The Ultraviolet Catastrophe is a 3D animation installation that explores the virtuality of matter through experimental and contemplative science-fiction. Inspired by a recent experiment conducted at the Institute of Supramolecular Science and Engineering in Strasbourg, where Julie Tremble completed a research residency in the fall of 2023, the installation unfolds across three screens. It juxtaposes a realistic landscape, inspired by the Canadian Shield, with formal representations of molecules, atoms, and quantum fields. Under the influence of a large-scale quantum disturbance, the elements from the different sequences begin to resonate. The plants and minerals that make up this environment are then transformed by visual effects that convey hybridizations between light and matter, causing them to lose their cohesion and stability. Doublings, light spectrums, and electronic flickers move across the screens, gradually dematerializing the digital landscape. These hallucinatory phenomena alter naturalism, illustrating on a macroscopic scale the quantum processes that occur beyond our perception.
Acknowledgments
Emilie Werner, Maciej Pienko, scientific advisors.
Ariane De Blois, Joseph Moran, Giulio Ragazzon, Claudia Bonfio, Jean-Pierre Aubé, Philippe Hamelin.
This project is made possible thanks to the financial support of the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec as well as the support and trust of Plein sud.
Biographies
Julie Tremble is a video and animation artist. Nourished by cinema, natural sciences, literature and philosophy, among other things, she is interested in the constituents of the universe, the states of matter and their representations. From different sources (articles and discussions with scientists, popular documentaries, digital simulations, communication documents from space agencies), she produces videos and animations that intertwine scientific data, documentary and science fiction.
She holds a master’s degree in film studies from the Université de Montréal (2005) and a bachelor’s degree combining cinema and philosophy (2000). Her work has been presented in Canada and internationally, in art centres including the Museum Ludwig (Budapest), the Fonderie Darling, Galerie B-312, Dazibao and Galerie Joyce Yahouda (Montréal), STUDIOTELUS Grand Théâtre de Québec and VU (Quebec City), the Galerie d’art Foreman and Sporobole (Sherbrooke) as well as at various festivals including the Mirage Festival (Lyon), MAPP MTL, the Festival du nouveau cinéma and the International Festival of Films on Art (Montréal), Images Festival (Toronto), the triennial Espace [IM] Média (Sherbrooke) and ARKIPEL – Jakarta International Documentary and Experimental Film Festival. In 2013, she received the CALQ prize for the best work of art and experimentation.
Rehab Hazgui, a composer and sound ecologist, provides an immersive soundscape that explores the fusion of quantum randomness and music. This composition reflects her longstanding fascination with using imperfection and randomness in musical creation.
