Time Reversal Symmetry, 2018

Time Reversal Symmetry is part of LOoW – a collaboration between artists and scientists at TRIUMF: Canada’s national laboratory for particle and nuclear physics. Shot on 16mm film, Siebens uses pedestrian movement to represent the oscillating dance between matter and antimatter.

Piano Sonata in A flat major by Beethoven
Performed by Angela Hewitt
Featuring Evann Siebens +
Pina Bausch the dog
Camera assistance – Sunshine Frere
TRIUMF physicist – Mark Scott
LOoW – Randy Lee Cutler + Ingrid Koenig

In Time Reversal Symmetry Siebens uses dance, movement and media to visually exemplify how neutrinos ‘oscillate’ between flavours when they travel. The switch between 16mm colour and B&W film represents the oscillating dance between matter and antimatter. Additionally she has played with the concepts of charge-parity symmetry and time-translation symmetry, as seen by mirroring and asymmetry. Artists working with the body and media are referenced, such as Yvonne Rainer, Trisha Brown and Bruce Nauman; particularly his 1966 film Manipulating the T-Bar. She was also interested in the multiple meanings behind the term ‘time-reversal’ and what that means for the aging technology of 16mm film, as well as the aging female body.

“We study this phenomenon using both neutrinos (matter) and anti-neutrinos (antimatter) and are looking to see [if] matter oscillates with a different frequency to antimatter. If true, this violates one of the symmetries of nature, time-reversal symmetry, and could explain why we live in a matter dominated universe.”

Mark Scott
Physicist at TRIUMF: Canada’s national laboratory for particle and nuclear physics and accelerator-based science

EXHIBITIONS + SCREENINGS

PUSHKIN STATE MUSEUM OF FINE ART
Moscow, Russia
July 2020

ANN ARBOR EXPERIMENTAL FILM FESTIVAL
Michigan, USA
February 2020

DUBLIN DANCE FESTIVAL
Dublin, Ireland
May 2019

SCREENDANCE FESTIVAL
Stockholm, Sweden
April 2019

INTERNATIONAL FINE ARTS FILM FESTIVAL Santa Barbara, USA 2019

THESSALONIKI CINEDANCE INTERNATIONAL Thessaloniki, Greece 2019

SEYR FESTIVAL
Tehran, Iran
November 2018

LIGHT MOVES FESTIVAL OF SCREENDANCE
WINNER of Festival Prize for Outstanding Overall Work
Limerick, Ireland
November 2018

DANCE ON CAMERA
Film Society of Lincoln Center
Walter Reade Theater
New York, USA
July 2018

LOoW
Curated by Randy Lee Cutler + Ingrid Koenig
Emily Carr University of Art + Design
Vancouver, Canada
January 2018

WRITING

Leaning Out of Windows: An Art and Physics Collaboration Edited by Randy Lee Cutler and Ingrid Koenig. Contributing Artist, pages 64-65. Published by Emily Carr University of Art + Design, 2023 ISBN 978-1-77327-217-7