Finding the spark of art and science
Rachel Rayner likes a bit of glitter and sparkle in her life.
"Glitter is just how I reflect more photons (the smallest particle of light) back at the audience, and that's what we all want, more photons."
It is not quite what you expect to hear from someone who makes a living out of explaining science to everyday people — especially quantum physics.
But Rayner is out to nuke that preconception of the knitted vest and glasses-wearing, professor-type with humour, tights and a metallic gold top.
"It's definitely not a lecture. There's a little bit of theatre in there. There's some dancing, some yoga. In A Flying Photon , I try to really embody light. I try to be the wave, a photon of light. And in the second one, I'm trying to be a gold atom. I really want to be a gold atom. So it's a bit absurd. I love a little bit of absurd."
For Rayner, arts and science have been a constant presence, one that she could never separate. Always fascinated with scientific research and discovery she also loved performing and communicating. She studied art history and physics at university while doing a drama course in her spare time.
"So there was a vague idea to kind of focus in on one, but I just couldn't do one without the other. I feel like the two of them are very intertwined. We need both in our lives. The two are very, very important to each other."
So when she discovered the world of science communication it seemed tailor-made for her. She moved to Canberra to do a graduate diploma in science communication (known as the Shell Questacon Science Circus) in 2011. That led to performing science shows in schools and then work at science centres where she helped put on shows and exhibits to explain science to children.
"Having that understanding of art and culture in that way to combine the two, I think, is really, really helpful. So I've been really lucky in the path I've followed and just working a lot more in communication and now helping scientists explain the science and research that they do to broad audiences."
Rayner is particularly passionate about physics as "that is where the momentum is", she says.
"It's just the movement of it, the breaking down our everyday experiences into these really universal concepts. Like, the physics that happen here is the same physics that happens on a planet hundreds of thousands, a hundred million light years away.
"It's something about just breaking down the universe into these simple mechanics that I think is just so beautiful and really, really excites me."
She began to develop her own shows because she believed people should "give a flying photon about the universe" around them.
"I'd done previous shows in the science centres I'd worked in around light. And I get really excited about this, the whole spectrum of light.
"So we see a rainbow, but then there's so many more colours of light beyond the ones that we can see. And we use them in our day-to-day life, like they bring us the internet, radios, microwaves, like we use all these different waves of light all the time. But we don't kind of think about them with the wonder and awe that I tend to."
While she had spent more than eight years performing shows for children and school audiences, this time she wanted to make a show bringing that love of light to an adult audience.
"To have a chance for adults to really sit in that wonder and excitement and have a few more adult jokes in there at the same time. So that's where the first one, A Flying Photon , came about."
It was her first time on stage by herself but she had a lot of fun and won best science show at the Adelaide Fringe so she developed her second show, Atomically Correct , about the atom.
"So we've kind of explored the photon in the first one and then the next, which is a quantum particle of light. And then the second one, we go down to the quantum physics of the atom and build an atom from scratch, essentially, and kind of lots of tangents. There's a little bit of feminism in there because, you know, a lot of the time I'm a raging feminist."
Using physicality and the space on stage to help tell the story and explain high-level science concepts takes work.
"Being creative with with the material is really exciting. And just trying to figure out ways to bring humour and wonder to something that I find really fascinating that a lot of people don't. I do understand quantum physics is not something people read about every Saturday morning, so it's really fun to play with these ideas. And they're really wacky. Like, infrared light is a colour of light we can feel. That's just, wow, that's so weird."
So working out how to describe things that are completely intangible to many people's minds is the challenge.
"How can we use the tools that we have, which is language and physicality, to really kind of explore these concepts?"
She also has to understand the science herself and she likes to sit with it and let it percolate as she figures out the best way to explain it. Researching how popular culture approaches the concepts also helps.
"I've seen all the Ant-Men movies. So here's the science, here it is in popular culture. How do I want to bring those two together? And that's the play there with the ideas and concepts."
Each show takes about a year to write and then another year of playing around with the script on stage. Since premiering the two shows she has toured each for two years.
