Three Sides of a Line

Three Sides of a Line by Sonnenzimmer and Kiley Brandt was an experimental virtual performance exploring the Holographic Principle formatted specially for Zoom, the ubiquitous interface adopted by millions during the pandemic for remote work, socializing, and virtual events.

The project came about from an invitation to Sonnenzimmer from Florida State University’s Art Department to participate in their FAR & Away virtual residency program. FAR (the Facility for Artists Research) seeks to pair visiting artists with FSU faculty to engage in a collaboration and public lecture. Deliverables and milestones are kept open-ended, with priority placed on experimentation.

Inspired by the FAR ethic, we used the opportunity to send out a call to several FSU physicists in hopes of discussing the Holographic Principle. This relatively new theory hypothesizes that when a three-dimensional object enters a black hole, the object leaves our space-time, but its information is left behind, encoded on the two-dimensional surface of the black hole as a hologram. We were curious to learn more about this phenomenon and its broader implications. As graphic artsits, the notion of the universe forming two-dimensional representations of the three-dimensional world feels both familiar and uncanny.

Several of the FSU physicists and professors we contacted were tentative about discussing this theory, as it lay outside of their research areas, but then Professor Jeremiah Murphy graciously agreed to a series of virtual interviews. Kiley Brandt, FSU Adjunct Professor and FAR Operations Manager, agreed to join the collaboration too.

The concept was simple enough. After our interviews with Professor Murphy, we (Kiley Brandt and Sonnenzimmer) would develop an experimental performative lecture exploring the physical and metaphorical ramifications of the Holographic Principle on everyday life. What followed was a fascinating and heady journey.