5th Dimensional Camera

I was about seven when the world of the popular Indian comics Amar Chitra Katha, swept
me away, from stories of monkey gods to ten-headed monsters sending rockets into
parallel worlds...

who later came back to haunt me through the blaring television box in my teenage
years.

One of my favourite stories was of Vishnu, the supporter of the seven realms of the
earth and several other worlds below the land we stand on.. one night.. while
sleeping on a thousand headed serpent dreamt up the universe.. and lo behold,
emerged Brahma from his navel... brahma the creator of the universe, sat on the
lotus.

Image Credit: http://www.hknet.org.nz/parishad115.htm
In another avatar, Vishnu is seen as the playful child Krishna, killing a venomous serpant
while the snake princesses of the underworlds applaud.

And in yet story you’ll ﬁnd the same Krishna, all grown up and holding massive
mountains on his tiny ﬁnger to save friends and lovers from the angry wrath of the lords
from the worlds above.

Images Credit: Chennai Urban Art Collection

And when not busy himself, he’d be watching how his friend Arjuna, a brave warrior is
besotted by the serpant princess Uloopi and swept into a parallel world to marry her.

In his lion-man incarnation, Vishnu, he kills the famous demon Hiranyakaśipu - again a
merger of multiverses

Image Credit: D. Hatcher Childress, "Ancient Indian Aircraft Technology" In The Anti-Gravity Handbook

And then there are these drawings of ﬂying machines from those scriptures have left me
slack jawed... Multiverses collided with time travel, atomic manipulations hit against
cosmic winds, as the ﬂying machines shoots into space.

“Because You are unlimited, neither the
lords of heaven nor even You Yourself can
ever reach the end of Your glories.
The countless universes, each enveloped
in its shell, are compelled by the wheel of
time to wander within You, like particles
of dust blowing about in the sky.”

Bhagavata Purana, Veda Vyasa, 9th / 10th Century CE, 10.87.41
And in many ways, these ideas are summed up in the Bhagvata Purana, one of the
oldest, most signiﬁcant Hindu scripture...

between the comics, myths and pranks, years ﬂew by, and I found salvation... quite
frankly in the world of storytelling.

We design for
Emerging technologies,
Societies in flux,
The imminently probable.

.. though design and film. I now run a London and India based design practice called
Superflux, we design for the imminently probable. That is to say, we explore the
potentials and implications of emerging technologies on society and the environment.
Our work takes the form of applications and products, but also stories, films, images
and props.

A public engagement project by QIP IRC, DI RCA, EPSRC, NESTA

And it was while doing such work, that we were invited last year to participate in the
IMPACT! project orchestrated by EPSRC, NESTA, and RCA - which aimed to bring
different kinds of cutting edge scientiﬁc research to the public in an exciting and
meaningful manner. We were paired up with material scientists and quantum physicists
from Oxford and bristol universities who run a research programme called QIPIRC -
quantum information processing interdisciplinary research collaboration.

Dr. John Rarity

Meet our scientists Dr. John Rarity from Bristol, whose key interests include quantum key
distribution, quantum optics and single photon sources and detectors.

Dr. John Rarity Dr. Andrew Briggs

Prof. Briggs is working on a series of projects looking into electron spin active dimers
could be used to realize a two-qubit system for quantum computing,

Dr. John Rarity Dr. Andrew Briggs Dr. Simon Benjamin

And Dr. Simon Benjamin’s interests are theoretical, his work relating to the design,
growth and characterization of solid state nanostructures for computation.

Video from Dr. Simon Benjamin, showing animations.

Through their research they are attempting to build a Quantum computer that will
harness the power of super position to perform massively parallel processing by
computing simultaneously in many worlds.

Data Encryption: Soon? Fast Factorisation: One Day...

This research opened up a whole world of possible applications - ranging from the more
plausible data encryption, nano-world simulations and protein folding, to far future
dystopian scenarios of an information arms race where governments rush to create code
breaking machines that will lay bear the secrets of competing nations. Amazing, scary,
confusing, exciting, mindblowing. However, the challenge for us, as designers, was to
make sense of this intangible, speculative world in way that would get members of the
public excited and enthusiastic about quantum mechanics and computing.

“Will the bizarre quantum world
forever exist as the private
preserve of mathematicians and
experimental physicists, or
might ordinary people someday
gain access to its fabled
realms?”

