Cécile B. Evans: ‘Speaking with physicists develops a new language to accept the reality of imperceptible things’
Cécile B Evans’ multimedia work examines how we evaluate emotion and its rebellion in contemporary society as it comes into contact with ideological, physical, and technological structures. In June, Evans made a short field trip to the Laboratory as part of a research project around the production of reality. ‘Beyond the excitement of visiting experimental sites, which are profoundly inspiring, speaking to physicists was an edifying highlight’, remarks Evans about their visit.
In their practice, Evans has extensively questioned data and network infrastructures and our relationship to technological interfaces. Building upon these interests, Evans engaged in conversations with Senior Communications Advisor James Gilles to dive into the history of the World Wide Web, invented in 1989 by scientist Tim Berners-Lee while working at the Laboratory. These explorations into how network structures shape our emotional lives manifest in their films’ ‘hyperlinked narratives’, where the protagonists are disjointed, interlinked, and move in multiple directions to develop thematic metaphors that bring audiences deeper into complex ideas. To gather inspiration for their networked storytelling, they also discussed CERN’s environment, culture and stories, spanning almost 70 years since the first foundation stone was laid.