Recent work - two new galleries

If you would like to see a selection of images from 2012 so far, then take a look at my Galleries section - New University images  and Lightscapes  

Here are two more personal favourites from this year. 'Effervescent feather essence' was created in the Fluids Lab, and shows dendritic patterning of ink combined with a vortex swirl.  'Echoes of flight and light' is an image of light travelling through glass.

'Effervescent feather essence'

'Echoes of flight and light'

New curved perspectives

Earlier this week I spent some time drawing in the Forum building on the Streatham campus at Exeter Uni. This recently completed project has some amazing features including a beautiful curved wooden roof of tessellated triangles.  

I saw part of this roof reflected in a curved glass wall, and was inspired by its transformation; layer upon layer of beautiful curved triangular shapes appeared, along with elegant support structures and reflections of trees and the cafe behind the glass.

While I was drawing the reflections, I was struck by their depth and clarity, and could imagine walking around inside this new alternative world.  I was reminded of some of M.C. Escher's drawings, and of the fan vaulting at King's College Chapel, Cambridge. The artwork I made, shown below, is entitled "Within the forum, within the curves" 

Within the Forum, within the Curves'

My new collaborative video with Tullio DeSantis

'Cosmological' is a new collaborative piece by Tullio DeSantis and myself.  The music is by Tullio - its mood and atmosphere, characterised by an underlying raw energy, influencing my choice of imagery, where formative elemental processes are seen at work. The inexorable quality to the music put me in mind of witnessing a slice of cosmic events, of actually being there. Assembly and disassembly ... matter forming into planets and then fragmenting into particles; fluctuating between the two processes - zooming in and out again; also alternating between the whole and parts of it; diving into the planets to see what lies beneath their surface. 
I hope you enjoy this new journey through the cosmos.

Down in the lab today

In the Fluids lab today at Exeter Uni, I was using the large Ahlborn tank to do work with flow around cylinders.  I also did some slow flow visualization where ink fell slowly down into a pool at the far end of the tank - see picture of me below standing at the far end. 

This system is self-circulatory, so any ink used reappears as it is pumped round. This means the tank needs to be cleaned fairly regularly! The picture below shows me at the end of the tank having had a go at cleaning it .. you can see my reflection in the glass now!

'Follow the arrows'

'Delineation'

"Baroque vortices"

"flow like a flower"

'Reflection reappearance!' - My thanks to Dave for this photo.

Five evolutionary stages

I enjoy creating images of life forms in different media, and it's interesting to watch them evolve.  Here are five, starting with blue-green algae and ending with quite a vicious-looking shark.  As always, the different media which I use reflect the same artistic concerns; whether using glass or fluids.

'Blue-green dream'

'Ancient forms'

'Special worm'

'Advanced pond life'

'Fierce predator'

Light doing the splits

Water splitting (see post below) and now light! ... here are a few recent examples - coloured nebulae, cosmic surfboards..

'Fly by light'

'Websurfing'

'Coloured clouds'

Splitting the liquids

I have been creating small-scale outflows in the lab at Exeter Uni - some of which you can see in the video shown in my post immediately below this one.

This type of flow has many interesting features. We get a chance to observe how ink behaves when it is pulled apart by the increasing spread of a fast outward flow, when it begins to split, often forming irregular, feathered edges. Outward flow caught in a swirl can result in zigzag splits as in "Ever expanding". We also see how ink colours remain discrete; there is no mixing as they undergo their outward flow.  

Here are a few examples which illustrate the above: "Wave splitter", "Flyaway", "Ever expanding", "Rococo Waveforms" and "Blue Surf".

"Wave splitter"

"Flyaway"

'Ever expanding'

'Rococo waveforms'

'Blue surf'

Antumbral - a new video

Tullio DeSantis and I have collaborated to make another movie, featuring Tullio's music and my images.  

The meditative atmosphere of the music inspires my choice of imagery, together with ideas to do with eclipse effects - shadow, disclosure, revelation and textural layering. The video makes use of long transitions to reveal new textures and shapes, and the images themselves often contain superimpositions; smoke over objects and bubbles moving across coloured surfaces. There is a relaxed, retro mood to the whole piece, which I hope you enjoy!

Polystipula animalis under the kaleidoscope

Under the influence of the kaleidoscope, Polystipula animalis, from the genus Saponiferae, gets dissected, transformed and reborn in a thousand different manifestations:

Dendritic patterning and more

Dendritic patterning often occurs a few seconds after ink meets water, and has its own set of characteristics with its featherlike textures. Here are a couple of examples taken in the lab yesterday, as well as some more pictures of outflow combined with swirl.

