Space-Time
Andrea Diaz
Artwork part of ‘Time’ (Issue 15)
The Artist
Andrea Diaz is a researcher in transport and energy economics at the European Commission Joint Research Centre. In recent years, she has been exploring the evolution of energy systems through complex system analysis, focusing on the structural transformation of energy systems as they move towards decarbonisation. Beyond her scientific work, Andrea also enjoys exploring alternative ways of communicating science and the stimulus of scientific inquiry through creative tools. She is currently engaged in the JRC SciArt initiative, a trans-disciplinary approach to tackling complex societal problems. She is originally from Colombia but fifteen years ago Europe became her second home.
The Science
Time is not a simple, incessant, succession of constant ticks. As postulated by Albert Einstein, time is more like a river; ebbing and flowing depending on the effects of gravity and space-time. However, we never see space-time directly. We rather infer its existence from our everyday experience[1].This image seeks to capture such a flow of time in our everyday experience via digital photography. It was taken using a Canon EOS 100D, f/29, 1/2 sec, 29 mm, ISO 100.
[1] Musser G., 2018. What Is Spacetime? Nature, Innovations In. https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-05095-z
The Theme
The photograph Space-Time reveals a pedestrian walking across a street next to a tramway in Seville (Spain). The two subjects’ opposite movement direction creates an effect that fuses space and time. Pedestrians in the background seem static observers, even reflected on the tramway’s wall. The perception varies according to the relative viewpoint of the observer, evoking the principle of relativity in physical science.
Copyright statement. This work is published under the CC BY-NC-SA license