In my painting, I wanted to portray the transition between the different worldviews (or cosmologies) that we learned in class this semester. The first world view that I painted was the Aristotelian world view. Thomas Aquinas was influenced by Aristotle’s philosophy. In the Middle Ages, Thomas Aquinas harmonized the Aristotelian world view with Christianity. I painted the Christian cross to symbolize the Aristotelian world view since it was a crucial part of it. I painted the cross underneath the Newtonian and Einstein view to show that the Aristotelian world view occurred before them.
The second world view that I painted was the Newtonian world view. To illustrate the Newtonian view I painted space, time energy and matter into four separate components. I emphasized this idea by painting the four branches in different colours. They are painted in primary colours and secondary colours. They are painted onto rings similar to those of an atom. In my artwork, the moon, representing space, orbits around the moon[j1]. It symbolizes Newton’s study of the moon following its path around the earth due to the gravitational forces. This study led him to his gravitational theory. This theory states that any two objects in the universe attract one another with a force that is directly proportional to the product of their masses and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between the two objects (in this case, their center of mass). In order to represent energy in my piece, I painted the electromagnetic spectrum. I chose to include the electromagnetic spectrum to represent energy since the sun emits energy through radiation. The radiation is then emitted through the electromagnetic spectrum. In Newton’s Laws of Motion, mass and energy are considered to be separate and mechanical properties. Newton believed that space and time were absolute and that they were separate entities that did not affect each other. He also claimed that space and matter had no similar functions to one another. I chose to paint an atom to represent matter since it is the smallest form of matter.
The third world view that I painted was Einstein’s world view. Einstein’s view is shown in the center of my painting. The colours are combined together to demonstrate that space, time, energy and matter are not four separate components like they are for Newton. According to Einstein’s Special Theory of Relativity, space and time share a relationship. They depend on the motion of observer who measures them. Matter and energy also share a relationship and are equivalent (E = mc2). Einstein claims that the moon orbits around the earth since the moon follows curves created by the earth in the space-time fabric. I also wanted to incorporate Newton’s color wheel into my artwork. I used Newton’s colour wheel to portray Einstein’s view. His colour wheel is composed of seven colours red, orange, yellow, green, indigo, blue and violet. When the disk spins rapidly, the colors blur together and the eye sees the colours mixed together to form white. I used bright colours in my painting to represent Newton’s colour wheel to lighten up my artwork.
Bibliography
"Sir Isaac Newton: The Universal Law of Gravitation." Sir Isaac Newton: The Universal Law of Gravitation. Web. 10 May 2015.
"The Electromagnetic Spectrum." The Electromagnetic Spectrum. Web. 10 May 2015.