Freedom of Science

Check out Peter Callesen’s wonderful paper cut-outs.¹

These paper figures that come out of paper but could never fully free themselves from the background inspire us to speculate on the most fundamental philosophical question: Is there a theater of operations where phenomena happen? Or asked in the language of physics, Is there a background? If so what type is it? Ether? Vortex? Vacuum? Density continuum? Is it neutral or dynamic and interactive? Linear or non-linear?

In the case of the paper artwork, the “phenomena” come out of the paper background, in other words, the flat background curls up into some shape that we perceive as familiar objects. When a figure is cut and it curls out of the background it leaves a hole in it. Apparently, conservation laws are not valid in this world, at least not at this scale.

1. from Mathematics under microscope. [↩]

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