EXHIBITIONS

Stage#2
The Absence and Presence of a Cat

December 12, 2014 – January 8, 2016
International Studio & Curatorial Program (ISCP), 1040 Metropolitan Ave, Brooklyn, New York
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For the second phase of Staging, Zhangbolong Liu presents The Absence and Presence of a Cat, the latest iteration of the artist’s ongoing project, The Museum of the Science Fetish (MOSIFE), initiated in 2014. As a former science and engineering student and now a photographer, Zhangbolong interrogates the commonly held belief or faith in the truthfulness of science in modern societies through the photographic image. In MOSIFE, the artist produces fake objects, documents and archives based on well-known scientific thought experiments and hypotheses, constructing playful counter-narratives through them. While MOSIFE often reanimates these historical facts and anecdotes of modern science in a virtual online space, physical manifestations of the project have also been shown in different places.

The Absence and Presence of a Cat considers the 1935 thought experiment devised by Austrian physicist Erwin Schrödinger. Schrödinger’s cat famously resides in the quantum superpositional state of existence, which unifies the numerous splits of time through a reasonable logical contradiction, and is able to translocate itself like a ghost. For this exhibition, Zhangbolong has fabricated a series of the scientist’s notes, devices and reports related to the experiment, and has also collected posters, books and cartoons which appear in popular culture. Through his invented narratives, the exhibition blurs the boundaries between the real and the fictional, and it reveals how people’s fetishization of science has gone beyond physical objects to embrace the inventiveness of concept and discourse.

Presented in boxes placed on Staging’s organizing platform, the exhibited objects are to be encountered randomly by visitors, the boxes opened or unopened, containing something or nothing, led by the threads of probability. A part of the exhibition is also set up as a pop-up museum shop space with original design products related to MOSIFE, which is in itself a small experiment on the different functionalities of the museum as a social form.

Curated  by Yanhan Peng

Related Events

Past
Lecture: Schrödinger's cat, it was / is / will be alive?
Speaker: Dr. Zhichen Zhao
Saturday, December 12, 2015, 4:40 p.m.

Audio guide

Making your own box​

​Don't miss our wonderful handout! Come to the exhibition and take one of these to make your own Schrödinger's box!

​​Design by Danyang Yang

Installation Shots

Exhibition Objects

Picture
Schrödinger's notebook
Date: 1930
Creator: Erwin Schrödinger
Medium: Paper
Dimensions: 8.5 x 10 inches
Picture
Reagent bottles
Date: 1934
Manufacturer: unknown
Medium: Glass and plastic
Dimensions: 1 1/4 in. diameter, 3 in. tall
Picture
Drawing of redesigned Geiger counter
Date: 1934
Creator: Erwin Schrödinger
Medium: Parchment paper
Dimensions: 8 x 10 inches

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Featured Media

Dr. Zhichen Zhao:
Schrödinger's cat, it was / is / will be alive?​

It has been widely believed that Schrödinger's cat is a thought experiment devised by Austrian physicist Erwin Schrödinger in 1935. It is a simplified illustration of the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics. Contrast to the popularity of this debate, not many people know that Schrödinger has actually designed and setup the experiment, with his own cat. The experiment, however, is never finished because Schrödinger didn't triggered the observation throughout his life. The box that contains the cat remains intact today. Some historians argue that as soon as Schrödinger locked the cat in the box, he realized that a single experiment is meaningless since the prediction of quantum mechanics can only be proved on a probability base, which means he has to setup a huge number of independent boxes-with-cats and observe them individually. Obviously, Schrödinger cannot afford the death of his beloved cat with 50% probability. So he decided to keep the cat in a quantum superposition state.

Speaker:
Dr. Zhichen Zhao, theoretical physicist and string theorist. After completing his bachelor's degree in Peking University in China, Dr. Zhao earned his doctorate from University of Michigan. Other than his academic research, Dr. Zhao is particularly interested in scientific philosophy and history of science. Dr. Zhao is the consultant of Museum of Science Fetish.