CERN – Art@CMS

Xavier Cortada, “Turning physicists into quarks,” site-specific performance above the CERN Large Hadron Collider at CMS/Point 5, 2013.

Cortada transformed the CERN building above the CMS Experiment into one of the protons colliding directly below in the Large Hadron Collider accelerator.   In the piece, the artist invited scientists to participate by wearing a cap with LED lights, showing one of the 6 colors which represent the flavors of the quarks. The physicists themselves took the role of the quarks inside a proton with the building serving as the confining (proton) walls.  Through their social interactions, each scientist mimicked the natural interactions studied in the experiment below.  

To learn more, please visit: https://cortada.com/art2013/cern-in-search-of-higgs-boson/about/