Art in the Quantum Era

No peer review, Submitted 30.11.2024, Accepted 30.07.2025

Anna Maj

anna.maj@us.edu.pl
University of Silesia (Poland)
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3958-267X

Derrick de Kerckhove


University of Toronto (Canada)

Abstract

Quantum art is an emerging field in which artists attempt to express and explore quantum physics concepts through various media. This is a real challenge for artists who in many cases are not quantum physicists. In general terms, quantum functions in art and science can be considered cognitive tools that present new mental models to overcome cognitive limitations and accelerate adaptation. An artist, a scientist, or simply yourself, deciding your future, are all in the process of thinking. Thinking consists of creating models in the mind. An artist creates models of what he wants to express: an object, a feeling, happiness, fear, the meaning of life, a sequence, or a story. An artist is a creative mind at work. Artists and scientists thus become free thinkers who through the critical activation of opposing factors, triggered, on the one hand, by the indeterminate nature of quantum functions and, on the other hand, by imagination, arouse curiosity, catalyse social empathy, and promote new ideas in science or art that question the conventional cognitive domain.

Supporting Agencies

The project “Digital Mind and Connective Intelligence: What Can We Learn from New Media Art Experiments”. In cooperation with Prof. Derrick de Kerckhov (University of Toronto, Canada), the project was financed by the Upper Silesian-Zagłębie Metropolis under the “Metropolitan Science Support Fund” program in 2022–2024.


Keywords:

quantum art, quantum physics, perception, mental processes

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Published
2025-09-10

Cited by

Maj, A. and de Kerckhove, D. (2025) “Art in the Quantum Era”, Konteksty, 349(2), pp. 173–183. doi: 10.36744/k.3989.

Authors

Anna Maj 
anna.maj@us.edu.pl
University of Silesia Poland
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3958-267X

Ph.D., cultural and media studies expert, communicologist; assistant professor at the Institute of Cultural Studies of the University of Silesia in Katowice. Her main research interests are: new media, cyber arts, media anthropology, communication behaviours, user experience, travel narrations, digital memory. Author of two monographs: Media wpodróży (Media in Travel, Katowice 2008, 2010) and Przemiany wiedzy w cyberkulturze (Transformations of Knowledge in Cyberculture, Katowice 2021), scientific editor of 9 multi-author monographs on new media, cultural communication and digital art.


Authors

Derrick de Kerckhove 

University of Toronto Canada

Derrick de Kerckhove socjolog, medioznawca, jeden z najbardziej znaczących badaczy nowych mediów, relacji społeczeństwa, kultury i technologii (STS). Wieloletni dyrektor McLuhan Center for Culture and Technology założonego przez Marshalla McLuhana na University of Toronto. Współpracował z wieloma uniwersytetami i instytucjami kultury. Jest autorem wielu książek i artykułów o tematyce medialnej, tłumaczonych na wiele języków, a także beneficjentem grantów z zakresu rozwoju mediów elektronicznych. Obecnie, z pomocą Small Language Model „Derrick”, rozwija projekt Personal Cognitive Capital.



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