Nature of / and the Apparatus

In this paper I present aspects of my practice-based research, which focuses upon my cross-disciplinary collaborations undertaken with particle physicists working at the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN). This research led to the production and exhibition of a series of audiovisual artworks that engage with the philosophical, epistemological, and material aspects of particle physics. Issues arising between theory and experimentation – in terms of observation and measurement. My inquiry into the philosophy of particle physics has been framed largely through the epistemology of quantum physicist Niels Bohr. I discuss Bohr’s insights regarding nature and apparatuses, which I frame in the concepts of technological agency developed by contemporary scientific philosopher Andrew Pickering. Through my interactions with both physicists and apparatuses, I have produced artworks which express and question the limits of, and relationships between the subatomic and macroscopic universe, and the tensions and connections between art science.