Paul Thomas

Paul Thomas is a Professor at UNSW Art and Design and currently the Director of the Studio for Transdisciplinary Art Research (STAR) as well as the co-chair of the Transdisciplinary Imaging Conference series 2010–2018. In 2000 he instigated and was the founding Director of the Biennale of Electronic Arts Perth 2002, 2004 and 2007. As an artist Thomas is a pioneer of transdisciplinary art practice. His practice led research takes not only inspiration from nanoscience and quantum theory, but actually operates there currently exploring concepts of visualising the liminal space between the classical and quantum world. Thomas’s current publication Quantum Art and Uncertainty (published October 2018) is based on the concept that at the core of both art and science we find the twin forces of probability and uncertainty.

His internationally exhibited research projects have been based on working with scientist and asking specific questions. The art work ‘Quantum Consciousness’ was based on experiments done in collaboration with Professor Andrea Morello, Centre for Quantum Computation and Communication Technology, UNSW. The artwork was created from data of Thomas reading sections of Feynman’s 1982 paper ‘Simulating Physics with Computers’, to affect the spin of a single electron. Previous projects exploring nanotechnologies have also been exhibited nationally and Internationally. ‘Multiverse’ 2013 based on Richard Feynman’s diagrams of photons reflecting from a mirror, ‘Nanoessence’ 2009 which explored the space between life and death at a nano level and ‘Midas’ 2007 which researched what is transferred when skin touches gold at a nano level. Other publications are Quantum Art and Uncertainty (2018), Nanoart: The Immateriality of Art, (2013), Relive Media art Histories, co-edited with Sean Cubitt and Interference Strategies and Cloud and Molecular Aesthetics co-edited with Lanfranco Aceti and Edward Colless.