YoavRuda.com
pics, flicks & flux
Science Pop
by Yoav Ruda
purple moon view
NASA image projected on studio installation
Yoav Ruda, 2017
Dozens of thousands of lives have been lost in the pandemic due to science denial. The whole ecosystem is threatened by it.
down the drain
NASA image projected on a readymade object
Yoav Ruda, 2019
"My dear Kepler, what do you think of the foremost philosophers of this University? In spite of my oft-repeated efforts and invitations, they have obstinacy refused, to look at the planets or Moon or my telescope."
Galileo Galilei
red & green moon view
NASA image projected on studio installation
Yoav Ruda, 2017
Science's clear message is being attacked by reactionary forces, naive new age beliefs, baseless conspiracy theories and Irresponsible relativism.
drain the ocean
NASA image projected on a readymade object
Yoav Ruda, 2019
It is time to support the voice of reason, to celebrate Science's great achievements in practical, theoretical, aesthetical and experiential context.
The Art of Science...pop
video. 1:26 min
Yoav Ruda, 2020
Pop art placed the popular culture, language and aesthetics, in the light and prism of contemporary art, Dada did the same to the bicycle wheel.
I like bike
video. 0:55 min
Yoav Ruda, 2020
Science Pop brings scientific images, concepts and methodology to the art arena.
Andromeda Galaxy,revisited
NASA image projected on urban texture
Yoav Ruda, 2014
The main lesson of readymade is that art is in the eyes of the beholder. We can look at the Apollo mission as a photography expedition, at the Hubble telescope as the most sophisticated camera available and at LIGO (Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory) as a 4 kilometer conceptual art installation.
Apollo photography gear
video. 00:55 min
Yoav Ruda, 2012
image by Apollo 11 astronaut Edwin Aldrin
July 1969
© NASA
To deeply appreciate science, we have to understand its basic principal. Science generates a wide variety of theories that have to pass the refutation test in repeated experiments.
Charles Darwin
found footage projected on a tree trunk
Yoav Ruda, 2020
Science works similar to the evolution process, variations are constantly tested by natural selection. The success of science can be attributed to its correlation with the evolutionary process, utilisation of a well verified progression process.
The evolution of the eye
video. 1:20 min
Yoav Ruda, 2020
Hubble eXtreme Deep Field (HXDF) taken in 2012
representing a total of two million seconds (approximately 23 days) of exposure time collected over 10 years, The HXDF contains approximately 5,500 galaxies, the oldest of which are seen as they were 13.2 billion years ago.
According to Science, Climate crisis is an actual threat, we are in a state of emergency...
in case of emergency
video. 1:28 min
Yoav Ruda, 2019
The pandemic crisis gives us an opportunity to stop and recalculate our routes.
The Real Deal
video. 2:41 min
Yoav Ruda, 2020
Supernova Bossa nova
Evidence of a supernova that hit earth 2.5 million years ago was discovered.
The supernova led to the Bossa nova...
Supernova Bossa nova
video. 1:00 min
Yoav Ruda, 2020
Breaking the glass ceiling
Women in science
Women in science face structured inequality in opportunities and representation. Despite the obstacles, there are numerous examples of women excellence in science, here are just a few:
The Moon obeys Aglaonice
In traditional cultures, women often practiced as physicians, midwives, astronomers and other scholar positions. As the Academy was established in Ancient Greek, women were excluded from studying. Some found various ways to obtain knowledge. Aglaonice of Thessaly was one of the few astronomers of the 2nd and 1st century BC who could predict lunar eclipses.
The Moon obeys Aglaonice
video. 0:47 min
Yoav Ruda, 2020
Blazing world ahead
Women were pioneers in several fields, among others are animal rights, gender issues and science fiction…
Margaret Cavendish, blazing world ahead
video. 1:08 min
Yoav Ruda, 2020
Ada Lovelace, the first computer programmer
In 1837 mathematician and computer pioneer Charles Babbage presented The Analytical Engine, a proposed mechanical general-purpose computer. The device was never built, but it is a major milestone in the computer evolution. In 1842 Ada Lovelace, an English mathematician, published a program, algorithm, for the proposed machine, the first ever computer software. Ada Lovelace was the first to recognise the potential of computers in general tasks, beyond propper calculations.
Ada Lovelace-first computer programmer
video. 1:26 min
Yoav Ruda, 2020
Marie Curie, two times Nobel prize winner
Leader in radioactive research, Marie Curie has discovered two elements, radium and polonium.
