BETA
This is a BETA experience. You may opt-out by clicking here

More From Forbes

Edit Story

Creating Art At The World's Largest Particle Accelerator

Following
This article is more than 5 years old.

Studio Locus Solus

Yunchul Kim is an artist and electroacoustic music composer based in Seoul who uses scientific principles to create art. In 2017, Kim lived and worked at CERN in Switzerland, home of the world’s largest laboratory for particle physics. His latest work came out of his time at CERN and The Foundation for Art and Creative Technology (FACT) in Liverpool. The exhibit explores how to control and propagate light by colloidal suspension of photonic crystals. 'Colloidal suspension' is a term from physical chemistry. It refers to a mixture containing large, undissolved particles kept dispersed by the molecular motion in a surrounding medium. Here’s a definition in words. Kim’s work provides a definition that is visual, visceral and not easily forgotten:

Kim's piece Cascade is comprised of long, interconnecting tubing called Tubular, a liquid transfer system called Impulse and a 41 channel muon detector dubbed Argos. “When Argos detects particles, it transfers the signal to Impulse to trigger the flows of fluids in Tubular, so that fluid continually circulates within them,” says Kim via email and a translator from his studio in Seoul.

He describes Cascade as an air shower of particles.

When cosmic rays come to Earth and reach its atmosphere, they collide with an atomic nucleus in the air and produce secondary particles which are called air showers, like a waterfall pouring down to the ground. I am interested in the implications of these events from the invisible world and their relation to my works–both semantically and physically.”

The enigma of color and iridescence.

Etched in Kim's memory is one of his earliest inspirations–the first time he saw “the colorful change of the iridescent light and colors on the surface of a CD.” He later learned that these changes result from interference of light in the fine pits of a CD’s aluminum coating. The unexpected ways that structure affects our visual perception fascinated Kim. He was further intrigued to learn that the iridescence of butterfly wings and opals are a different phenomenon than color. When an object gets hit with light, whatever wavelength it doesn’t absorb, it reflects. So when you see a rich, beautiful purple color, a reflected purple wavelength of light is spat back at you by the purple thing you're looking at. But iridescence doesn’t work like that. Iridescence is not a reflected wavelength but an emergent property from light waves hitting the specific architecture of an object and combining.

Now, in material engineering, we have structure color made by the structure of molecules," says Kim. "In science labs such structure color meets various synthetic materials, resulting in the creation of materials that change color from temperature variation or stretching. This experience of new colors and materials can provide inspiration, not only for myself but for other artists too.”

The CERN influence

Kim's time at CERN was exciting and impactful. “I felt like I was in a totally new world. The most unforgettable experience was meeting with passionate and creative spirits, and most importantly, they really understood the artists.”

Kim was partnered with scientist Helga Timko, who spoke Korean and made Kim feel relaxed and welcome during his stay at CERN. A computational scientist was surprised to learn the artist has his own laboratory where he tests materials he uses to create art. Kim’s views also align with CERN research physicist Michaw Doser: both scientists and artists can learn from each other via a shared curiosity, focus, acceptance of uncertainty and willingness to explore and question the seemingly obvious.

The exhibit, Yunchul Kim: Dawns, Mine, Crystal runs September 18th – November 3rd 2018 in London at The Korean Cultural Center UK (KCCUK), an organization that promotes Korean arts and culture across the UK.

When asked how he feels about this upcoming exhibit, Kim says it feels like the moment before a “collision of particles from opposite sides through the very long tunnel of particle acceleration. I wonder what kind of energy it will bring me…”

Kim is the founder of Studio Locus Solus in Seoul and a member of Fluid Skies and Liquid things, research projects at the Department of Art and Science at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna, Austria.

You can view more of Kim’s artwork here.

Sophia Bennett and CERN

Follow me on TwitterCheck out my website