Schrödinger’s Rat is an interactive art sculpture and immersive experience, inspired by the famous thought experiment of Austrian physicist Erwin Schrödinger. As the first Austrian Burning Man artwork, it was honored with a Black Rock City Honoraria Grant by Burning Man Project in the context of the ”Multiverse” theme of 2020. The installation will premiere at the Ars Electronica Festival in 2021 and travel to Burning Man in 2022. In a reversal of the original thought experiment, a large cat is sitting on a triangular box staring at the quantum world inside the structure. The participants access the box to endure everchanging quantum states as Schrödinger’s Rat, the cat’s uncanny prey. They become part of an experiment in which they are simultaneously subject and object. As Schrödinger’s Rat, the participants cannot decide the final outcome of the experiment. The quantum state is controlled by the cat as the outside observer. Observation imposes its reality on the objects inside.
Credits
Lead Artist: Philipp Blume (AT), Project conception by artist collective The Department of Precision and Soul (US/AT), Supported by the Open Austria Art + Tech Lab in Silicon Valley (US/AT), Produced by Papertown (AT)
