Quantum Computing
Artist talk during Berlin Science Week 2020
What are quantum computers and how do they depend on quantum physics?
Why are corporations and governments interested in quantum computing? What can quantum science teach us about the way we make sense of our world? In what way can the discipline impact how we tell stories, build meaning and create art?
In this lecture, Heaney gives insight into quantum computing and the challenges it holds for the future of making art. Her talk is followed by discussions with philosopher Professor Jenann Ismael and quantum scientist Professor Vlatko Vedral. Together, they will explore the impact quantum physics can have on our day-to-day-reality when transposed from the micro to the macro world.
This talk conveys the core subject matter of a new work being developed by the artist and commissioned by LAS, for which Heaney uses IBM’s cloud-based Q System One quantum computers. Art can acquire the tools to rupture causality by following the tenets of quantum science, which creates a space where entities – human, non-human, machine – relate, interfere and entangle.
5 November 2020, 6 pm, Artist Talk with Libby Heaney
Berlin Science Week 2020, Livestream
Libby Heaney
Libby Heaney is a British artist and lecturer who holds a PhD in Quantum Information Science from the University of Leeds and an MA in Art and Science from Central Saint Martins in London. She has exhibited widely in galleries and institutions in the UK and internationally, including solo exhibitions at Holden Gallery, Manchester (2021); Goethe-Institut, London (2019); Emmanuel Church, Loughborough (2021) as part of Radar, Loughborough University’s contemporary art programme and at Non-Space Gallery, Aarhus (2017) as part of their EU Capital of Culture programming. Group shows include RMIT Gallery, Melbourne (2021); Art-AI Festival, Leicester (2021); MUTEK, Montreal (2021); Etopia Center for Art & Technology, Zaragoza (2021); arebyte Gallery, London (online 2020); LUX with Hervisions (online 2020); Tate Modern, London (2016, 2019); ICA, London (2019); V&A, London (2018); Barbican, London (2019); Somerset House, London (2019); Sheffield Documentary Festival (2018); Science Gallery, Dublin (2017, 2018, 2019, 2021); Sonar+D, Barcelona with the British Council (2017); Ars Electronica, Linz (2017); CogX, London (2018) and Telefonica Fundacion, Lima with the British Council (2017).
As well as quantum computing, Heaney’s practice also incorporates AI and VR technology, using each of these tools critically to investigate how and who they empower and disempower. Often Heaney’s work subverts the usual uses of these technologies, forcing them to work against themselves to expose their drawbacks and dangers. Inspired by Surrealism and Dadaism, Heaney’s work often incorporates humour and nonsense to investigate subjectivity, truth and perceptions of reality, as well as our seductive relationships with new technologies.