The 2025 edition of ArtScience Museum’s In the Ether festival celebrates a century of quantum mechanics by inviting visitors of all ages to explore the invisible rules that govern this world.
In the Ether: A Festival of Quantum Science and Technology
Presented in partnership with Ethereum Singapore, In the Ether: A Festival of Quantum Science and Technology will run from 6 September to 31 October 2025.
This year, for the first time, ArtScience Museum is also presenting a Quantum Science Fair with scientific contributions from the Centre for Quantum Technologies (CQT) in Singapore.
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Highlights at In the Ether: A Festival of Quantum Science and Technology at ArtScience Museum
The festival consists of eight installations and activity stations spanning three levels across ArtScience Museum – all of which are free for visitors to experience.
Presented at Level 1 on the Museum lobby’s LED screen is slimeQrawl (2003) by Libby Heaney, a video installation which invites viewers to dive into the intricate entanglements between machines, life, matter and the quantum world.
Through hypnotic, dream-like videos suggestive of quantum interspecies entanglement, the work uses slime as a symbol of potential, transformation and blurred boundaries.
Qlimate Tongues (2024) is an eight-channel sound installation at the Oculus of Basement 2, where hybrid human and non-human voices generated by artificial intelligence come together alongside hypnotic sounds from quantum computing, sparking contemplation on how advance technologies shape and entangle with life on earth.
Yu-Chen Wang’s immersive audio-visual installation We aren’t able to prove that just yet, but we know it’s out there (2018-25) welcomes visitors with a poetic narrative of the history of experimental particle physics, establishing parallels between individual stories and historical archives. It can be found at the Level 1 lobby.
Light-in-Flight (2025) by semiconductor artist duo Ruth Jarman and Joe Gerhardt is premiering at the In the Ether festival. This artwork offers a glimpse into the hidden choreography of light. Through a series of animations, visitors can watch time-lapse sequences of ‘light-waves’ in motion within different spaces ranging from theatres to paper-constructed stage sets.
Quantum Science Fair
Another major highlight of the festival is the Quantum Science Fair located at Basement 2, where visitors can become scientists for a day and discover the strange and powerful behaviours of light and matter.
They can hear first-hand from scientists through interactive videos and encounter advanced quantum technologies that have been designed and built in Singapore’s very own research labs.
One of the artefacts on display is a fridge-sized quantum gravimeter that serves as a sensor to measure gravity.
It was designed to be as rugged and small as possible so it could be easily transported and deployed in the field. Before arriving at ArtScience Museum, it measured gravity in a field near the Sembawang Hot Springs, helping to calibrate classical gravimeters in a survey for potential geothermal energy sources.
As part of the fair, visitors can also get hands-on with activities exploring various quantum principles.
Adapted from Light and Matter, a special exhibition by the Deutsches Museum, Munich, and the Munich Center for Quantum Science and Technology (MCQST), these experiments include learning more about the principle of entanglement with Entangled Wheels, demonstrating fundamental aspects of quantum mechanics with the Quantum Eraser Experiment, creating patterns of light with Laser Kaleidoscope and testing the theory of ion traps through the Mechanical Paul Trap.
Entangled Horizons
End your visit to Into the Ether at ArtScience Museum on Level 4, where Amy Karle’s multimedia installation Entangled Horizons (2023-24) explores the interconnectedness of technology, life and the quantum world.
It involves facial and body tracking to reflect the fluid and ever-changing nature of reality, accompanied by an immersive soundscape that creates a deep, physical resonance.
In the Ether: A Festival of Quantum Science and Technology
The festival will be complemented by performances, talks, and walk-in i activities that delve deeper into the realms of physics, quantum research and technology through other mediums and platforms.
In the Ether: A Festival of Quantum Science and Technology will run from 6 September to 31 October 2025.
