Collapsing the Wavefunction

Collapsing the Wave function is a photographic work in progress, started by myself about ten years ago. The inspiration behind the set owes its legacy to much of the groundwork behind my degree work at the University of Brighton. For my degree show I assembled a piece of work called 'Uncertainty'. It was a response to much of the popular science and philosophy books that I was reading and a first step in trying to visualise some of the questions I had about the world around me.
The scientific influence that came from the reading revolved around the mysterious and befuddling world of quantum physics and the assertion that at the base of all that we see, hear and touch is a seething, microscopic world that writhes in a world of things and none-things. Where existence and non-existence occurs at the same time. Its a realm where all bets are on and off at the same time.
Confusing? You bet! Even Richard Feynman, one of the proponents of this complicated physics, said that anyone who claimed they understood quantum physics obviously didn't understand quantum physics. The work is being uploaded to my Flickr account on my Collapsing the Wavefunction Work page and I'll continue to add more blogs entries updating and refining the reasons and inspiration for the work
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Explaining the Unexplainable

Drawn by my eager desire, wishing to see the great manifestation of the various strange shapes made by formative nature, I wandered some way among gloomy rocks, coming to the entrance of a great cavern, in front of which I stood for some time, stupified and incomprehending such a thing…Suddenly two things arose in me, fear and desire; fear of the menacing darkness of the cavern; desire to see if there was any marvellous thing within - Leonardo Da Vinci

I've lost count of the times I've attempted to explain the reasons behind this idea for a collection of photographs. The quantum world upon reading about it for the first time was rather unsettling and reassuring for me and this has remained with me ten years on. The comparison between its unfathomable nature and the mysteries and puzzles of learning how I should live was, and still is unavoidable. So how do I, yet again, attempt to explain? As a start; what is a wavefunction and how does it collapse? What is it?

When an external agency measures the observable associated with the eigenbasis then the state of the wave function changes from |? > to just one of the | ? > s with Born probability | ?_i | ². This is called collapse because all the other terms in the expansion of the wave function have vanished or collapsed into nothing. If a more general measurement is made to detect if the system is in a state |?>then the system makes a "jump" or quantum leap from the original state |? > to the final state |?> with probability of |<?|?>|². Quantum leaps and wave function collapse are therefore opposite sides of the same coin.

Mmmm..???? When I copied over that quote above there was a lot of scientific notation but that has been replaced by question marks! Not that it makes a difference for me as I didn't really understand it and would wager that most people who read this blog wouldn't either. For those who want more just take a look at the wikipeadia page: Wavefunction Collapse



A scientist was once awarded a Nobel prize for showing that light, the stuff that rebounds and bounces around our universe at a colossal 300, 000 Km per second, illuminating and helping to prevent us from walking into things, was made up of little tiny particles - little lumps of stuff. A while later another scientist was awarded a Nobel prize for showing that it was made of vibrating waves of energy.
Both were right, and the result was the wavicle - a wave-particle duality! It was soon shown that the particles - called atoms - that made up the hard stuff around us such as tables and goldfish and bananas were also wavicles. Enter Einstein and his E=mC2. Matter is energy and energy is matter. At its root the world we see around us is not as stable as you would think and is hard to pin down into measurements. Get a ruler out to measure this strange world and the very act of measuring effects the results. Try and record the position of one of these wavicles and you lose the chance of finding out how fast it was going. Find out how fast it was going and you fail to figure out if it was heading straight for one of your nostrils. This was a major hurdle to the scientists; they wanted to be able to make measurements so they could predict what was going to happen.

Finding a Meaning

Light is the paint of the photographer. It hurtles through our world at its breakneck speed and, if chance allows, flies through a lens, to embed and record itself in the light sensitive emulsion of photographic film or the sensor in a digital camera. I think it was this that first steered me to those ebooks on science. I remember studying how light behaves and how it was channeled by a lens to make a recordable image. In photagraphy there is a term: Circle of Confusion. It refers to the focusing of a lens. A technical description can be found here Circle of Confusion on wikipeadia.
Imagine looking up into a starry sky. Find the brightest star and look at it through the lens of a well focused pair of binoculars. its a perfect white point on an empty black canvas. The point has no height, and no width. If, however, you de focus slightly it changes into a small blurry circle - that is known as the circle of confusion. If that circle of confusion is small enough, it will still look like a point.

