My big task this afternoon was not baking but making a hexahexaflexagon! I can’t tell you why right now, but as far as I know it has nothing to do with my recent paper on JT gravity in case you were trying to see a connection.
How do I prepare my research talks? I usually just sit down with a pencil, some paper and a cup of something warm, and I just draw/map out the story. Each box is a beat of the narrative, and ends up corresponding to one or two slides (if I’m doing … Click to continue reading this post
Oh, that talk I did at Perimeter? It is available online now. It is all about the process of making the book “The Dialogues”, why I did it and how I did it. Along the way, I show some examples and talk about the science they’re bringing to life, but this is not primarily a science talk but a talk about talking about science, if you see what I mean.
The talk starts slowly, but bear with me and it warms up swiftly!
YouTube link here. Ended below:
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In case you were putting the kettle on to make tea for watching the live cast…. Or putting on your boots to head out to see it in person, my public talk at the Perimeter Institute has been postponed to tomorrow! It’ll be just as graphic! Here’s a link to the event’s details.
I was asked by editors of the magazine Physics World’s 30th anniversary edition to do a drawing that somehow captures changes in physics over the last 30 years, and looks forward to 30 years from now. This was an interesting challenge. There was not anything like the freedom to use space that I had in other works I’ve done, like my graphic book about science “The Dialogues”, or my glimpse of the near future in my SF story “Resolution” in the Twelve Tomorrows anthology. I had over 230 pages for the former, and 20 pages for the latter. Here, I had one page. Well, actually a little over 2/3 of a page (once you take into account the introductory text, etc).
So I thought about it a lot. The editors wanted to show an active working environment, and so I thought about the interiors of labs for some time, looked up lots of physics breakthroughs over the years, and reflected on what might come. I eventually realized that the most important single change in the science that can be visually depicted (and arguably the single most important change of any kind) is the change that’s happened to the scientists. Most importantly, we’ve become more diverse in various ways (not uniformly across all fields though), much more collaborative, and the means by which we communicate in order to do science have expanded greatly. All of this has benefited the science greatly, and I think that if you were to get a time machine and visit a lab 30 years ago, or 30 years from now, it will be the changes in the people that will most strike you, if you’re paying attention. So I decided to focus on the break/discussion area of the lab, and imagined that someone stood in the same spot each year and took a snapshot. What we’re seeing is those photos tacked to a noticeboard somewhere, and that’s our time machine. Have a look, and keep an eye out for various details I put in to reflect the different periods. Enjoy! (Direct link here, and below I’ve embedded the image itself that’s from the magazine. I recommend reading the whole issue, as it is a great survey of the last 30 years.)
If you’ve been following on instagram you’ll know that I spent some time over the last weeks working on an illustration that was commissioned by a physics magazine. (Feels odd saying that, commissioned, but that’s exactly what happened. Apparently I’m able to add professional illustrator to my CV now. Huh.) Anyway, the illustration will show the interior of a lab. I’ll let you know more about it closer to publication. Much of the focus was on the people, and for reasons that will become clear, I did a bit of a throwback to the 80s, and so tried to reflect that period somewhat, old computers and ghastly sweaters and all. Here’s a sequence of stages of a corner of the work (click on it for a larger view):
The working title for this was “when you forget to bring your camera on holiday…” but I know you won’t believe that’s why I drew it! (This was actually a quick sketch done at the beach on Sunday, with a few tweaks added over dinner and some shadows added using iPad.)
I’m working toward doing finish work on a commissioned illustration for a magazine (I’ll tell you about it more when I can – check instagram, etc., for updates/peeks), and am finding my drawing skills very rusty –so opportunities to do sketches, whenever I can find them, are very welcome.
Saw this split over Elon Musk coming over a year ago. This is panel from my graphic short story “Resolution” that appears in the 2018 SF anthology Twelve Tomorrows, edited by Wade Roush (There’s even an e-version now if you want fast access!) -cvj
In case you’re wondering, after yesterday’s post… Yes I did find some time to do a bit of sketching. Here’s one that did not get finished but was fun for working the rust off… The caption from instagram says: Quick Sunday watercolour pencil dabbling … been a long time. This … Click to continue reading this post
Today is the release of the short story anthology Twelve Tomorrows from MIT Press with a wonderful roster of authors. (It is an annual project of the MIT Technology Review.) I’m in there too, with a graphic novella called “Resolution”. It’s the first graphic novella in this anthology’s five year history, and it is the first time MIT Press is publishing it. Physicists and Mathematicians will appreciate the title choice upon reading. Order! Share!
A pair of panels from my short story “Resolution” in the Science Fiction anthology Twelve Tomorrows, out on Friday from MITPress! Preorder now, share, and tell everyone about it. See here for ordering, for example.
Bay Area! You’re up next! The Maker Faire is a wonderful event/movement that I’ve heard about for years and which always struck me as very much in line with my own way of being (making, tinkering, building, creating, as time permits…) On Sunday I’ll have the honour of being on one of the centre stages (3:45pm) talking with Kishore Hari (of the podcast Inquiring Minds) about how I made The Dialogues, and why. I might go into some extra detail about my research into making graphic books, and the techniques I used, given the audience. Why yes, I’ll sign books for you afterwards, of course. Thanks for asking.
I recommend getting a day pass and see a ton of interesting events that day! Here’s a link to the Sunday schedule and amor there you can see links to the whole faire and tickets!
There’s actually an exhibit of process art for my book in the Fine Arts library at USC! Maybe of interest. There will be a companion exhibit about graphic novels over in the science and engineering library. Opening shortly. There’s actually an exhibit of process art for my book in the … Click to continue reading this post
Now that #thedialoguesbook is out is I get even more people telling me how they can’t draw. I don’t believe them. Just as with science (and other subjects), everybody has a doorway in to a subject. It is just a matter of taking time to finding your individual Door. Individual doors is what makes us all wonderfully different. For me it is mostly geometry that is my Door. It gives a powerful way to see things, but isn’t the only way. Moreover, I have to work hard to not be trapped by it sometimes. But it is how I truly see things most often – through geometry. Wonderful geometry everywhere.
(Image above courtesy of Cellar Door Books in Riverside, CA.)
Happy Thanksgiving! This coming week, there’ll be two events that might be of interest to people either in the Los Angeles area, or the New York area.
The first is an event (Tues. 28th Nov., 7pm, Co-sponsored by LARB and Chevalier’s Books) centered around my new book, the Dialogues. It is the first such LA event, starting with a chat with writer and delightful conversationalist […] Click to continue reading this post
