THE SKETCHBOOK AND THE COLLIDER
DRAWING LINKS BETWEEN FINE ART AND PARTICLE PHYSICS
IN COLLABORATION WITH PROF. KOSTAS NIKOLOPOULOS

As an epileptic and ME/CFS sufferer I have always been interested in the hidden processes underlying reality and the human mind, how matter is created and how can this lead to consciousness.

My collaboration The sketchbook and the Collider grew from a residency at the University of Birmingham in 2017 with Professor Kostas Nikolopoulos and sought equivalents between the language of drawing and the interaction of the fundamental particles that create the visible universe. It has broadened to include work with Professor Claire Anderson responding to her investigation into disruption of neuronal networks in the brain.

Artistic research connecting the two suggests a “rhythmical pattern or choreography” underlying reality and unfolding at various scales from the cosmological to the subatomic.

This evolving trans-disciplinary project has delivered 16 exhibition/events and over 40 supporting practical and educational workshops which increasingly form an integral part of the work itself.

“Rhythmical: the particles, the cave, the brain and the body.” The Gallery at The Hive, Ruskin Mill Trust, 2024

“Rhythmical: the particles, the cave, the brain and the body.” The Gallery at The Hive, Ruskin Mill Trust, 2024

ABOUT THE PROJECT
The sketchbook and the Collider collaboration grew organically out of informal discussions during 2016 between myself and Professor Kostas Nikolopoulos from the particle physics group at University of Birmingham. We realized both our specialisms are concerned with “making the invisible visible.” Scientific developments have seen the “everyday” dissolve into sub-atomic interactions only accessible by examining traces exposed in a detector a process mirrored by the artist expressing ideas through marks made and materials manipulated. Taking the same journey from something hidden to something revealed.

A full residency at the University of Birmingham enabled more in-depth research comparing an essential piece of equipment from each discipline, the sketchbook and the particle collider. Both seen as arenas where different elements are brought together, sometimes violently, that create and examine the traces of these hidden interactions. The mechanics of making a drawing are exposed in the same way that physicists reveal fundamental particles, creating an intimate visual and conceptual connection between the visual language of drawing and the interaction of sub-atomic particles which are the building blocks of our reality.

The quantum world describes things not as they are, but as they occur and interact. Drawing is a process well suited to capturing elements in flux and a perfect vehicle for exploring the particles as they decay and interact, sometimes existing for a fleeting moment before transforming or annihilating in a collision. However, the outcome is a static object, and this led to the use of moving image approaches where drawn footage is manipulated in a way equivalent to the processes that particles undergo in a Collider. Experimentation followed with “live” drawing events involving the interaction of participants making marks on a communal drawing surface also incorporating the sound of the different media being used.

The sketchbook and the Collider has now delivered 40 workshops and 16 exhibition/events. At the Forum Exposition Bonlieu in Annecy, France in October 2022, “Reality is not what it seems,” attracted almost 1000 visitors during its three-week run and we estimate the exhibitions and associated events have now exceeded 6000 visitors participants with an on-line audience taking that figure well beyond 20,000. Following the exhibition in France I was invited to talk at the International Particle Physics Outreach Group 25th annual conference at CERN in Geneva where the audience were fascinated by the embedding of complex scientific concepts within rhythmical mark-making activity.

Generous funding from the Pollock-Krasner Foundation in America and a John Feeney Charitable Trust Fellowship from the city of Birmingham, both in 2023/24, enabled ambitious developments combining the drawn language with three-dimensional forms culminating in an exhibition “Rhythmical: the particles, the cave, the brain and the body” at The Gallery at the Hive at the Ruskin Mill trust in 2024.

“Reality is not what it seems.” Forum Exposition Bonlieu France. 2022.

The artwork is basically pen on paper developed initially to allay my collaborators uncertainty regarding artists use of unusual and exotic materials. Working with a ballpoint pen picked up from his desk and on sheets of paper made the process accessible and a diagrammatic drawing style developed. Whilst the work has evolved to encompass a wider range of materials the pen-ink-paper foundation has felt integral to the project with the contrast between gigantic cutting-edge particle colliders required for up-to-date scientific research and one of the oldest writing drawing surfaces connecting the distant past and the technological present.

The Sketchbook and Collider has now evolved, linking what I thought were disparate strands in my work. Fusing with my response to the research of Professor Clare Anderson into the disruption of Circadian Rhythms and its effect on neuronal networks. My physicist’s description of the interaction of quantum fields forcefully reminding me of Professor Anderson’s outlining of neuronal activity. I have subsequently begun to search for a rhythmical interactive unit or “choreography” underlying reality across a range of radically different scales.

