那么，你是一个“数学人”，还是一个更有创造力的人?

It’s a ridiculous question — you certainly can be both creative and skilled at math — but it’s one you’ve probably heard before. We’ve grown up in a society that largely dichotomizes these two characteristics.

娜塔莉·加高斯内尔导演他是 物理 at 科罗拉多大学, wants to change the way we see and practice 物理. 为她, 物理 comes most naturally as a creative process and for the duration of her career learning and practicing 物理, she’s struggled with external pressures to separate her creative and scientific selves.

“Both artists and scientists are just observing things about the world, 对这些观察做出解释, 然后分享他们的解读,戈斯内尔说.

尽管她觉得艺术和科学之间有着紧密的联系, 她不得不在一个分裂的社会里工作多年. 加高斯内尔导演 sees this division rooted in the systemic racism and sexism that the 物理 institution has been born into, which limits what 物理 could be and limits the people who feel welcome practicing it.

“作为一个天体物理学家, I'm a product of institutions that are steeped in systemic racism and white supremacy,戈斯内尔说. “The tenets of white supremacy that show up [in 物理] of individualism and exceptionalism and perfectionism… it’s either-or thinking, 没有微妙之处, 没有灰色地带. All of this manifests in the way that we think about our re搜索, 什么才是好的研究, 什么才是重要的研究?”

Most of 加高斯内尔导演’s career has been dictated by the hyper-masculine world of astro物理. 现在, she is deciding that she doesn’t have to fit into that mold — she is changing the ways she teaches 物理, 以及她专业地分享的方式.

加高斯内尔导演’s new immersive art piece entitled “的礼物” walks the line in between creativity and science, and exemplifies that which was missing for 加高斯内尔导演 in the sharing of science: creativity. The piece is experienced in a room with audial and visual stimuli, and through a book about an astrophysical phenomenon of a dying star as seen through the eyes of 加高斯内尔导演 and her co-creators, Balasubramanian Janani和Andrew 柯切.

故事是这样的:两颗恒星绕着彼此旋转, and just before one is about to die it swells up to hundreds of times its previous size — in doing this, 它把质量转移给它的轨道恒星. 然后膨胀的恒星死亡, while the other one shines brighter and bluer than it did before thanks to its companion.

Contemporary journalism views this mass-transfer process through a violent, 阳刚的镜头, seeing as the mass-receiving star has been dubbed “Vampire star” or “Cannibal star.戈斯内尔补充说，他们被视为宇宙中的“坏男孩”.

“I think because science and art have been so separated, and there's [...科学中的系统性问题, the metaphors that are often chosen [to discuss science] are very violent and hyper-masculine,她说。.

戈斯内尔曾在2010年的《全球十大赌博靠谱平台》(How the Universe Works)中亮相,，是探索频道的一个节目, 谈谈她对传质现象的研究.

“And I totally played into [the hyper-masculine stereotypes], because, ooh, snazzy. I get to be on the Discovery Channel,戈斯内尔说 of the experience. “当然，价格太高了.”

“感觉就像我在化妆, 本质上, 就像一个天体物理学家应该有的样子,戈斯内尔说. 澄清一下, having been published many times and received the Cottrell Scholar Award (highly sought after in her area), 戈斯内尔过去和现在都是公认的天体物理学家.

The exclusive environment of 物理 is well-documented: re搜索 published at the American Institute of Physics, 美国物理学会, and other reputable 物理 publications has spotted a trend that most of us could already guess — white men, 全面的, 倾向于对物理有最强烈的归属感. Persons of color and women’s involvement and success in 物理 is markedly low.

“的礼物” is one piece of 加高斯内尔导演’s greater plan to change the 物理 environment into a more accessible one. She also has created a new curriculum in which creativity is directly embedded into classes, 哪个不是物理课堂的标准. 以真正的天体物理学家的方式, she is conducting re搜索 on her teaching method by following students’ progress in 物理 identity and belongingness after they’ve taken her class. She’s conducted it three times thus far and has already seen that people (everyone — not just white males) have a stronger sense of 物理 identity following her classes.

加高斯内尔导演 is now teaching classes in a way that she would have benefitted from when she was learning 物理 — instead of molding her students into the stereotypes that felt so rigid and limiting in 加高斯内尔导演’s career, 她把创造性直接融入到学习中.

“我们可以对我们使用的隐喻做出不同的选择, 在我们讲的故事里, 这就是[...《赌博正规的十大网站》的灵感和目标来自于.”

加高斯内尔导演, 柯切, and Balasubramanian’s accessible performance installation “的礼物” opened at the New York Public Library on Dec. 6和 你会来CC美术中心吗 2023年第7区块. See the piece installed and experience “的礼物” — a story of one dying star and a companion who shines brighter for the loss — this spring.

“的礼物” was created with the generous support of Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, 公共剧场, 纽约社区信托基金, 圣丹斯学院, 未来建筑师协会, 地图基金, 斯坦福大学, 布鲁克林学院, 创造力 & Innovation at 科罗拉多大学, The University of Colorado, and The Tow Foundation. 它部分是在对撞机中开发的, a re搜索 and development lab for the performing arts at Lincoln Center. The Collider is generously supported by founding partner Diana Chen. Major support for the Collider is provided by The Ford Foundation and The Mellon Foundation.