The exhibit transports the viewer from a black hole's event horizon (shown), through its theorized interior filled with the exotic strings and branes of string theory, to the eventual demise of the black hole via dissipation. (Image courtesy Julie Rotblatt Amrany)    
This article originally appeared in the Fall 2014 issue of Inquiry, the biannual publication produced for University of Chicago Physical Sciences Division alumni and friends.
Fabric of the universe

Art and science join forces to imagine the unknown.

Chicagoland artist and sculptor Julie Rotblatt Amrany and UChicago professor of physics Emil Martinec have teamed up to imagine and visualize the Inner Life of Black Holes. Amrany wanted to engulf the viewer in an environment—to feel, see, and hear what it might be like to travel through a black hole. She spent months working with Martinec, who specializes in string theory, to integrate what is known and what is theorized into an installation using sculpture, fabric, painting, interactive light, projection, and sound. Amrany and Martinec hope to secure a venue and funding to create the piece as a permanent or semipermanent exhibit. For a virtual tour of the installation, visit Amrany’s website at jramrany.com/portfolio/video. For more information, contact Amrany at jramrany@att.net.