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'

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'

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.

'Blue-green dream'

'Ancient forms'

'Special worm'

'Advanced pond life'

'Fierce predator'

'Fly by light'

'Websurfing'

'Coloured clouds'

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'

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!

'Effervescent feather essence'

'Sleepwalker'

'Swirl unfurl'

'Broadcast in colour'

 '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' 

"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.

"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'

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

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'

'planetary glyceronomy'

'Exotic caterpillars'

'Agate slice'

'Liquid divisions'

'In search of perfect symmetry'

'Cosmic bubblestream machine'

'Green pool'

'Sculpted leaf'

'Ernst Haeckel revisited'

'Leaf detail'

 'Primitive life'

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'

Here are a couple of inksplosion images from today.  

The first two 'Cosmic networking', and 'Bubblemaze', bear out something which I mentioned in my talk yesterday - that I like complexity very much, here seen in the varied textures of the inks.

The third; 'Fly high' features rather diffuse, glowing areas of colour - this is actually airborne flow because of high speeds of ink travel.

'Cosmic networking'

'Bubblemaze'

'Fly high'

I'm delighted to have been featured in today's Huffington Post in a piece written by Tara Kelly.  Here's the link to the article: Huffington Post Arts

Article about my work in Huffington Post 

And here's a detail of one of the images featured in the article,  'Deep Coloured space'',  taken from the sequence one second later on.

'Deep Coloured space' detail

The swirl and reappearance of the coloured vortices as they move round gives this kind of visualization a periodic, rhythmic quality. Even as the colours begin to mingle we can still follow individual shapes as they complete their circuit. There are echoes of man-made objects, like the sweep of a clock hand, as well as large-scale phenomena such as the revolutions of planets and moons.

And here is a link to the University's College of Engineering, Mathematics and Physics website describing the first and second prize wins for myself and Professor Pete Vukusic respectively at IOP South West regional photography competition.  

My description of the day at the IOP Branch Festival can be seen in an earlier post below, dated Sunday March 4th.

I'm getting my image framed up this week, so it should be up in the department very soon!

'Solid Nebula'

'The Big One'

'Cosmic Vortex'

So if you do use my work in this way, could you give me feedback please?  How did you use my work ... how did your students respond to it?  - Let me know.  Thanks!

'Colourspin 1'

'Colourspin 2'

'Ambitious lines'

'Silica Featherform'

There was a prize-giving ceremony too for a photographic competition of science work carried out in the South West - and I was delighted to win first prize! My prize was a Kindle, which I'm enormously pleased with, as it's a great way for me to catch up with my reading, especially whilst on the move. 

Because I'm an artist working in the scientific domain, this prize from the IOP is particularly special for me. 

Below is my entry, called 'Sci-fi Garden growing', showing two stages in the development of soap film, separated by less than one second.  It was created recently in the Fluids lab at Exeter Uni, using equipment built for me by the Workshop - see p.8 of this Journal.  Vortices have grown like plants through the oncoming flow, becoming rounded and sometimes bifurcating as each set of shapes from 'foreground' and 'background' modifies the other.

'Sci-fi Garden growing' 

And here's a light/glass one from a couple of hours ago - complex in its own way; I always like complexity! .. hope you enjoy it too.

'Echoes of Flight and Light'

Hope you enjoy them - let me know what you think; I always welcome comments !

'Wrap up well'