The Character of Physical Law by Richard Feynman (review)

MOTION MOTION KINETIC ART byJimJenkins and Dave Quick. Gibbs Smith Publisher, P. O. Box 667, Layton, UT 84041, U.S.A., 1989. 64 pp., illus. Paper, $14.95. ISBN: Q-87905-185-x. Reviewed byRogerF. Malina, Center for EUVAstrophysics, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, U.S.A. This booklet provides descriptions of the work of 16 American kinetic artists . The artists include Lewis Alquist, Sarah Tamor, Mineko Grimmer, Andrew Ginzel and KristinJones,Jim Jenkins, Gary Justis, Robert Mark Packer, Fred Tomaselli, Bryan Rogers, Steve Barry, Matthew Gil, Everett Greenbalm, Dave Quick and individuals at the Survival Research Laboratories. Most of the work described does not rely on computers but rather on mechanically and electrically driven mechanisms. Several of the artists make pieces that border on kitsch, pieces that often are satirical commentaries on contemporary life, consumerism and so on. The Survival Research Laboratories are known for their performance extravaganzas of self-destructing machines. Two women artists represented are Mineko Grimmer and Sarah Tamor, each of whom creates subtle contemplative work. Grimmer's pieces are driven by the melting ofice, triggering the release of pebbles onto soundproducing installations of bamboo, string, stone and wood. Sarah Tamor creates spare, simple and direct pieces that consist of the repeated automated dropping of silk or nylon sheets in large public spaces such as building lobbies. The opening essay decries the apparent lack of mainstream interest in kinetic art. In fact, there are more artists creating kinetic pieces today than was the case in the 1960s, more exhibits than took place then and also more public commissions. Most of this work goes on outside the commercial spotlight in New York and the auction houses. Kineticism has been absorbed into art making as another tool available to the contemporary artist . This booklet is a welcome reminder that this work is going on and deserves our attention. THE CHARACTER OF PHYSICAL LAw by Richard Feynman. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, U.S.A., 1989. 173 pp. Trade, $5.75. ISBN 0-262-06106-7. Reviewed byLeo Narodny, Martin's Bay, St.John, Barbados, WI. These published lectures present the serious side of Feynman in the year he received the Nobel Prize [1]. Feynman 's Surely You'rejoking, Mr. Feynman showed his joy in creating art as well as in practicing theoretical physics. This book shows his talent for teaching a paradoxical subject of the quantum mechanical view of nature, compared with the less paradoxical laws of gravitation, which he presents in his first chapter. His approach to mathematics by way of physics gives math the meaning that it often lacks in early school years. It gives "the understanding of the connection of words with the real world". As such, this book should be read by every high school student. "When trying to guess a new law, we should use seat-ofthe -pants feeling and philosophical principles." This feeling extends to his chapters on the great conservation principles, the symmetry in physical law, and the distinction of past and future. We can all enter his last chapter on "seeking new laws", where we share his "delight that you get when you guess how nature will work in a new situation". Like art, "it gives somebody, individually, pleasure". We can share the joy that Newton had when he described the tides: the water is pulled more toward the moon on the near side, and less toward the moon on the far side, so it is the combination of these two pictures that makes the double tide every day, and how the earth is round. The discrepancies in Newton's Law led to the discovery of the speed of light, due to the observations of the moons ofJupiter, which were eight minutes ahead of time when Jupiter was close to the earth compared to the time when it was far from the earth. Feynman's description of the experiment with two holes describes a paradox that contains the general mystery of quantum electrodynamics and the Heisenberg uncertainty principle . "It tells us something about everything." The appeal of this book is that it does just that. Note 1. The Character ofPhysical Lawis a transcription of Feynman's Messenger Lectures, delivered at...