Even drawing underground as an equivalent to my physicist’s subterranean detection experiments in mines and Professor Anderson’s description of historical sleep deprivation experiments held in caves. I was excited by the contrast between the subatomic particles darting close to the speed of light and the “arrested movement” of the rock structures accumulating over vast periods of geological time. My drawn rhythms responding to half perceived structures connecting the visible and the hidden were located between these two extremes as the human experience of reality. Navigating bodies through the world driven by the microscopic neuronal electrical activity continually firing at different rates within the brain.

EDUCATION AND ENGAGEMENT
Integral to the project are the engagement activities involving educational workshops, talks and collaborative events enabling recent exhibitions to become a focus for trans-disciplinary collaboration and educational engagement involving community groups, families, primary and secondary schools and colleges. The workshops aim to break down barriers between subject areas and encourages participants to develop a “creative curiosity “about the world around them. The workshops explore the ideas of rhythmical interaction with complex ideas embedded in “making and doing.”

Recent exhibitions: “Point to Line to Particle” at the Beacon Museum and “Reality is not what it seems” at the Forum Exposition Bonlieu have been scheduled to link with significant annual scientific events, British Science week with the former and Fete de la Science with the latter, ensuring a wider audience. Although exhibitions and workshops can and do happen in isolation nevertheless a model has been established with the Workshops / events happening within/ or nearby the exhibition creating a synergy and greater engagement with the participants. The latest exhibition at the Ruskin Mill Trust in 2024 saw a series of workshops working with vulnerable young adults.

Prof. Nikolopoulos and I co-authored an academic paper published by the Institute of Physics entitled “Introducing particle physics concepts through the visual arts”. In 2020 Prof. Nikolopoulos received the Public Outreach Award from the European Research Council for his collaboration with The Sketchbook and the Collider and dancer/choreographer Mairi Pardalaki, and The Neutrino Passoire.

“Point to Line to Particle.” The Beacon Museum, Cumbria. 2022.

“Visualising particle physics concepts through the visuals arts.” Workshop for secondary schools.

”Draw the Quarks” Workshop for primary schools.

I use exhibitions to drive developments in the work and produce some pieces especially for the specific location. Different spaces encourage different possibilities: the high walls at the Ruskin Mill trust, 2024 and Studio KIND,2021 enabled a massive increase in scale both as a response to the scale of the detectors necessary for current research but also, to encourage a more active viewer, moving forward to inspect the tiny visual events, moving back to take in the large overall compositions. Becoming part of the particle “choreography”. The long low walls at the Beacon Museum led to a series of drawings referencing the LINACS or linear accelerators where particles are fired in a long line at stationary target. The site-specific feature drawing was 17m long!

I aim to establish the existence of this universal rhythmical pattern and reaching out via engagement workshops to investigate if these universal rhythmical patterns can benefit participants within the context of practical mark-making workshops. Then to combine their responses with my work and animate the drawings through digital moving image approaches and integrate these with drawings on sculptural forms that must be negotiated, introducing movement and participation in response to this “universal rhythmic choreography.”

“States of Vibration.” Drawing/moving image installation. “Point to Line to Particle.” The Beacon Museum. 2022.

“ATLAS 2.” Drawing, spray paint on paper. “Media Matter and Energy.” Studio-KIND, North Devon 2021.

“Collaborative drawing – quantum field theory.” Year 8 pupils. Warwick School. Shared Spaces Arts Festival. 2022,

“LINAC 5.” Pen and ink and airbrush on paper. ”Point to Line to Particle.” The Beacon Museum, Cumbria. 2022

“Particles on Edge,” hand drawn artist book, pen and ink on tissue paper. 2019.

“Score for particles,” hand drawn artist book, pen and ink on tracing paper, 2022.

“To Fold is to Form.” Pen and ink, airbrush and acrylic gesso on paper mounted on Birchwood ply. 2024.

“The particles, the cave, the brain and the body.” Pen and ink, pencil airbrush and solvent transfer printing on paper.

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MAIN PROJECT WEBSITE https://www.thesketchbookandthecollider.com
Short talk about the project https://youtu.be/Y4jHguzDGss
MAIN YOU TUBE CHANNEL https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCu-i47s6bT6NHWm4ViOzdJw/feed

All images copyright and courtesy of Ian Andrews

Art, Creativity, Drawing, Installation, Science, Sculpture, Time