The art of the academic talk takes on a different meaning when looking at the drawings and paintings of Kaća Bradonjić. Dr. Bradonjić is wrapping up a visiting appointment in physics at Wellesley College and will soon be beginning one at Hampshire College. Her research is informed by philosophy and the history of science (she was a double major in physics and philosophy at Northeastern as an undergrad) and she sometimes finds herself at conferences and workshops with philosophers.

Occasionally, she will produce what she calls “Projections“—artistic impressions of the talks she attended. She says:

As the name suggests, they are attempts to project my experiences of the talks onto a two-dimensional paper. These personal and impressionistic interpretations are inspired by the entirety of the presentation, including the content of the talks, the atmosphere in the room, the questions and comments from the audience, and the food served during the breaks.

How cool would it be to have a piece of art based on a talk you gave?

Here is some recent work in her Projections series (the captions include the names of the philosophers and the titles of their talks):

Kaća Bradonjić – “Alyssa Ney, “A Primer on Emergence””

Kaća Bradonjić – “Keizo Matsubara, “Dualities and Spacetime in String Theory””

Kaća Bradonjić – “Gordon Belot, “Background Independence””

Kaća Bradonjić – “Christian Wüthrich, “Quantum Gravity: Motivations and Implications””

You can check out more of her artwork here.