Agnes Mocsy
Interview by Kiran Gurung, Colloquium Manager
Agnes Mocsy with Relativistic heavy Ion Collider at Brookhaven National Laboratories. Photo credit Anjali Chandrasekhar.
KG: What inspired you to combine your passion for physics with science communication and the arts?
AG: After over a decade as a research scientist I became aware of a strange gap that exists between my physics world and most everything outside of it. My conviction that physics is accessible to all if we make it accessible ignited my wish to find explorative ways to express this and led to my work as a science communicator. Combining my interests in physics research and the arts, two human endeavors that are artificiality separated in mainstream society, was a personally natural way for me to expand and shift my career into an exploration of intersectionality and fusion of these seemingly unrelated worlds. In addition, besides expanding our minds and hearts through such explorations, I believe that through science in concert with the arts we can make changes in social justice questions, including the landscape of science and the experience within.
AG: After over a decade as a research scientist I became aware of a strange gap that exists between my physics world and most everything outside of it. My conviction that physics is accessible to all if we make it accessible ignited my wish to find explorative ways to express this and led to my work as a science communicator. Combining my interests in physics research and the arts, two human endeavors that are artificiality separated in mainstream society, was a personally natural way for me to expand and shift my career into an exploration of intersectionality and fusion of these seemingly unrelated worlds. In addition, besides expanding our minds and hearts through such explorations, I believe that through science in concert with the arts we can make changes in social justice questions, including the landscape of science and the experience within.
Physics Meets the Arts class at Yale University, in front of "The Duality of Perception" by Kijana Richmond, with Professor Agnes Mocsy, physics post-doc teaching fellow Audrey Francisco, and Sydney Simon, Bradley Assistant Curator of Academic Affairs at Yale University Art Gallery. Photo credit Jessica Smolinski/Yale University Art Gallery.
KG: As a trained physicist, what have you learned about integrating the sciences and the arts? What challenges have you faced, and what surprises have you encountered?
AM: Going from a career as a research scientist to a career of interdisciplinary scholarship and practice that marries physics with the arts is a journey packed with risks, challenges, and surprises existing at any venturing into the unknown. Venturing into the unfamiliar with curiosity is not atypical for me, as looking to confront the unknown has been my driving force, ever since I left my home country alone, traveling the world while immersing myself in the richness of various cultures, but also as a physicist constantly looking for unsolved challenges.
What was surprising is how much pleasure I experience from storytelling in mediums that were never on my radar of ambition, as I never envisioned becoming good at anything else other than physics. For instance, learning to become a filmmaker, losing myself in the editing room while shaping a story in an art form that seduced me, was just as much of a high as making discoveries that shift paradigms in my theoretical physics research area. Also surprising was to experience the power of storytelling fundamental physics research in unexpected ways, like fashion, my other love.
AM: Going from a career as a research scientist to a career of interdisciplinary scholarship and practice that marries physics with the arts is a journey packed with risks, challenges, and surprises existing at any venturing into the unknown. Venturing into the unfamiliar with curiosity is not atypical for me, as looking to confront the unknown has been my driving force, ever since I left my home country alone, traveling the world while immersing myself in the richness of various cultures, but also as a physicist constantly looking for unsolved challenges.
What was surprising is how much pleasure I experience from storytelling in mediums that were never on my radar of ambition, as I never envisioned becoming good at anything else other than physics. For instance, learning to become a filmmaker, losing myself in the editing room while shaping a story in an art form that seduced me, was just as much of a high as making discoveries that shift paradigms in my theoretical physics research area. Also surprising was to experience the power of storytelling fundamental physics research in unexpected ways, like fashion, my other love.
"Smashing Matters: Behind the Science Scene" documentary film
KG: What types of science-art collaborations are you involved in right now?
AM: I am continuing storytelling the human aspects of the scientific world for my second documentary film, as well as developing a science-based outdoor installation to be displayed at Yale Wright Lab which combines seemingly unrelated areas into artistic expression.
I am also involved in a collaboration with Brooklyn-based artist Joseph Morris through STEAMplant at Pratt Institute on an outdoor art installation which visualizes the real-time detection of cosmic rays, represented by a series of string lights supported by custom algorithms.
This year I also ventured into another virgin territory - teaching physics through the arts. I developed and taught Physics Meets the Arts at Yale, engaging the University’s extensive art collection and various performing arts in conversations about fundamental physics concepts and contemporary research. The journey culminated in a performance/exhibit at the Yale University Art Gallery of the students’s physics-inspired art works.
AM: I am continuing storytelling the human aspects of the scientific world for my second documentary film, as well as developing a science-based outdoor installation to be displayed at Yale Wright Lab which combines seemingly unrelated areas into artistic expression.
I am also involved in a collaboration with Brooklyn-based artist Joseph Morris through STEAMplant at Pratt Institute on an outdoor art installation which visualizes the real-time detection of cosmic rays, represented by a series of string lights supported by custom algorithms.
This year I also ventured into another virgin territory - teaching physics through the arts. I developed and taught Physics Meets the Arts at Yale, engaging the University’s extensive art collection and various performing arts in conversations about fundamental physics concepts and contemporary research. The journey culminated in a performance/exhibit at the Yale University Art Gallery of the students’s physics-inspired art works.
Quark-Gluon Plasma Entering Hadronization by Sarah Szabo, as the result of a year long collaboration with Agnes Mocsy.
KG: Who is your favorite artist, and why?
AM: Tough to pick just one. Or even one genre. If I must: Jackson Pollock. Lynda Benglis. Suekaru Fukami. Alyson Shotz. Maria Abramovic. Claire Denis. James Baldwin. Isabelle Allende.
From the artists who touch fundamental physics in their work I’m completely absorbed and inspired by London-based hip-hop artist Consensus. Tim Otto Roth’s giant installations are awe-inspiring. Dancer and choreographer Emily Coates’s work is captivating.
I’m galvanized by modern polymaths, like Nobel price winning chemist, play-writer, and poet, Roald Hoffmann.
AM: Tough to pick just one. Or even one genre. If I must: Jackson Pollock. Lynda Benglis. Suekaru Fukami. Alyson Shotz. Maria Abramovic. Claire Denis. James Baldwin. Isabelle Allende.
From the artists who touch fundamental physics in their work I’m completely absorbed and inspired by London-based hip-hop artist Consensus. Tim Otto Roth’s giant installations are awe-inspiring. Dancer and choreographer Emily Coates’s work is captivating.
I’m galvanized by modern polymaths, like Nobel price winning chemist, play-writer, and poet, Roald Hoffmann.
Check out Agnes' website here
Follow her on Instagram @agimoxy &Twitter @MoxyAgi
