How art helps us understand the universe

The discovery of gravitational waves gives us new ways to explore the cosmos, with poets and sound artists as our guides.
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Image credit: Andrew Watson

In 2017, physicists Kip Thorne, Barry Barish and Rainer Weiss were awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics for proving the existence of gravitational waves – the existence of which were originally theorised by Albert Einstein in 1916.

‘Gravitational waves are ripples in the fabric of space-time. Anytime we move we create a gravitational wave but they’re so completely and utterly minute and undetectable that you wouldn’t feel you and me moving, putting our imprint on the universe and it carrying on forever,’ said poet Alicia Sometimes.

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Richard Watts OAM is ArtsHub's National Performing Arts Editor; he also presents the weekly program SmartArts on Three Triple R FM. Richard is a life member of the Melbourne Queer Film Festival, a Melbourne Fringe Festival Living Legend, and was awarded the Sidney Myer Performing Arts Awards' Facilitator's Prize in 2020. In 2021 he received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Green Room Awards Association. Most recently, Richard received a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in June 2024. Follow him on Twitter: @richardthewatts