Universe Journal

“We inhabit a universe where atoms are made in the centers of stars; where each second a thousand suns are born; where life is sparked by sunlight and lightning in the airs and waters of youthful planets; where the raw material for biological evolution is sometimes made by the explosion of a star halfway across the Milky Way; where a thing as beautiful as a galaxy is formed a hundred billion times - a Cosmos of quasars and quarks, snowflakes and fireflies, where there may be black holes and other universe and extraterrestrial civilizations whose radio messages are at this moment reaching the Earth. How pallid by comparison are the pretensions of superstition and pseudoscience; how important it is for us to pursue and understand science, that characteristically human endeavor. ” 

Carl Sagan, Cosmos

The project I did on the big bang is one I suspect I will keep revisiting. Recently I found an amazing quote by Carl Sagan which summed up everything I feel about science and decided to incorporate a shortened version into another book.

This book was pretty simply made, I just wanted to test out an idea I had about using holes to show expansion.

I used fineline pen and a ruler to draw out the lines, collage, and watercolours.

I like the way the image builds up and almost creates a mirror image effect.

I finished the book off using a photo I had taken of my friend Maya at Mills Observatory in Dundee, which I had liked but hadn't found a use for yet. I liked the shadow clock and thinking about the different ways that people try and chart time.

Universe Book Project

One of my favourite briefs this year was having to produce an illustrated story. I decided to combine my interests in art and physics and make a universe creation story. I started off by doing a bit of research into the big bang. What I found fascinating about the scientific and philosophical theories I looked at was that so many centred around the idea that humans are the reason for and hence the creators of the universe. I tried to combine some ideas from quantum theory and the anthropic principle with religious creation theories to highlight that both science and religion are, to varying degrees, leaps of faith, and also to show my conclusion that that everyone needs to be important, to some extent, to be "God".

I produced a series of illustrations in my A4 sketchbook, then printed off scans of them and made a little A6 book. I found illustrating these abstract concepts challenging but very enjoyable. Here is the result.