The question that crossed our minds was nicely put by Nick Herbert the author of
Quantum Reality: (read the question)
So we put Simon, one of our collaborating scientists in front of their gigantic magnet,
pointed a camera at him, and asked him to tell us in a comprehensible manner, their
work and the possible theories behind it:

FILM: SIMON ON THE SPOT

Video by Superﬂux, showing Dr. Simon Benjamin talk about Quantum Computing: http://www.vimeo.com/10219243

Simon Benjamin explains Quantum Computing

Inspired by Hugh Everett’s ‘Many World Interpretation’
The 5th Dimensional Perspective

Simon mentioned the ‘many worlds theory’ by hugh everett which is sometimes referred
to as the 5th Dimension, which sounds very very counter intuitive - yet we were
fascinated by it. And thats because we were most interested in presenting a hook into
the science, as a starting point of interest and debate, and hoping that would lead
people to further interest. (At this point, its important to stress that this was only one of
the many interpretations of quantum theory.)

“The fact that answers obtained from a
quantum computer couldn’t be obtained any other
way will make people take seriously that the
process that obtained them was objectively real.

And then we spoke to David Deutsch, better know as the father of quantum computer -
over skype - and he emphasised on this idea that he has written about in his book
‘Fabric of Reality’ and in this interview in WIRED -

“The fact that answers obtained from a
quantum computer couldn’t be obtained any other
way will make people take seriously that the
process that obtained them was objectively real.

Nothing more than that is needed to lead to the
conclusion that there are parallel universes,
because that is speciﬁcally how quantum
computers work.”

David Deutsch, WIRED

as Dr. Deutsch speaks out about this idea of parallel universes,

ﬂashbacks!
I had ﬂashbacks of my childhood!

all those stories I had shown you earlier came alive... whether it was lotus popping
universes

Image Credit: http://www.ﬂickr.com/photos/unlistedsightings/

or monkey gods being swept aways by demons from parallel worlds

multidimensional goddesses riding deadly animals

Image Credit: http://www.ﬂickr.com/photos/proxyindian/

the snake people of the underworlds

or large battles viewed by every possible creature in the whole wide world. ofcourse its
all mythology, but these stories are powerful in the way they shape culture and inﬂuence
our collective memories and thoughts. today exploring the world of quantum physics,
we as designers, imagineers, storytellers, put on our public engagement hats and
asked...

What if

what if we could see these parallel worlds... what if...

What if we could see the world from a 5th Dimension?

We could see the world from a 5th Dimension? Like how a Quantum computer is meant to
access the many worlds of binary information ‘within itself’, could we visualise a machine
that could access the many possible worlds that branch from our own timeline?

there we are sketching a device that can see other other
dimensions - beyond time -

What might that device be like? We sketched away furiously, possibilities of this ﬁctional
contraption were endless -

Images from divergent timelines are consolidated by the camera

Camera timer is started
Images are printed

Camera fires across divergent timelines

Camera now active in timelines that diverge from activation point

Camera now active in timelines that diverge from activation point

Camera timer is started Camera res across divergent timelines

Reﬁning the idea further, we were able to create a scehmatic reprsentation of how this
photographic device might work: It takes a snapshot of a range possible worlds that
branch from the moment the camera timer is started, to the moment the camera ﬁres.
Its in effect, a metaphorical representation of a quantum computer. our aspiration for
this camera was one of wonder and curiosity - how could one record the ‘unrecordable’
quantum properties that make quantum computation possible and make intangible the
tangible?

MAKING OF THE 5TH DIMENSIONAL CAMERA, INDIA 2010

And not long after that...we were off to build the machine in our workshop, back home in
India. Ofcourse I’d like to remind the audience that this is a ﬁctional object and it does
not really work. It is a speculative design prop... and we believe that it is through such
detailed, beautiful objects that such a complex science can be brought to the public, and
help people suspend disbelief.

And here it is... the 5th dimensional camera, a ﬁctional device that allows us to think
what it would be like to live in a world where some of these possibilities around
quantum computing move from the laboratory and start to inﬂuence our everyday lives.

The view of the object from back, showing the viewﬁnder.

The 5th dimensional camera is seen - as both a metaphor for scientific investigation in
the field of quantum computation and also an exploration of the impact this field may
have on our daily lives.

THE CONTROL PANEL

00. 00. 94. 73. 66. 23. 44. 32

" !

