Photographs of Imperceptible Phenomena - STEM-ART #1
I am starting a new series on STEM-ART, also known as SciArt (as well as a few other ill-chosen portmanteaux). Before launching into an article on "What is STEM-Art?" - with its protagonists, ideas, history and controversies - I'd like to just dive in with a few examples.
For me, one of the key functions of the interface between science and art is to manifest those things beyond normal or popular perception, be they phenomena or ideas.
French astronomer and artist Etienne Leopold Trouvelot created a series of photographs of electric sparks. He generated his images without a camera, directly exposing photosensitive plates to brief bursts of electrical energy from a Wimshurst machine. This is a printing-out paper print (ca. 1888) of such a “Trouvelot Figure”.
Much of what happens around us takes place beyond perception. Such imperceptible phenomena can create discernible effects, but a direct causal link has been lost - at least for the individual. A certain malaise can thus be compounded by inconclusive speculations. Manifesting the invisible universe is one important function of the scientist; exhibiting such works to the public, turns Trouvelot into both artist and educator.
Alan Archibald Campbell-Swinton was a British scientist and pioneer of the physics of television, describing with precision what became the cathode-ray tube TV in a 1908 letter to Nature.
The image above is one of only two in the Science Museum Collection, showing an electrical discharge on a photographic plate. Note that this is not an optical image of an event seen by a human eye, rather it is the interaction of the electric field with the chemicals on the photographic plate.
Having said that, here is an interesting technique...
... and a popsci article with more info.
If you have any favourite examples of science and art collaborations, then please add a comment. You can obviously write your own posts but if you'd like anything reviewed, then just ask.
images: Photoexperimentalist 1, Science Museum Collection 1
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@rycharde manages the AAKOM project and the MAP Rewarder & Curators Trail.
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STOPHello @rycharde, thank you for sharing this creative work! We just stopped by to say that you've been upvoted by the @creativecrypto magazine. The Creative Crypto is all about art on the blockchain and learning from creatives like you. Looking forward to crossing paths again soon. Steem on!