Another aim of her shows is to show the artistic community there is a lot of inspiration in science just waiting to be plunged.
"The first time I did the show, I had an art student come up to me afterwards and was like, 'I would never have thought to look to the sciences for inspiration, but I totally will now'. And I was just like, 'oh my gosh, this is actually happening'. And that, to me, was really, really exciting."
A similar thing happened with Atomically Correct with scientists coming up to her after the show saying they would never have considered going to the theatre but since it was a science show gave it a go.
"So it's this twofold thing, that I'm showing that science can be a wealth of inspiration and bringing people to the theatre to art events."
Rayner is proud of those achievements.
"They're such small things but they bring me joy."
People often say that she should do the shows for children.
"I have a lot of child performer energy when I bring them to stage, which I'm aware of. So I call that out a bit at the beginning. It was really important for me to do this for adults because no-one expects that, and I like to break down boundaries where I can.
"Yes, I'm bringing the child performer energy, but I try and tone it down and just want a place for us adults to kind of share in that wonder and then pass that wonder on to the children at home or at school. And plus that means I can swear on stage, something I've never been able to do before."
It also means she can talk about scientific concepts at a higher level.
"One of the things ... is that an atom is mostly nothing. So we're all mostly nothing, but at the end of the day, we still matter. And I feel that's a message better for the adult audience than the younger ones."
As the interest in science communication grows — it is now an academic field — Rayner says there is more understanding it can take many different forms.
"So the shows that I do are a type of science communication. Poetry can be a type of science communication."
Behind the scenes Rayner is also a keen science poetry writer. She discovered the field of science poetry, where people engaged in science use scientific concepts to explore the experiences people have every day, years ago.
"We tend to separate art and science. When really both of them, both art and science, are just asking questions about the universe, and perhaps in slightly different ways, but it's questions about the universe and our experiences, and how do we fit in all of that? And so I think that's where the poetry kind of brings those two together really nicely."
With science poetry it is important to ensure any scientific concepts referenced are accurate, she says.
"So it's that understanding of a particular science phenomenon you want to bring into your poetry. It's like if you're using the science as a metaphor, how are you using it accurately?"
But she is aware some people find poetry hard to understand and adding scientific concepts to it can make it harder.
It does not matter what form it takes, Rayner is passionate about getting people engaged in science and translating the work of scientists so everyday people understand it and it becomes more commonplace to talk about. And Rayner is not finished with her efforts — she has plans for a third show, this one on electrons.
"Obviously that's electricity, which we use every day. We use more and more every day."
The inspiration for this show comes from when she was doing a show for the Discovery Science Technology Centre in Bendigo. Demonstrating a little generator they made out of a spun copper, a magnet and LED, she remembers seeing a woman in the audience, "just her face, it was just contorted in wonder and understanding of, oh, my God, that's how everything happens".
Seeing someone have that realisation that electricity does not just come out of the wall but from a plant hundreds of kilometres away was a real buzz she would like to replicate in the new show.
But work on it has been sidelined as she works on another project, a podcast series called Australian Highlights where she uncovers stories of innovation that are not commonly known about and interviews the people behind them.
"There is moments of innovation just all around us and recognising those moments."
One of the standouts from the podcast so far has been "green steel" developed through Prof Veena Sahajwalla's polymer injection technology which transforms waste tyres and plastics into high-quality steel, while another was on how to manage space junk.
She plans to record an episode of the podcast at the International Science Festival exploring innovations that Australia takes credit for that perhaps came from New Zealand.
"I really do like breaking down silos and causing controversy if I can. Light ones, light controversy."
But what would really make her trip is seeing a southern aurora. To see
Rachel Rayner, Science Explainer — A Flying Photon , July 1 and 2, 7.30pm, Atomically Correct , July 4, 7.30 and July 5, 3pm, Australian Highlights Live — NZ Edition , July 3, 7.30pm, all at Te Whare o Rukutia. Write your own science poetry , July 2, 2pm, Tūhura Otago Museum — H.D. Skinner Annex.
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