Marie Curie, carrying the weight
video. 1:29 min
Yoav Ruda, 2020
The Event Horizon
On April 10, 2019, the first-ever image of a black hole was published by the Event Horizon telescope project. The supermassive beast lies some 55 million light-years away in a galaxy called M87, and has a mass about 7 billion times that of the Sun.
The first image of a black hole
by the Event Horizon telescope project
8 bit Breakbeat
A new study utilizes the first image of a black hole to reexamine Einstein General theory of relativity. Scientists try to modify the theory to fit with quantum mechanics, the results only strengthen the original theory.
8 bit breakbeat
video. 1:02 min
Yoav Ruda, 2020
Reason has risen
Everybody knows our sun, but few are aware of our very own black hole sun, Sagittarius A, the supermassive black hole at the center of our Milky Way. 2020 Nobel Prize in Physics is awarded towards research in black holes.
reason had risen
video. 1:00 min
Yoav Ruda, 2020
Touch & go
NASA’s OSIRIS-REx grabbed samples from the Bennu asteroid.
touch & go
video. 1:00 min
Yoav Ruda, 2020
The Spiders from Mars
Starburst channels, patterns of channels on Mars' south pole
The spiders from mars
video. 0:45 min
Yoav Ruda, 2020
Surfing the stirring gravitational wave
gravitational waves, A phenomenon that was predicted more than 100 years ago was proved to be a fact, opening a new horizon for astronomy of the early universe.
surfing the stirring gravitational wave
video. 1:30 min
Yoav Ruda, 2020
Simulations by:
LIGO/SXS/R.Hurt and T. Pyle
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center/CI Lab
Simulating eXtreme Spacetimes
Numerical-relativistic Simulation: S. Ossokine , A. Buonanno (Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics)
Scientific Visualization: W. Benger (Airborne Hydro Mapping GmbH)
Western bias in science?
In the art world, subjectivity and personal taste is an integral part of the subject matter. Science, On the contrary, is supposed to be objective. Recent studies suggests that there is a bias favoring researches from western countries:
The discovery of water on the moon
First to discover
video. 1:14 min
Yoav Ruda, 2020
The extraordinary discovery of the Indian Space Research Organization was rejected by both Nature journal and Science Magazine.
Chandrayaan-I had two payloads from NASA. Nasa Analysis and the discovery of water from the same Indian space expedition, was published in Science magazine in October 2009. Only In 2019, nearly 10 years later, Science published a chronological order of detection of water on the moon, a kind of reluctant acknowledgement of Indian Space Research Organization’s contribution.
subjector
Studio installation projection
Yoav Ruda, 2015
Science is often perceived as a westren European-American project. The truth is science is part of a global progression of culture, knowledge and technology that spreads through all continents and throughout human history.
Pyramid breed
video. 1:00 min
Yoav Ruda, 2020
Multicultural pyramids
Pyramids are one of the greatest achievements of ancient engineering. Pyramids are mostly associated with ancient egypt and native american cultures, but they were common all over the world: in Sudan, Nigeria, Greece, Spain, China, the Roman Empire, India, Indonesia and more.
Nubian pyramids, Meroe
The nation of Sudan has 220 extant pyramids, the most numerous in the world.
The invention of writing
hope
lomography
Yoav Ruda, 2006
The invention of writing, the ability to store and process information, was a great leap in cultural evolution.
Most scholars estimate that writing has independently developed in at least four ancient civilizations, Mesopotamia (between 3400 and 3100 BC), Egypt (around 3250 BC), China (1200 BC), and lowland areas of Southern Mexico and Guatemala.
Limestone Kish tablet from Sumer with pictographic writing; may be
the earliest known writing, 3500 BC. Ashmolean Museum
The biblical story of babylon tower is a mirrored image of the invention of writing. In the story, an ambitious engineering project that aims to reach the skies is ending up in loss of common language, miscommunication and dividedness. In reality, an ambitious linguistic communication project helps us to manage knowledge, communicate, unite, and eventually ‘reach the stars’.
Babel
video. 1:00 min
Yoav Ruda, 2020
Zero, much more than nothing
Zero fulfills a central role in mathematics. As a digit, 0 enables positional numeral systems, for example:
We use base 10, with just 10 digits and the position of each digit, we can present any number. The zero appears each time a new column ‘opens’.
By 1770 BC, the Egyptians had a symbol for zero in accounting texts. The symbol nfr, meaning beautiful.
Different Maya symbols for zero
36 BC is the earliest recorded use of zero in America, the Mesoamerican Long Count calendar required zero as a placeholder within its vigesimal (base-20) positional numeral system. Zero became an integral part of Maya numerals.
