Arts at CERN

Dr Libby Heaney is a working-class, award-winning artist with a PhD and professional background in Quantum Science

She is the first artist to work with quantum computing as a functioning artistic medium. Heaney’s practice explores the inherently non-binary and hybrid concepts and temporalities of quantum physics. She combines diverse media such as virtual reality, video games and moving images with cutting-edge technologies like AI and quantum computing and traditional media such as watercolour, glass and, most recently, public sculpture. Together these media create a dream-like aesthetic, asking big philosophical questions about the nature of reality while remaining very human – intimate and embodied.

Quantum-inspired monsters, hybrids, slime, and other fluid forms are recurring motifs, entangling personal narratives and emotional landscapes with the impact of the exterior realm. Spanning the organic, the mechanical and the human, Heaney’s practice continuously seeks to expand the possibilities of the individual and the collective through the irrational magic of quantum, while critically queering capitalist uses of technology.

Solo exhibitions include Quantum Soup, HEK, Basel; Heartbreak & Magic, Somerset House, London and Ent-, LAS Art Foundation, Berlin. Her first artistic monograph was recently published by Hatje Cantz and she participated in the 2024 edition of Frieze Sculpture, London.  As a pioneer in the field of quantum and art, Heaney is frequently called to deliver keynotes and speak on panels around the world such as the Gwangju Biennale Symposium and London Sculpture Week.

Heaney holds a PhD in Quantum Information Science and worked as a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Oxford and the National University of Singapore. She also holds a MA in Art and Science from Central St. Martins, London.