Imaginary time?

If time began with the Big Bang what came before? In the late 1960s the Hot Big Bang theory had become the cornerstone of modern cosmology. But the ultimate cause of the Big Bang remained a mystery. One answer was supplied by Stephen Hawking, who bent Einstein’s spacetime further than anyone had done before. He introduced the concept of ‘imaginary time’, which behaves as a dimension of space, and used it to create a geometric version of Lemaître’s primeval atom. 

Hawking’s proposal was inspired by the most revolutionary scientific theory of the 20th century, quantum theory, which says that the natural world on the smallest scale is fundamentally granular or ‘quantised’. Quantum theory predicts that the behaviour of atoms and particles is not deterministic but involves uncertainty and probability. Until this thinking emerged in cosmology, scientists treated the Universe like any other subject we could look at objectively and study. But quantum theory blurs the line between subject and object. Scientists began to reflect on how our position within the Universe affects the kind of cosmos we observe, an idea that has featured in Eastern mysticism for eons.

Their concerns resonate with those of artists exploring our relationship with reality. A picture within a picture shows us how appearances can be deceptive, depending on our viewpoint. A new way of scanning the horizon presents the sky as a spherical, nearly solid form. The almost ridiculous act of applying googly eye stickers to scientific space images transforms us from observers to little people being observed. Finally, an absurd but strangely believable lecture on the laws of physics in a cartoon landscape reminds us that there is often only a leap of faith between what we believe today and the new ideas we accept tomorrow.

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