Ars Electronica Archive
Prix
Prix Map
Pictures
Videos
Publications
Special Projects
Women in Media Art
S+T+ARTS
STARTS is an initiative of the European Commission to foster alliances of technology and artistic practice. As part of this initiative, the STARTS residencies foster pioneering collaborations and the STARTS Prize honors the most inspired results in the field of creativity and innovation at the crossings of science and technology with the arts. STARTS is funded through various schemes provided by the European Commission.
MicaPenrose
Léa Barbazanges
How atoms are arranged in quasicrystals
Artwork mixing different media :
sculpture in mineral materials
appropriate lightning
digital display
The artwork consists in an assembly of mica tiles, whose colors change as a function of the position of the spectator. Please watch the Vidéo which show « the impressive of shimmering colors ».
The project consists in producing a beautiful and stunning artifact, which could arouse the curiosity of the spectator about the physical principles involved.
Which scientific phenomena ?
The artifact is based on a Penrose tiling, which is used to model the atomic structure of quasicrystals (discovered in 1982 and awarded the 2011 Chemistry Nobel prize). These tessellations, made of two types of tiles, are ordered and symmetrical, but does not exhibit any periodicity. We have introduce a defect in the tiling, in order to make it troubling, and to insist on the role of defects in solid state physics.
Each tile is in mica. This birefringent material can take beautiful colors. The color depends on the mica thickness and on the position of the spectator, which gives a large artistic potential to the artifact. It will be exhibited in such a way that the colors change when the spectator moves around.
Besides this shimmering artefact, the properties of light and matter originating the observed effects are due to : crystallinity and anisotropy of mica, light polarization, birefringence, periodical and aperiodical tilings of plane and space, role of defects in the properties of solid. There is still difficult technical challenges to upsize the work in order to get an immersive experience.
The project aims at revealing the natural magic of birefringence, a physical phenomena brought to the viewer through a shimmering colors artefact. For this we need a specific digital display. This new technology can bring an immersive experience to this artistic installation, leading spectators to understand the scientific phenomena at play.
Artwork mixing different media :
sculpture in mineral materials
appropriate lightning
digital display
The artwork consists in an assembly of mica tiles, whose colors change as a function of the position of the spectator. Please watch the Vidéo which show « the impressive of shimmering colors ».
The project consists in producing a beautiful and stunning artifact, which could arouse the curiosity of the spectator about the physical principles involved.
Which scientific phenomena ?
The artifact is based on a Penrose tiling, which is used to model the atomic structure of quasicrystals (discovered in 1982 and awarded the 2011 Chemistry Nobel prize). These tessellations, made of two types of tiles, are ordered and symmetrical, but does not exhibit any periodicity. We have introduce a defect in the tiling, in order to make it troubling, and to insist on the role of defects in solid state physics.
Each tile is in mica. This birefringent material can take beautiful colors. The color depends on the mica thickness and on the position of the spectator, which gives a large artistic potential to the artifact. It will be exhibited in such a way that the colors change when the spectator moves around.
Besides this shimmering artefact, the properties of light and matter originating the observed effects are due to : crystallinity and anisotropy of mica, light polarization, birefringence, periodical and aperiodical tilings of plane and space, role of defects in the properties of solid. There is still difficult technical challenges to upsize the work in order to get an immersive experience.
The project aims at revealing the natural magic of birefringence, a physical phenomena brought to the viewer through a shimmering colors artefact. For this we need a specific digital display. This new technology can bring an immersive experience to this artistic installation, leading spectators to understand the scientific phenomena at play.