Melbourne Quantum Shorts screening and Q&A wrap-up

Last Wednesday, the EQUS Public Engagement Committee hosted a screening of the nine finalists of the 2022–23 Quantum Shorts short film festival and Q&A.

The event received very positive feedback on the night and subsequently.  Attendees said they found the event “informative” and “fun”, and “loved being there hearing and thinking about science”.  One attendee said what they liked best was the question time: “[I was] so grateful to have access to scientists and to ask questions”.

The screening was held at The Kino – Palace Cinemas in central Melbourne, where we had to complete with the opening night of Disney blockbuster The Little Mermaid.  Nevertheless, the EQUS event was a sell-out, attracting film-makers and visual artists, scientists and other members of the public interested in finding out how quantum is relevant to them. The Q&A panel consisted of Public Engagement co-chairs Dr Ben McAllister and Dr Kristen Harley.

The crowd seemed to enjoy the films, with What is Quantum?—a comedic take on quantum physics by Michael, Emmett and Maxwell Dorfman using a combination of live action, green screen and stop-motion animation—getting the most laughs.  Despite the undeniable hilarity of people dressed up as electrons, protons and neutrons in What is Quantum?, Ben and Kristen agreed their favourite short was Clockwise—an experimental audio-visual exploration of colour, tessellation and symmetry by director Toni Mitjanit, inspired by Zeno’s paradox and the recursive subdivision of space and time.

Protons and neutrons in ‘What is Quantum?’

Ben and Kristen were impressed by the range of insightful questions put to them by attendees.  If not for the limitations of our booking, we would probably have been answering questions all night!

We discussed the difference between artistic licence and misinformation, and how artistic takes on quantum science can be educational and engaging even when they don’t represent the science to the letter.  We discussed the importance of good science communication in addressing misinformation and how activities such as Quantum Shorts and screening events can help to bring non-scientists on board with the second quantum revolution.

We received questions about the future of jobs in Australia as quantum technology advances—which jobs might be lost to automation, but also the opportunities provided the quantum manufacturing and engineering industry of the future.  Attendees appreciated the importance of keeping jobs onshore and of lobbying government to invest in the industry before it’s too late.

Ben gave 30-second explanations of quantum computing, superposition and dark matter, and answered questions about the existing and future applications of quantum technology. Kristen talked about the many other opportunities for people to engage with quantum science, including the up-coming Quantum Art Exhibition and National Quantum & Dark Matter Road Trip.  We were thrilled to hear that some attendees had already listed to the EQUS podcast Clear As Quantum!

The nine finalists were chosen from 232 entries from 58 countries by a panel of judges, including EQUS PhD student Tim Hirsch.  Tim commended the artistry of the films: “I enjoyed seeing music and dance used to personify characters that we physicists usually drily describe as ‘systems’ or ‘particles’. I was generally impressed by the technical skill of the entrants.”

One of the finalists—Continuum—is by the StoryBursts team, consisting of members from Australia and Singapore.  Their film is a creative response to research on gravitational waves by Dr Linqing Wen at the ARC Centre of Excellence for Gravitational Wave Discovery (OzGrav).  Other members of the team include Carl Knox, OzGrav’s Digital Media and Marketing Manager, and Aiv Puglielli, Victorian Legislative Council Member for the Victorian Greens representing the North-Eastern Metropolitan Region.

All ready to go at The Kino – Palace Cinemas

Quantum Shorts is an international competition that showcases quantum-inspired short films.  It is organised by the Centre for Quantum Technologies in Singapore, with media partners Scientific American and Nature, and scientific partners EQUS, the Dodd-Walls Centre for Photonic and Quantum Technologies, the Institute for Quantum Computing at the University of Waterloo, Canada, the Institute for Quantum Information and Matter at Caltech, QuTech, and the UK National Quantum Technologies Programme.  The shortlisted films are available to watch on the Quantum Shorts website (https://shorts.quantumlah.org/).