The artist and researcher explores the relationships and uncertainties that emerge from cosmic, technological and bodily timescales
Polish artist and researcher Martyna Marciniak has begun her residency at CERN as the recipient of the third Collide Copenhagen residency, a programme by Arts at CERN in partnership with Copenhagen Contemporary.
Marciniak’s interdisciplinary practice combines spatial storytelling, speculative fiction and 3D reconstruction to examine how design and technology shape ideologies and social structures. Over the course of two months between the CERN and Copenhagen Contemporary, she will develop her project, 2.2 microseconds: an anomaly.
At CERN, Marciniak is focusing on what she calls the ‘split-second problem’: a framework for understanding how micro-temporal events, such as a muon’s 2.2-microsecond lifespan, reveal the interconnectedness between physical infrastructures and cosmological phenomena. One such anomaly is the bit-flip, where cosmic rays alter a bit in a computer’s memory. These glitches expose the inner workings of technological, financial, and computational infrastructures, paradoxically rendering them more perceptible.
‘During my residency, I’m exploring the uncertainties that emerge when seemingly irreconcilable physical and temporal scales must inform one another,’ Marciniak says. ‘I’m particularly looking at the minute elements of infrastructures, and how to reconcile the uncertainties of synchronisation.’
As part of the residency, she will create a sculptural timepiece and a video essay that explore the intersections between cosmic, technological and bodily timescales. Drawing from muon tomography and scientific timekeeping, the sculpture will reflect the infrastructures designed to measure fleeting phenomena. The video essay will propose new narratives and sensory modes for experiencing time’s complexity, inviting a sense of wonder about temporal uncertainty and infrastructural errors.
Alongside the 2023 and 2024 Collide recipients, Joan Heemskerk and Alice Bucknell, Marciniak will take part in the exhibition Soft Robots, which will open in June at Copenhagen Contemporary.
Collide Copenhagen is a three-year collaboration between CERN and Copenhagen Contemporary, as part of Arts at CERN’s Collide residency programme. Since 2012, Collide has welcomed artists to engage with fundamental research and the diverse community at the Laboratory.
