Nancy Burson

Nancy Burson’s Quantum Entanglement Paintings invite viewers to witness the energy of quantum physics by videotaping their periodic changes in color and vibration. To record those changes on one’s cell phone in daylight, first fill the frame with the painting and record the video for at least 20 seconds.

The Quantum Entanglement paintings are formally comprised of thousands of sets of eyes Burson has applied using emergent behavior patterns. They are the distinct patterns that arise out of complex systems, like the swarming of bugs and birds as well as the arrangement of stars throughout the galaxies. In the paintings, these patterns have been used to represent quantum entanglement or what Einstein referred to as “spooky action at a distance.” Quantum entanglement states that there is a relationship between the smallest of particles, no matter how far they are apart. Burson’s videos appear to change colors, pulse, or flash when recorded in both high and low resolution, in both the daylight and complete darkness.

Burson is best known as the pioneering inventor of facial morphing; a result of her early collaboration through the Media lab at MIT from 1976-1978. From there, she utilized the same technologies to create the first realistic composite digital portraits that remain an integral part of facial morphing from the most complex AI driven facial recognition software to Snapchat. With this new series, Burson offers a new contribution to the realm of digital photography/videography with her new interactive Quantum Entanglement paintings which utilize the electronic data of digital cameras to capture the particles of light called photons.