illustration friday: theory

This week's theme for Illustration Friday is theory. The word theory brings up so much in me, but I finally settled on String Theory. I created this piece by first collaging with tiny scraps of colors I sliced from magazines like LUCKY & Yoga Journal (there's a juxta, right?). I then photographed this piece and altered it using Photoshop.

In a major nutshell, String Theory is a mathematical modality of theoretical physics that supposes the particles making up the universe are vibrating strings, rather than the point particals (that's standard partical physics). One of the coolest aspects of the vibrating string constituent of reality is that under it, a unified theory of quantum gravity (!!!!) is possible. Alright, I said major nutshell. If you want to know more, I suggest reading The Elegant Universe, or at least watching the NOVA special on The Elegant Universe.

A little background on why this is important to me:
Reading A Brief History of Time changed my life. I never had a very personal, spiritual or deep connection to science before I read Stephen Hawking's book, and had what I would call a moment when I first really connected to the concept of space-time. When I say "a moment," I mean when you start to think about things in a way that causes your whole universe to kind of teeter. If you know what I'm talking about, you know what I'm talking about-- regardless of the impetus behind the moment. Anyway, cosmological physics has a way of really making marrying the science and spirituality behind the mystery of our existence.

P.S. Want to see more submissions for this week's topic? Click here.