physics Colloquium - Smitha Vishveshwara 11/5/2025

Title: ”Quantum Voyages, Cosmic Journeys: Our Shared Stories”

Abstract: From ancient monuments to modern-day films, the confluence of the arts, culture, and physics has led to a deeper understanding of nature, to enchanting ways of perceiving science, to alternative modalities of education, to crafting new artistic dimensions, to technological progress, and to pure fun! In the Urbana-Champaign community, we have woven these confluences through a multitude of interconnected threads, making it a way of life. In a project-based interdisciplinary course entitled Where the Arts meets Physics, we bring alive the universe, classical phenomena, and the quantum world through installations, performance, and more. Science, theater, music, dance, and circus have joined hands in several large-scale performance pieces such as Quantum Voyages, The Joy of Regathering, and Cosmic Whispers: Shared Voices. In turn, these endeavors have vastly enriched our physics research. We have come together as CASCaDe, Collective for Art-Science, Creativity and Discovery, etc.

As one of our deeply cherished art-science anchors, the extraordinary Latrelle Bright, would say, “We are all storytellers”, a profound guiding perspective in our community’s visions and work. Here, I shall share not only the stories told within our creations, but also the stories of how they came to be and of the wonder and curiosity they bring as we explore our shared place in the Universe. 

This colloquium is dedicated to the loving memory of Latrelle Bright.