Chris Henschke, Wolfgang Adam: Edge of the Observable

Artist(s):

Title:

Edge of the Observable

Exhibition:

DAC Online Exhibition 2016: Science of the Unseen: Digital Art Perspectives
More artworks from DAC Online Exhibition 2016:

Creation Year:

2016

Medium:

Video

Size:

6:10 min.

Artist Statement:

Edge of the Observable is an audiovisual artwork which explores the limits of materiality and knowledge, through an experimental manifestation of data taken from experiments at the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) detector at the Large Hadron Collider. The work seeks to manifest the sublime and dynamic parameters of collision events, enhancing the infinitesimal material and energetic qualities of particle physics in a way that utilizes the science, but manifests it as an expressive event – as new-materialist philosopher Manuel DeLanda states, “even humble atoms can interact with light and energy in a way that literally expresses their identity”.

The visual data from one of billions of collisions is the source material for the artwork – this “event” is visually re-manifested through a material experimental setup. In parallel to the basic form of a physics experiment, the data is emitted as light from an energy source; it is then amplified and filtered through an optical lens-like device; and is then captured and recorded by a camera detector. The artwork plays with the extremely small spatial and temporal scales involved in such experiments, as well as the concept of the ‘golden event’, a term used in particle physics to describe a perfectly recorded image of a rare or important particle interaction. The dark void-like space in the middle of the video manifests both conceptually and experimentally the edge of observability, as the region within this space cannot be detected, and, according to the laws of quantum mechanics, is ultimately unknowable.

The soundtrack accompanying the video is literally a recording of the accelerator “tune”, the transverse electromagnetic vibration within the particle beam, which is pitch-shifted and equalized to enhance its expressive qualities. The final artwork is in ultra-high definition and presented as a six minute looping audio-visual sequence.