'Effervescent feather essence'

'Sleepwalker'

'Swirl unfurl'

'Broadcast in colour'

Adding some spin - a collection of vortices

Over the weeks I have been collecting vortices in Exeter University Fluids lab, generated in different ways.

 'Fluid needlepoint'

'Aquaswirl'

Yesterday, whilst helping some students with their projects at Exeter Uni, new patterns emerged.  I will post more on their projects at a later date; meanwhile here is a cosmic timelapse swirl, and vortices being pulled towards a certain object .. all will be revealed later on!  The textures within the first image 'Cosmic swirls', remind me of those in a chalk drawing on coloured paper.

'Cosmic swirls'

In the image below, vortices formed by dropping ink start to pull towards the left; their shapes modified by a new sideways force

'Pulling left; attracted by what ..'

Finally an image created at home for the latest video, 'Astronomy',  in my collaborative series with Tullio DeSantis. See my post below for the whole video.  The length of the streaks in this flow increases toward the middle of the vortex where the flow becomes faster.

'Dynamic astronomy' 

"Cosmology, Astronomy, Biology" - a collaborative work now complete.

The middle section of the three-part series "Cosmology, Astronomy, Biology" is now complete, and "Astronomy" can be seen just below. The other two videos in the series appear in my most recent posts.  This final video completes this collaborative work by Tullio DeSantis and myself, featuring words and audio by Tullio, combined with my still and moving imagery.

"Astronomy" traces the development of the cosmos from before the Big Bang up until the present day, linking tiny subatomic events with large-scale phenomena such as supernovae and the evolving galaxies. Accompanied by atmospheric music, this is an exploration of the universe at every scale, in terms of verbal and visual metaphor.

A new movie and new experiments with flow

Tullio De Santis and I have completed a new movie entitled "Cosmology", the first of a series of three movies.

"Biology" was posted here last week, and we are currently working on the middle one of the three which will be entitled "Astronomy".  

Here is "Cosmology", in which the words and audio are by Tullio, combined with my still and moving imagery. We see a journey through time and space tracing the development of the cosmos, and echoing its ever-increasing complexity.

In the Fluids lab at Exeter University I have been investigating the effects of combining outward and rotational flow. This combination can lead to complex and unusual patterning - here are some examples all taken from movie footage:

'New blue wave'

'pink and cream meander'

'Big splash'

Collaboration and synergy! - brand new biology video

Tullio DeSantis and I have just completed a new video on the theme 'Biology'. The words and audio are by Tullio, and I photographed the movies and stills. It has been a really exciting venture! - more to come, too.  

To see Tullio's art, poetry, and more, visit his website here 

Using verbal and visual metaphor, this piece explores the development of life from its earliest stages to the present day. Word, music and image are closely integrated, and with the imaginative input of the viewer, new connections and associations will be made.

EMBO Journal Cover Contest 2012

Embo Journal Cover Contest 2012 

I am delighted that one of the images I submitted for this year's EMBO Journal Cover Contest has been selected for their online gallery.  My image, entitled 'Underwater Life' seen full size below, is created from light travelling through glass, reminiscent of a sea creature seen beneath rippling water. To see all the gallery images, a wonderfully varied selection, click here

'Underwater Life'

New planetary system discovered!

Seven new planets and their accompanying moons.

'planetary glyceronomy'

Fearful symmetry

The new images I've been doing in the lab at Exeter University contain an enormous amount of symmetry, with their complex branching forms often taking up regular patterning, and choosing the reflective route.  Deep-rooted links with life forms, waterways and rocks such as agate are clear.  Here are a few examples.

'Exotic caterpillars'

'Agate slice'

'Liquid divisions'

'In search of perfect symmetry'

Outflows

Here are three images which I've just been working on, taken in the last day or so, all showing miniature outflows of ink. 

'Cosmic bubblestream machine'

'Green pool'

'Sculpted leaf'

Let's get biological...

i'm amazed at how greatly the images I'm doing in the lab at the moment are reminiscent of plant and animal forms. Here are a few examples from today.

'Ernst Haeckel revisited'

'Leaf detail'

 'Primitive life'

Lab Illusions

Nothing is quite what it seems....

Today in the lab I found semi-precious stone, lakes and mountains and what could have been an Annelid; not entirely sure.

'Fire Agate'

'Lakes and Mountains'

'Annelid'