WHEN ACCELERATORS TURN INTO SWEATERS

Julijonas Urbonas 

Will we unravel the threads of the universe? 

The hidden world of particle physics is hard to relate to - all kinds of wild and unbelievable things happen at the subatomic level where particles are in constant motion. If we could scale up those phenomena to something human size, why not through the medium of a warm, knitted sweater? Emerging from replica sections of CERN’s Large Hadron Collider, these buoyant jumpers are made from copper threads. If they were created using superconductive materials, in particular conditions they could levitate. Inspired by the real phenomenon of quantum levitation, take a leap into a speculative future where this power is harnessed for widespread use.  

How does this change design, architecture or reality? 

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Julijonas Urbonas is a Lithuanian artist, designer and engineer who has spent his career trying to manipulate the forces of gravity. His works are characterised by scientific accuracy, thought and humour. He is also the founder of the Lithuanian Space Agency, Associate Professor and former Prorector at Vilnius Academy of Arts, and former director of an amusement park in Klaipeda.