The control panel represents the main functions of the 5D camera: A timer: that sets the
amount of duration (centuries/ decades/years/months/days/dates/minutes/seconds). A
probability amplitude knob which allows the protagonist to select how wide a
probability spectrum they want the camera to reach out into.

Benedict, Scientist Molly, Administrator Nolan, Crossword solver

But alongwith the prop, what are the evidences from this ﬁctional world that are
essential to help people suspend disbelief, explore the possibilities, and ultimately tie it
back to their own experiences and realities? we created stories of three people who
might use the camera to photograph their mundane lives. Stories of three people who
were given this camera:

Benedict, Scientist Molly, Administrator Nolan, Crossword solver

First up, its Molly, the administrator

Molly works for the Housing Department. Most of her days are spent answering calls
from angry citizens, and planning for the weekend. When a colleague tells her about the
5th Dimensional Camera study, she decides to participate "for a laugh". The scientists
bring the camera and set the timer for seven thirty the next evening and instruct her to
write down the most memorable event of her day on the board provided. She must sit
facing the camera when it ﬁres. More out of curiosity than cooperation she follows the
strange instructions and waits.

As the camera ﬁres, it brings back images of what Molly might have done in other worlds.
Most of them seem equally mundane... except for something like a ﬁre, or someone else in
her place, or her not being there at all.

except for something like a ﬁre, or someone else in her place, or her not being there at all.

close up of Ida

a closer look... Each image is time stamped illustrating that they were taken parallel
worlds at the same time.

Benedict, Scientist Molly, Administrator Nolan, Retired Civil Servant

then moving on, lets explore the story of Nolan... the retired civil servant

Nolan lives in a small ﬂat by himself in north-west London, spends his time reading and
solving crosswords in the evening paper. One evening a small advert catches his
attention. A group of scientists were looking for participants to live with a '5th
Dimensional Camera' for a few months. He reaches for his phone and soon the camera is
standing awkwardly in his living room.

Nolan starts by taking photographs of the empty corridor outside his ﬂat. And soon his
attention turns from reﬂecting on the world outside his window, to a fascination in the
images of the many worlds revealed outside his door.

close up of Nolan

a closer view starts exposing a probable dark world...

Apart from the IMPACT! exhibition where the work and stories were shown...

A LEVEL STUDENTS WORKSHOP, LONDON 2010

During the exhibition we had a workshop with A level students from York, who came
down to visit the exhibition and drew many scenarios of what it might be like to -
groups imagined where scenarios where they might use the 5th dimensional camera

including one idea which was to put it way out in space, looking at the earth, to better
understand climatic changes, probabilities for ﬂood, asteroids and even formation of
new continents.

CHELTENHAM SCIENCE FESTIVAL, CHELTENHAM 2010

Cheltenham was a big hit for us - taking the project out of the ‘art exhibition’ context,
into new areas, amazing responses from children.

“I quite like the 5th Dimension camera it is cool”

“I quite like the camera exhibition. It was so interesting I forgot to stay with my group.”

i like the idea of seeing into the future.

SECRET GARDEN PARTY, CAMBRIDGESHIRE 2010

We found ourselves in a unique music festival, in the heart of cambridgeshire, with its
own lake, river and landscaped gardens, Amongst the unusually dressed there was an
unmatched curiosity and penchant for quantum physics.

LOVEBOX MUSIC FESTIVAL, LONDON 2010

The Lovebox music festival too - much bigger - in London, we were surrounded by
visitors less like ourselves.

And ﬁnally, the project will be showcased at the Museum of Modern Art, New York
alongwith another one of our projects, in its upcomin exhibition ‘Talk to Me’.

“I think the greatest
advance that we're
going to make is to
construct a new way
of thinking about how
the world operates.”
Seth Lloyd, MIT

Photo Credit: Henry Yuen,
http://cipher3d.wordpress.com

I’ll leave you with this nice quote by Seth Llyod

Thank You

Jon Ardern John Rarity Fiona Raby
Simon Benjamin Anthony Dunne
Andrew Briggs Ujjwal Panchal
Sabrina Maniscalco Charlie Tims
Suzanne McEndoo Ida Karolina Soder
K B and Mina Jain
Vijay and Meghal Arya

www.superﬂux.in | Twitter: @Superﬂux

Finally there’s the project’s photographs being exhibited outside, do have a look.
Big thanks to Jon Ardern, my partner in crime, the QIPIRC scientists and all those
who helped on the project.

5th Dimensional Camera

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