Sculpture: Tree of Wisdom
Can exotic physics be reconciled with spiritual teachings about the nature of reality?
The Tree of Wisdom is a sculpture asking how we can combine our intellectual knowledge, our cultural wisdom and our spiritual gnosis.
The sculpture is comprised of 3 elements:
The equations -
Are written in invisible UV ink and show key moments in our scientific understanding of reality, including: Euler’s identity, wave-particle duality, the Fourier transform and Einstein’s light-clock experiment.
The equations are written in invisible marker to symbolise the virtual nature of our symbolic knowledge, which is only visible under the light of consciousness, disappearing when we die.
Paintings -
The paintings of cultural patterns on the trunk draw inspiration from nature, Palaeolithic, Polynesian, Celtic, and Turkish cultures. The glowing paint is charged by the UV pulses, and stays lit for longer than the equations do, symbolising the way that culture lives beyond the individual’s life.
Audio -
Audio content is played on 5 sets of headphones including work on Zen Buddhism, mythology, ethnobotany, hermeticism, and classical music. The sculpture itself acts as an oracle for those who come to it, providing the wisdom they need depending on what is playing when they visit the tree.
The sculpture is a counterpoint to the biblical Tree of Knowledge, the fruit of which brought separation, by providing teachings that point us back to unity.
Exhibitions:
The sculpture was funded by Nowhere Festival in July 2019 as a centrepiece for “Knowhere”, a space dedicated to the pursuit of wisdom.
Those that came across it on Friday night had the opportunity to learn relevant topics from Mathematics and Physics in an open air lecture.
It has since been exhibited at Athenaeum in London, the Tree of Life event in Brighton, and at Microburn Festival 2019 in Wales.
Upcoming exhibitions will focus around the emerging nature of artificial intelligence.
