This post is by Matt Bulluck, a faculty member from the School of Drama at the UNC School of the Arts and an ARTStem participant. Parallel Universes
I found the work we did this summer during the ARTStem seminar challenging and exciting. The readings asked of us made me question and think. I loved the documentary film on paper folding, enjoyed the trip to Duke, and got a lot out of our discussions. However, it was the film "Parallel Worlds, Parallel Lives" and Hugh Everett's proposal of the many-worlds interpretation of quantum physics that captured my imagination most completely. Indeed the concept of parallel worlds has been chasing me ever since we finished the session.
The concept of parallel worlds or alternate realities has been of great interest to many artists: H.G. Wells, Lewis Carroll, C.S. Lewis, and Jorge Luis Borges have all explored this in their fiction. An alternate reality and a portal in which to travel into it seems to jump start the imagination and open up new possibilities for artists.
Ten days after our first ARTstem work session, I picked up my copy of Michael Chabon's "The Yiddish Policeman's Union." The book had sat on my bookshelf since I picked it up at Border's a year ago, awaiting the moment when I could find time to read it. I liked his novel "The Wonder Boys" and loved the Pultzer Prize-winning "The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay," one of the best books of the century.
"The Yiddish Policeman's Union" is a detective story set in a parallel universe. It takes place in the Federal District of Sitka in the Alaskan panhandle, a land which for sixty years has been a safehaven for Jews in the wake of the Holocaust and the collapse of the state of Israel. Chabon's remarkable reworking of history in a land where Yiddish has replaced English as the native tongue is a dazzling mystery. Imagine a world where the events of the past have completely
changed the future: there is no Jewish state of Israel and the Federal District is about to revert to Alaskan control. Where is the promised
land?
Last night I took a break "The Yiddish Policeman's Union," stopped thinking about parallel universes, and went to the $2.50 movie theatre to see "Star Trek. However, the makers of "Star Trek" are also interested in parallel universes, and getting away from ARTstem is easier said than done. When I sat in the beat up movie theatre, the smell of popcorn triggered memories of my youth, not unlike Proust and his madeleine. Then, as I watch a young Spock meet an old Spock, I am began to think that there is no getting away from the discussions that Mike Wakeford led at ARTstem. For me, thoughts of parallel universes and alternate realities are everywhere.
In the upcoming weeks, after I finish "The Yiddish Policeman's Union," I am planning on putting together a list of novels, plays and films dealing with science. I am curious as to what alternate reality I would be living if I had not spent four days this summer exploring the concepts we examined at ARTStem.
The concept of parallel worlds or alternate realities has been of great interest to many artists: H.G. Wells, Lewis Carroll, C.S. Lewis, and Jorge Luis Borges have all explored this in their fiction. An alternate reality and a portal in which to travel into it seems to jump start the imagination and open up new possibilities for artists.
Ten days after our first ARTstem work session, I picked up my copy of Michael Chabon's "The Yiddish Policeman's Union." The book had sat on my bookshelf since I picked it up at Border's a year ago, awaiting the moment when I could find time to read it. I liked his novel "The Wonder Boys" and loved the Pultzer Prize-winning "The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay," one of the best books of the century.
"The Yiddish Policeman's Union" is a detective story set in a parallel universe. It takes place in the Federal District of Sitka in the Alaskan panhandle, a land which for sixty years has been a safehaven for Jews in the wake of the Holocaust and the collapse of the state of Israel. Chabon's remarkable reworking of history in a land where Yiddish has replaced English as the native tongue is a dazzling mystery. Imagine a world where the events of the past have completely
changed the future: there is no Jewish state of Israel and the Federal District is about to revert to Alaskan control. Where is the promised
land?
Last night I took a break "The Yiddish Policeman's Union," stopped thinking about parallel universes, and went to the $2.50 movie theatre to see "Star Trek. However, the makers of "Star Trek" are also interested in parallel universes, and getting away from ARTstem is easier said than done. When I sat in the beat up movie theatre, the smell of popcorn triggered memories of my youth, not unlike Proust and his madeleine. Then, as I watch a young Spock meet an old Spock, I am began to think that there is no getting away from the discussions that Mike Wakeford led at ARTstem. For me, thoughts of parallel universes and alternate realities are everywhere.
In the upcoming weeks, after I finish "The Yiddish Policeman's Union," I am planning on putting together a list of novels, plays and films dealing with science. I am curious as to what alternate reality I would be living if I had not spent four days this summer exploring the concepts we examined at ARTStem.
--Matt Bulluck
Another follow-up sighting of Everett's theory here: http://www.artstem.org/?p=311
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