Course Details
Course Department: |
Department of Physics |
Course Code: |
PHY 011 |
Course Title: |
Modern Physics for Poets |
Number of ECTS: |
5 |
Level of Course: |
1st Cycle (Bachelor's Degree)  |
Year of Study (if applicable): |
  |
Semester/Trimester when the Course Unit is Delivered: |
Spring Semester 
|
Name of Lecturer(s): |
Stavros Theodorakis   |
Lectures/Week: |
2 (1.5 hours per lecture)  |
Laboratories/week: |
--  |
Tutorials/Week: |
--  |
Course Purpose and Objectives: |
The exploration of the common conceptual background behind
contemporary science and contemporary culture.
  |
Learning Outcomes: |
- List characteristics of art movements and physical theories.
Identify their common concepts.
- Associate cultural perceptions to concepts in art, physics.
- Illustrate the perceptions of civilizations on space, time,
boundaries, the vacuum. Demonstrate the universality of
concepts such as relativity, the reversal of conventional
viewpoints, warped space and time, fuzzy boundaries, virtual
and real, superposition and metamorphic images. Illustrate the
presence of modern physical concepts in contemporary art.
- Identify the role of observer (reader, spectator) with the role
of participant in physics (literature, art). Compare the properties
of vacuum in literature to those of the quantum seething void.
- Integrate the common ideas of contemporary art and science
into a map of basic tendencies of postmodern culture.
  |
Prerequisites: |
Not Applicable  |
Co-requisites: |
Not Applicable  |
Course Content: |
Culture as a function of our beliefs about space, time,
boundaries, the vacuum, chaos. Principle of Relativity–reversal of conventional viewpoints. Special and General Relativity.
Warped Space and Time, Topology, Escher’s art. Concepts of
space and time in the Middle Ages and in naive–primitive–
eastern–modern art. Wavefunctions–fuzzy boundaries. Virtual
and real. Superposition–Interpretation. Metamorphic Images in
Surrealism. The observer (reader, spectator) as a participant in
Physics (literature, art). Hypertexts. Aristotelian and Multivalued
Logic. Self-Referentiality, Fractals. The Vacuum as a dynamic
concept in Physics and Art. Dynamic entities in Postmodern
Culture.
  |
Teaching Methodology: |
Comparison of texts, paintings, films, physical theories, to find
their common ground. Use participatory surrealist games to
illustrate the role of the observer in shaping reality. Produce an
original creative work illustrating the common perceptions of
contemporary art and physics.
  |
Bibliography: |
“The seething void: the vacuum as a dynamical concept in
contemporary culture”, Stavros Theodorakis, Diavlos
Publications, Athens 1999. Also: Robert March, “Physics for Poets”; Stephen Kern, “The culture
of space and time 1880-1918”, Harvard University Press 1983;
N. Katherine Hayles, “Chaos bound - orderly disorder in
contemporary literature and science”, Cornell University Press
1990; N. Katherine Hayles, “The cosmic web - scientific field
models and literary strategies in the 20th century”, Cornell
University Press 1984; Leonard Shlain, “Art and physics -
parallel visions in space, time and light”, William Morrow, New
York 1991.
  |
Assessment: |
Original creative work (20%), midterm exam (40%), final exam
(40%). Criteria for the creative work: integration of modern
physics concepts in a piece of creative art work, identification of
common perceptions in art and physics. If the student prefers
not to undertake the creation of an original piece of work, then
the midterm and the final count for 50% each.   |
Language of Instruction: |
Greek
|
Delivery Mode: |
Face-To-Face  |
Work Placement(s): |
Not Applicable  |
|