“Nothing comes into being out of what is non-existent. It’s our common observation that nothing magically appears out of nothing. It is also our common experience that stuff doesn’t magically disappear. These are concepts that are embedded deep in our common understanding.” Jim Baggott

I have finished the video work exploring the decomposition of space.

Contingent Horizons looks at how space is perceived as a plotted dimension, as abstract space calculated mathematically but perhaps not something we can visualise, and as imagined space.

“You’re locked inside a bony skull trying to figure what’s out there in the world. There’s no light inside the skull, there’s no sound either, all you’ve got to go on are streams of electrical impulses which are only indirectly related to things in the world, whatever they may be. Perception, figuring out what’s there has to be a process of informed guesswork” Anil Seth

Setting off at dawn and walking the most direct route to each of the four points due North, East, South and West of my home the film charts the three mile journeys which approximate the distance to my visible horizon at sea level.

“It may be that these four dimensions are manifest to us but that in fact we are embedded in a higher dimensional space.” Neil deGrasse Tyson

Possible hierarchies of dimensions and perception are viewed from three speculative perspectives; ‘the seeker’ who wishes to discover what is beyond the horizon; ‘the seer’ who imagines what might be beyond; and ‘the scientist’ who offers calculated theories.

It’s possible that ‘spacetime is really dramatically warped so that we really only experience one region of space and other regions of space have less influence on us’ Lisa Randall

Constantly changing ephemeral landscapes begin to lose form and clarity as the horizon approaches breaking down into contour lines and foliations.

The decomposition of shape into lines and circles and obfuscating patterns reflects the difficulty we have not only trying to see what is beyond our horizons but how we interpret the world around us and what information we trust.

The journey is accompanied by audio clips from academic and popular lectures which act as a sort of internal dialogue. Walking and thinking. Walking can help to improve brain function and aid creativity.

We may live in a multiverse of bubbles each with wildly different laws of physics. String theory allows for many universes with different physical laws. It may be possible our universe could suddenly transform into a universe with different properties. If this did happen it would be so fast we wouldn’t even register it.

Enjoying the many patterns playing with kaleidoscope effects using video footage of soap film membranes. In the 7th dimension space acts in a similar way to a bubble membrane trying to minimise surface area.

Trying to visualize other dimensions is not easy. The odd little book Flatland written by clergyman Edwin Abbott in 1884 demonstrates just how hard it is to grasp anything beyond what we can experience.

I have been awarded a micro commission by Queens Hall Digital an arts organisation based in the North East of England to make a short film about our interaction with cosmic rays.

Cosmic rays, some travelling from other galaxies, pass through us and our world continuously, creating an almost tangible contact with outer space. Witnessing this incredible activity helps us to look beyond what our immediate senses tell us exists and consider the interconnectedness of our universe. I have been filming the beautiful trails formed within a cloud chamber by these unseen travellers from the stars and thinking about the journey of these particles and the impact of their collisions as they strike Earth’s atmosphere and shower down upon us.

Making tiles to fold together a bit like a lenticular but to reflect the raster pattern created when early television signals were broadcast using 30 lines to make up one image. John Logie Baird set up the Baird Television Development Company in 1926, he was the first to transmit experimental television broadcasts for the BBC.

Television and radio broadcasts can travel out of Earth’s atmosphere and through space, albeit quickly becoming very diffuse and hard to pick up. FM radio or television signals can pierce the ionosphere and travel through the vacuum of space at the speed of light. Currently these fragmented signals could be picked up by other worlds about 90 lightyears away. Basically my Mother’s lifetime to travel so far.

First exhibition visit in a long time was a real treat.

Victoria Rance’s In Real Life at Cable Depot. It was so good to escape into this poignant and shadowy otherworld. It was also available to view online via webcam but definitely best experienced sitting alone on the carpet in the dark.