When Physics Looks Like A Bouncy Castle—Inside “On Space Time Foam”

Tomas Saraceno’s new aerial installation is a study of physics that speaks to the interrelationship of people and space. But it sure looks like a lot of fun. It’s been described by one observer as a giant adult playground that behaves like a suspended trampoline crossed with a see-through bouncy castle. But for the Frankfurt-based Argentine artist Tomás Saraceno his installation "On Space Time Foam," which is currently wowing visitors with a head for heights in the cavernous Hangar Bicocca in Milan, is all about quantum physics. "'On Space Time Foam’ is inspired from theories like Actor-Network Theory of Bruno Latour (an approach to social theory that maps relations between both material objects and concepts) and string theories that say that perhaps the universe came from large cosmic membranes touching and creating all that we know and see in the apparent...