Axion Knowledge Bar@MADMAX

13 December 2023

Photo: AG Garutti

Let's meet at the Axion knowledge-bar tonight!

On December, 13th, 2023, our team from the MADMAX collaboration had the great chance to welcome Olivier Rossel and to be part of his fascinating project. Olivier Rossel is observing MADMAX's search for Axions, a prominent candidate for dark matter, that would simultaneously solve the strong CP-problem if detected. As an artist, currently working on his PhD in Science and Technology Studies, Olivier is interested in the field of tension, where arts practices and experimental physics come together. For this purpose, he closely studied MADMAX inside the SHELL Hall on Campus Bahrenfeld for two weeks and intervened with an artistic action.

For one evening, the newly built SHELL Hall was turned into the Axion knowledge bar, where tasty Glühwein and cookies were served. However – the drinks on offer were by no means for free and had to be traded against cutting edge knowledges concerning actual axion physics. Writing poems about feeling as a MADMAX scientist, reproducing body movements from laboratory experiments, or drawing technical hacks used in experimental procedures related to a possible future detection of axions have been traded in. Olivier, for his PhD foremost interested in tacit knowledge and scientific tinkering, took data for his own research on this occasion. Shortly after the event, the material was reviewed, put into relation with scientific literature, and bound to a fascinating artistic publication.

Team MADMAX is very proud to have hosted the project. We're looking forward to have Olivier Rossel's knowledge bar at Science City Day 2024, on Saturday, 1 June 2024.

The Axion Knowledge Bar is part of Olivier Rossel's PhD Project 'Intra-Axion - The role of performative materialities in the field of tension between the arts and new physics'. The events are  kindly supported by Group Garutti, the MADMAX collaboration and the Excellence Cluster Quantum Universe at University of Hamburg.

Please find more information:
Group Garutti https://www.physik.uni-hamburg.de/iexp/gruppe-garutti.html
MADMAX Collaboration https://www.mpp.mpg.de/en/research/astroparticle-physics-and-cosmology/madmax-searching-for-axion-dark-matter/
Excellence Cluster Quantum Universe https://www.qu.uni-hamburg.de/
Olivier Rossel's research https://www.mpp.mpg.de/en/news/news/intraaxion-forschen-an-der-schnittstelle-von-kunst-und-experimenteller-physik