A Day Away

Yesterday, a few classmates and I had the wonderful opportunity to go on a field trip with Professor Maleki. It was an excellent day off campus and all had a good time. We began the day at around 11:30 by meeting in the parking lot. As usual with our class, many people arrived slightly late, despite the fact that we were supposed to be there on time. This was not a horrible event, as we were soon on our way. We then drove to an Indian restaurant and had an excellent lunch. Just thinking about the food that we ate is making me feel hungry for some more. Following this excellent lunch, we proceeded on to the museum at Skidmore College. While I must say that Skidmore is not, in my opinion, a very pretty looking school, being that all the building appear to have been built in probably the 70’s, using red brick, which is not a style that I personally find appealing, the museum was a very nice experience. The architecture of the building was very nice and it was well designed. It provided a nice atmosphere for the pieces of art that we viewed.
I very much enjoyed many of the pieces of art that we saw at the museum. Several of them related to the themes we are currently studying in class. One of my favorites, the video of a room that was rotating in circles in order to give the illusion of a person standing on the ceiling, especially related to the themes in class. We see much of what Einstein discussed when he talked of relativity. What is the true position of the ground? For the person viewing the film, the ground is always facing towards the bottom of the screen. However, for the actors in the film, the ground is wherever gravity is puling them. Is their perception of reality more accurate than our perception? I would have to say that both perceptions are true to the individual. To me, the ground was always facing the bottom of the screen and for the actor is was whichever way he was falling, regardless of how it looked on screen; for both the viewer and the actor the realities are equal. They have the same validity regardless of where gravity actually is.
Another issue we discussed in class was also present in the art piece that used sound to create ripples in the tub of water. The sound waves created vibrations that were shown in the water. We have spent much time talking about waves in class, so this piece related. Based on the frequency and volume of the sound heard, different waves were created in different parts of the tub. When a wave passed through a different wave, they interfered with each other creating larger waves as they crossed over each other. When the waves separated, they returned to their original heights and continued on in the same path.
Yet another piece of artwork that we viewed, or rather experienced, that was probably my favorite had to be the elevator. I thought this one was particularly well done because it not only timed itself with the actual elevator, which was functional, but also because it was highly mechanized. The robots appeared to talk with each other. When I read the description it discussed the issue of robots and computers becoming self-aware. This is an issue that must be considered carefully. At what point could a machine actually become a person? If the machine recognizes its own existence and has emotions and feelings, would it be right to harm the machine or destroy it with the justification that it is merely a machine? It seems to me that a line between what a person is and what a machine is will be made blurry at the occurrence of self-awareness. Some may question whether turning off or disconnecting a self-aware computer is equal to some form of murder. Debates over how to treat a situation such as computers that become self-aware will continue for many years to come. This piece of art has merely helped to inspire some people to continue the debate.
The last part of our field trip, but certainly not the least, was visiting Miss London’s Pastry Shop. I purchased the nebula cake and absolutely loved it. The steep price of $6.50 was definitely worth it. Of course, to connect this to quantum physics I must question the nature of the pastry. Was it really good or did it only appear to be good? Was the cake even real?