Today, the Hindu–Arabic numeral system (base ten) is the most commonly used system, all around the world. However, the binary numeral system (base two) is used in almost all computers and electronic devices, it still needs the zero…
Binary equations
video. 1:00 min
Yoav Ruda, 2020
The small picture
Haadf micrograph of a copper and a silver rich precipitate in an
aluminum-based alloy. Image: Norwegian Technical National University,
Trondheim
The smallest flick
In this movie every pixel is made of two atoms.
The smallest flick
video. 0:42 min
Yoav Ruda, 2020
boat floating under levitated waters
A team of French physicists has discovered ‘anti-gravity’. They’ve made a toy boat float on the opposite side of levitated fluids.
boat floating under levitated waters
video. 1:02 min
Yoav Ruda, 2020
Branched flow
For the first time, researchers have created the 'branched flow' phenomenon in visible light.
Branched flow
video. 00:55 min
Yoav Ruda, 2020
The Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope's first published image of the sun is the highest-resolution image of our star to date.
image credit: NSO/NSF/AURA
Over & overtones
Harmonic series above the obvious
Over and overtones
video. 1:00 min
Yoav Ruda, 2020
How to eliminate fake news
Fake news and science denial are two alarming phenomena promoted by social media. In general, current social media algorithms are optimized for ‘engagement’. What is considered ‘engaging’ are mostly comments, and apparently, extreme, provocative, offensive and baseless content generates a lot of them.
Flat earth
video. 0:37 min
Yoav Ruda, 2020
Learning from the past
Google search $632 billion solution
Before Google, search engines were a mess. They didn’t have a clue how to find the most relevant results. Google utilized the Wisdom of the crowd at its best. They knew that Web page owners were very picky on which page they put links to, and were very precise in the linking text, the anchor text.
Google mapped all backlinks on the Web, the more backlinks a page has, the better it would perform in the search results.
But not all backlinks are born equal, Google gave each and every page on the Web a pagerank, the higher the rank, the more effective the backlinks on it.
The combination of these three elements: backlinks, pagerank and anchor text created a search engine that works so well that it conquered the market in just a few months. All trashy websites disappeared from the top results.
Google doodle
video. 1:16 min
Yoav Ruda, 2020
Can it be done on social media?
A similar model can be applied to contemporary social media. Let’s take Facebook, the biggest social media, as an example. Facebook has a fact checking program, working with third-party fact-checking organizations. The main sanctions against false data, is reducing the exposure of the specific content. The fact-checking procedure is complicated and takes time. Often, before the system identifies and confirms the false content, it has already been published to a lot of people. Facebook can use the same fact-check to rate the publishers pages themselves, the more false content you publish, the lower your rate will be. This will prevent future false content from getting high exposure right at the beginning.
So why don’t they do it?
Google in 1998 was a small startup, it's only chance for success was to present the best solution. Social media giants are huge public companies, with inside politics and a strong board of directors. They probably think the current lousy situation is profitable, afterall, it is ‘engaging’.
Why is false news bad for business?
Big brands do not want to be associated with controversial, provocative and harmful issues.
Fake news and offensive content do not convert to sells, what can you advertise on an anti vaccine, flat earth content?
Pandemic open mic
Wear a damn mask
video. 1:00 min
Yoav Ruda, 2020
Viruses are portrayed in the media as vicious enemies that mutate to make us sick. Actually, viruses’ main surviving strategy is symbiosis with the host organism.
Viral toilet paper- 2nd wave
video. 0:21 min
Yoav Ruda, 2020
Viruses have a significant role in the earth’s ecosystem. For example, they are an important regulator of phytoplankton sustainable spreading, the base of the food chain in aquatic environments.
Viral toilet paper- 3rd wave, let’s hope it’s the last
video. 0:21 min
Yoav Ruda, 2020
Viruses live in our body, the human virome outnumber the 40 trillion bacteria in a typical human microbiome. Most of these viruses are harmful, their role in our body ecosystem is yet to be discovered.
Enjoy the silence- quarantine meditation
Enjoy the silence
video. 2:00 min
Yoav Ruda, 2020
Super evolution
The evolution theory was revolutionary in many respects. One aspect that is disregarded is the fact that mutations are random. In a world dominated by Neutonian determinism, 100 years before the Chaos theory, Darwin introduced a fundamental chaotic element to his thesis. We can expand the evolution theory beyond the biosphere, to the development of culture, language, science, art and matter itself, all follow the same model: chaotic expansion and deterministic natural selection.
mutate
video. 2:39 min
Virtual Art images by Rein Bijlsm
Yoav Ruda, 2020
Evolution is commonly associated with a harsh war of the species. But it is an incomplete picture. Actually, collaboration is the most fundamental attribute of the organism. Life can sustain itself and thrive only by coordination of the various components, cells, organs and individual animals in a group. As a matter of fact, we can see the whole biosphere as one symbiotic ecosystem.
