Sujood/Singularity - WIP

Research:

This installation borrows multiple concepts from the discipline of Astrophysics, below is a brief description of these concepts followed by their respective representation in this installation:

1- The Black Hole phenomenon:

According to National Geographic, Black Holes are points in space that are so dense they create deep gravity sinks. Beyond a certain region (Namely, The Event Horizon), not even light can escape the powerful tug of a black hole's gravity. The most commonly known way a black hole forms is by stellar death which occurs when enormous stars go out with a bang in massive explosions known as supernovae, such a burst flings star matter out into space but leaves behind the stellar core holding the star’s mass. Due to the outward disbursement of a star’s matter, there are no longer any forces remaining to balance the gravitational field of the remaining mass, so the star core begins to collapse in on itself. And when this mass collapses into an infinitely small point, a black hole is born. Packing all of that bulk into such a tiny point giving black holes their powerful gravitational pull, creating a dent the fabric of space-time as seen on the opposite figure.

Representation:

The act of prayer is analogous of a black hole, where the solitude found in spirituality resembles the infinitely dense state in space where a black hole emerges, the death of a star and a birth of a black hole can be a reminder that re-birth and emergence are cosmic events that can apply to us as humans and thusly, we should actively seek growth via re-birth.

2- Singularity Theory:

The research notes written by Dr. Ian Jones of the University of South Hampton analyses the existing literature on the Theory of the Singularity as follows:

The studies of Oppenheimer and Snyder were not taken seriously by many physicists because they not only predicted the existence of black holes, but also the existence of a singularity where the pressure becomes infinite. Thus any physical object that falls into the hole is not only trapped, but also eventually reaches a singularity where it is crushed to zero volume due to the gravitational forces of the encompassing black hole.

A black hole is characterised by the existence of a region in spacetime with the property that nothing that enters the region can leave it. The boundary of this region is the event horizon which acts as a one way membrane between the black hole and the exterior. In another article by Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, singularities are often conceived of metaphorically as akin to a tear in the fabric of space-time. The most common attempts to define singularities center on one of two core ideas, the first suggest that the path towards singularity is an in- complete path, with no possibility of extension and the second idea considers singularities as missing points from the fabric of space-time.

Representation:

The act of Sujood (within a prayer) is analogous of a singularity (within a black hole), where the person taking part in prayer and approaching the Sujood/prostration, has passed the Event Horizon and therefore is heading towards a state of infinite density (Sujood). This is supported by the saying of Prophet Mohammed PBUH “The servant is nearest to his lord during prostration, so increase your supplication therein”

3- Wormholes Theory:

As seen in an article by the American Physical Society, This concept dates back to a short proposal written in 1935 by Einstein and Nathan Rosen, both at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton which survived in unlikely fashion as the source of science-fiction ideas for speeding across the universe by means of “wormholes” through spacetime. From the modern perspective, the paper also illustrates how general relativity (Einstein’s Theory of space-time) posed mathematical and conceptual difficulties that foxed even its creator. Einstein and Rosen in their 1935 paper showed how to match the path of a black hole in space onto another track that emerges outward again–but into a separate section of spacetime. Imagine funnel shapes pulled out of two adjacent rubber sheets and connected at their necks, providing a continuous, tube-shaped path from one surface to the other. This construction makes a smooth connection or bridge between two distinct pieces of spacetime.

Representation:

The wormhole represents an implication that the phenomena of worship can act a passage transcending the seeker of wisdom through space-time into a higher state of being, where transcendence can occur through implosion (Prayer is a black hole, approaching Sujood/Prostration is approaching the Event Horizon and Sujood is a singularity causing a wormhole).