New Scientist recommends the quantum soundscape of Liminals

A century ago, when quantum mechanics was developed, physicists felt they were peering into the abyss: everything they thought was real, wasn’t. Today, we talk easily about collapsing clouds of probability and spooky action at a distance.

Liminals by artist Pierre Huyghe (pictured) reminds us how gut-wrenching the ideas remain. Situated in Halle am Berghain, the former East Berlin power station and home of the famous techno club, the show encompasses a towering video projection and sound installation amid concrete ruins that shakes you to your core.

Huyghe’s soundscape, created from atoms collapsing out of quantum states, reveals fluctuations as the universe’s essential language. But in some interpretations, reality isn’t made of quantum fields; rather, quantum states are states of our knowledge, so there is no external world. His in-between realm, where a faceless human becomes enmeshed in a landscape, conveys that better than any easy phrase.

Thomas Lewton
Features editor, London