Dark Matter
Science Gallery, Great Maze Pond, SE1 9GU
6 JUNE - 26 AUGUST 2019
Free
It is thought that we can only see 5% of matter in our universe. Dark matter is thought to make up 5 times this – at 25%, with the even more terrifying 'dark energy' constituting the rest. Scientists have been searching for dark matter for nearly a century, but are still yet to find it, despite it passing through everything and being present absolutely everywhere. Due to the fact it has never been directly observed, some remain sceptical of its actual existence, whilst the rest remain ever more curious and determined to prove its reality.
The Science Gallery’s latest exhibition explores the hypothetical concept of dark matter, where thirteen artists represent ideas around matter and what it may men to them, society, and the universe as a whole. The first half of the exhibition explores the 5% of matter we can physically observe, introducing us to particle accelerators – where we can create matter from energy by converting the motion energy of particles travelling close to the speed of light into new massive particles using Einstein’s famous equation E=mc2. Confused? I was hungover and hadn’t got to bed until 5am that morning. I was flabbergasted.
The laws of motion are further explained in Andy Holden’s Laws of Motion in a Cartoon Landscape. Part-lecture, part-documentary, the film draws parallels between the real world and the cartoon world, using the laws of physics to do so. In the cartoon landscape, characters defy gravity, force, and velocity: anything and everything are possible. Donald trump makes a small cameo, where Holden suggests that by drawing on historical cartoon rules, we may be able to better understand ridiculous events in real-life. It was incredibly original, well thought out and inspired. Like nothing I had ever seen before, and something I would happily sit through again. Though, admittedly, I didn’t see the direct connection with dark matter...
Are dreams, thoughts and ideas made of matter? In Andy Holden’s Even Darker Matter he uses 3D glasses to convey the ‘depth’ that many feel dark matter evokes. In fact, it is suggested here that through the floating eyeballs seen in the video, dark matter evokes a kind of ‘cosmic paranoia’, representing a very special and unique form of depression. It is thought that dark matter functions like a spider’s web – leaving a trace through its gravity which affects the motions of stars and galaxies. Dark matter can also bend light, making galaxies appear visually distorted. As if this whole concept couldn’t get more eerie, scientists search for dark matter in deep-underground laboratories, with the hope that one day dark matter will come out to play, thereby proving its existence. Laboratories like this are displayed in Emilija Skarnulyte’s film Mirror Matter, which is set 10,000 years in the future, and opens with an accurate digital rendering of Japan’s Super-Kamiokande: a neutrino observatory located under Mount Ikeno near the city of Hida.
The exhibition did feel a little fragmented and detached in places: opening up expansive ideas, without giving us reductive answers to go home with and impress people at dinner parties. It was undoubtedly cool getting to see structures such as the Super-Kamiokande, which I would have never known existed, and also enlightening if a little unnerving to be aware of this dark force that has become such a good Houdini - who knows if we will ever be able to pin it down.
OVERALL RATING: ***
https://london.sciencegallery.com/seasons/dark-matter