The ability for the lens to channel light, to gather those circles of confusion and arrange them so as to offer some kind of pattern on which a meaning or interpretation could be gleaned, interests me. What also interests is the comparison between the act of making a photograph - the moment at which the wavicles of light are 'frozen' - and the idea of wavefunction collapse. The two acts - both of them measurements - rock my boat.
The wavefuntion measurement is a collection of predictions - a set of probabilities. The wavicle is a hard thing to visualize - its a kind of fuzzy ball with no deffinate edge to it. Measure it as a wave and you lose its particulate character. Measure its particulate character and the waviness vanishes. To measure it in a way that encompasses its wavicliness scientists potray it as a collection of probabilities, and this is roughly what a wavefunction is. All these probabilities occure at the same time until a direct measurement is made, and when this act of measurement happens those probabilities collapse into one deffinate understandable event. Its what happens when the rays of light enter the camera to record an images - the wavicles of light collapse onto the image at the moment they are measured.

UPDATE 6th December 2018 - Continued at Collapsing the Wavefunction

Photography at efastnet web design

Its great to be able to finaly announce a new service being offered by efastnet - Photography. Having waited some time the moment has arrived when I can take on some proper photography commisions. efastnet has just purchased a Nikon Digital SLR making the supply of photographic images for websites an easy process. This camera, together with previously purchased lenses and proffessional grade equipment will allow the supply of good quality images that will help to enhance any websites that efastnet creates.

Many of the images that clients supply for their sites often under sell the service or product. I am a trained photographer having gained an Honours Degree in Editorial Photography from the University of Brighton in 1997. The past 10 years or so has seen me concentrating on building a Cork Web Design company from nothing, which in turn has meant me turning my back on my photographic skills. Well now thats going to change as I start to build up a digital photographic library and revisit one of life's pleasures. You can see some of the stuff I have been doing on my Photography in Ireland Flickr page

Glandore Mine

Some time ago, while looking through some black and white photographs of Glandore, I came across a picture of Glandore Mine. At the time I remember thinking about making a point of going to see it. I was reminded of it recently, through no particular reason, while driving to the local shop. I decided to make my return journey via the 'scenic route', hoping that I might spot the mine - I had no idea where it was just that it was to the north of the village, and looked similar to the mines at Allihies, on the Beara Peninsula. By scenic route i would mean any way that takes my interest other than the usual route. Its a euphemism for not bothering to do more research on the location and relying on blind chance.

So after taking a number of random left and right turns I was happy to see the unmistakable silhouette of a mine house and chimney potruding from a hillside. I parked the car up and wandered through the clump of trees that were surrounding the stone building and found what looked like a well preserved engine house. On getting closer the walls turned out to be pretty much all there is. I walked around the building for a while and then ruturned home with an aim to research it a little more.

After a visit to the local library in Skibbereen, and a some searching around the internet I began to learn a little more about the mine. It was used to mine manganese, iron and copper. It was stated in one of the books I read that these old mines 'afford the only adequately recorded case of manganese mining in ireland' and they 'were the first recorded attempt at utilising the copper ores of South West Ireland'. In the Mining Heritage Trust's website its reported that 'Between 1812-1819, some 313 tons of copper were produced from turf containing 10-15% copper when burnt. Between 1840-1880, the mine produced 17,800 tons of manganese and 1000 tons of iron'.