Wiki Cult Expo Fair
Studio installation projected on urban texture
Yosv Ruda, 2014
We are all part of one fragile biosphere, can we formulate a new ethics that follows the organic collaborative nature?
Mirror Neurons Networks
Evolution developed in us an advanced mechanism that helps us to learn, communicate and identify with each other...mirror neurons networks.
Mirror Neurons set
Found footage projected on studio installation
Yoav Ruda, 2016
The same areas in the brains are active both when one acts and when one observes the same action performed by another.
cortical neuron
Imre Vida, NeuroCure Cluster, Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin
In a way, we are all wired and connected via unseen strings that sync our brains, we are all nods in a huge cultural network.
Bio networks, Neuron networks, computer networks, artificial neural networks, all share a significant attribute: decentralized interaction between various actors (nods).
The most comprehensive network is the assumed cosmic network of the SuperSymmetry theory: the Superspace Web.
Superspace Web & the Higgs boson discovery
superspace web
video. 1:16 min
Yoav Ruda, 2020
The 11th dimension
The universe is an expanding sphere, with no end and no center.
In the popular analogy, we are two dimensional beings on the face of a three dimension inflating balloon.
Does the big bang theory require a 4th spatial dimension?
The 11th dimension
video. 1:41 min
Yoav Ruda, Doron Hillel, 2012
In the dark room
Points of reference to the evolution of photography
in the dark room
video. 2:10 min
Yoav Ruda, 2012
Quantum Theory
Schrodinger’s Cat Dance
video. 1:01 min
Yoav Ruda, 2020
Quantum physics is weird. Commonsense can argue that Schrodinger’s Cat is just a thought experiment, not an actual situation. The entanglement effect is different, it was verified in various experiments. Spooky action at a distance is a scientific fact.
First-Ever Photo of Quantum Entanglement captured by physicists at the
University of Glasgow. one photon is going through a liquid crystal,
the other photon is affected by the crystal, even though it had passed through it.
The entanglement effect contradicts our logic and intuition, still we can imagine a deeper connection in a multidimensional universe.
spooky action at distance
video. 1:0 min
Yoav Ruda, 2020
The double-slit experiment is even more tricky. Particles change their behavior significantly if they are observed by a detector. It feels as if we reached the back screen in the Truman show, that we found a bug in the simulation...
the double-slit bug
video. 1:00 min
Yoav Ruda, 2020
It is tempting to think that we uncover the limitations of reality’s simulation. The simulation theory is gaining momentum with high profile advocates such as Neil deGrasse Tyson and Elon Musk. The simulation theory can’t be tested, therefore it is not science, but rather science fiction.
the matrix
video. 1:00 min
Yoav Ruda, 2020
Listen to the science
Greta Thunberg
found footage projected on a tree trunk
Yoav Ruda, 2020
Dive in
Drone documentation of ‘die in’ performance by ‘extinction rebellion,
projected through water
video. 1:00 min
Yoav Ruda, 2019
Amplifying Feedback
Our ecosystem is heading towards the point of no return, a hothouse earth, after it, warming will continue even if carbon dioxide emission is stopped.
amplifying feedback
video. 5:59 min
Yoav Ruda, Ron Guetta, 2019
The TAO of the TOE
Achieving truth is one of the main spiritual quests in most cultures. As skepticism is a major tool in obtaining truthful knowledge, it has structured spiritual qualities.
Tau day
video. 0:49 min
Yoav Ruda, 2020
At Cern's LHC, scientists are looking for evidence of Supersymmetry, the leading candidate for physic's Theory Of Everything. Super evolution can be regarded as a general principle of the nature of the development of all that exists: chaotic expansion and deterministic natural selection.
Chaos to cosmos
video. 1:02 min
Yoav Ruda, 2020
Super Evolution has some significant similarities with the Chinese TAO:
The universe is seen as being in a constant process of recreating itself.
There are two states of qi: yin and yang, two complementary extremes that constantly play against and with each and cannot exist without the other.
Here comes the sun
Here comes the sun
video. 0:34 min
Yoav Ruda, 2020
Footage by NASA, collected by the Solar Dynamics Observatory's AIA Instrument on July 19, 2012.