Sandrine Mary

Residency project

The Meaning Hunters: inside the quest to understand quantum mechanics

What is reality? When no one is looking, is reality still what we expect it to be? Is there one single, correct description of reality, valid for every observer? Or does gravity obey the laws of quantum physics? 

These questions, at the very edge of human knowledge, have been on the table for about a century. At IQOQI Vienna, some researchers are working to answer them, through both theory and experiment. Their goal is to understand the foundations of quantum mechanics. During my residency, I want to explore how these researchers, these “meaning hunters” as I call them, find their way along a still unknown path, and how they challenge themselves to write new theories. Through one-by-one interviews, and by following them in some of their experiments, I would like to capture what it is like to challenge paradigms about what nature is.