I'm going to see about taking some photographs and adding them to this blog item when i have a bit more time

Pictures of Ireland

I recently setup a flickr account with the intention of adding images from around Glandore. In fact most of the images on the previous posts are all taken from my Flickr account which I could loosely place in the Pictures of Ireland category but I aim to be adding a few more that may move off into perhaps some art based work. Its over 10 years ago that I completed my degree course at Brighton University and since then I havn't had a week really where I did not look at some item or view and think that it would look good flattened into a two dimensional space.

Of late, my urge to make photographs has been somewhat rekindled by the move to Glandore , and I find that a lot of the Cork Websites that I have been doing for clients would benefit from some good views of the stunning landscapes around me.

Create a Blog

Not so many years ago, "blog" was not a household word. Today, blogging is almost an international hobby, with literally millions of bloggers, posting their thoughts on everything from global warming to tips on pet care. Some have huge followings, while others don't fare so well. Let's take a look at how you can create a blog that stands out in the crowd.

If you want to create a blog, the process is simple, quick and free with any of the many blog hosting services. When you create a blog page, give your topic and writing style a bit - quite a bit - of thought before simply jumping in and hoping for the best.

Most important in the planning phase is your topic. Passion for your subject is what ultimately breeds success with your readership. When you create a blog, select a subject that fills you with excitement, curiosity and a desire to share with others. This makes words flow easily and nurtures an untiring commitment, so necessary to long-term success.

Once you've nailed down your topic, your primary job is to tweak reader's interest with knowledge, perspective and provocative commentary. This causes readers to reflect on your posts and contribute thoughts, questions and perhaps new information that sets off a flurry of responses from yet other readers.

When you create a blog that meets this criteria, you're halfway there. Another key point to consider: know your topic and be willing to research and learn more. You've heard it said, the more you know, the more you realize what you don't know. This is what makes an expert in any field.

Readers may pose a situation or difference of opinion that requires that you do additional research before you can make an educated response. This only fuels your own enthusiasm and gains you further credibility. You'll learn new facts or ideas and have even more interesting material to offer. The usual result is a wider readership.

Word-of-mouth is an excellent way to promote your blog. However, a little active marketing never hurts.

Many bloggers swear by spreading word of their blog through personal profile sites such as myspace, where you can highlight your cyberspace presence with an infusion of your personality and lifestyle that will pique the interest of individuals who might otherwise not ever have come across your blog. Submit some of your best entries to article directories in the appropriate category. Search out newsletters that focus on your topic and then offer your most provocative pieces to the editor, in exchange for a byline that links to your blog. Just these three simple efforts will do wonders for your exposure to new readers.

Go for it! Create a blog! Choose your subject carefully, respect and encourage comments from others and learn all you can. Blogging is a satisfying activity. You may just change the world for the better!

Otters in Glandore

I was sitting at the desk a couple of weeks ago and just happened to glance out my window to watch the snow that had begun to fall quite heavely when I noticed something swimming across the harbour. The tide was about a quarter of the way in with hardly a ripple on the water so it was quite noticable. I grabbed the binoculars that I keep on the window sill and found it was an otter. Wow! I'd never seen an otter before. I watched for a few seconds and then to my surprise another two otters appeared beside the first and begun to play with each other. I watched the three otters for about 30 mins. They would swim along beside each other for a few moments and tthen plop! One of them would dive down, being followed by its two playmates. At one point a single otter came out the water and climbed, or rather lolloped, up the stone steps on the quay and scuttled around for a few minutes befor hoping back down into the water to join its companions. Blimy, I thought. Otters are like Dublin buses - You wait years for one and then three come along, one after another.

Onwards and Upwards - Web design moves to Glandore, Cork

Having spent almost a year in Ratharoon, Bandon. Our landlord decided just before christmas that he wanted his house back. Well you can imagine what that was like. Now a month later, and with all the computers and broadband installed and the furniture adjusted to my liking, efastnet has relocated further west to the stunningly beautiful village of Glandore.

This place is idylic and promises to be a perfect place for efastnet to grow and build on the succeses of the previous year. One sadder note is that Alison has decided to move on to bigger better things and will be starting a new job with a web design company based in Cork city. We wish her all the best in her new venture.