Blinkenlights
Steel frame, mist machine, RGB lights,
Geiger Counters (radiation detectors), thermal PVC,
Wooden pier, sand, paint.
An installation made relation to The Cloud Experiment. The aesthetic design is based on teflon smog chambers/simulation chambers used in atmospheric physics experiments. The Blinkenlights chamber is comprised of a marine scene (you can see the beginning of the pier here but to see more you must get closer and wait for fluctuations in the fog). It is constantly filled with vapour and at the top is a board of lights to simulate sunlight. The lighting is connected to geiger counters, so every time ionizing radiation is detected passing through the installation, the lights are programmed to get incrementally lighter, thus making the vapour cloud get brighter and brighter. This idea was based on the principle behind marine cloud brightening, which to greatly simplify, is the interactive relationship between marine cloud brightness and radiation from space. The title is a quip about diagnostic lights on hardware, likening them to observing clouds in the atmospheric sciences. Like real smog chambers, Blinkenlights has a surface charge so viewers like to touch it and let their hair stick to it.
Below: filling the chamber
Inside the chamber.
