Artist thinks 'science' and 'tech' with varied works (images)
U.K.-based artist Luke Jerram's work isn't limited to pieces based on science and tech, but he's certainly a fan. Data visualization, microbiology, optics, sound: He's created beautiful works that have drawn from all these things.
Artist thinks 'science' and 'tech' with varied works
Though artist Luke Jerram's most widely known artwork is perhaps "Play Me, I'm Yours" -- a piece that temporarily distributes actual full-size pianos on the streets of major cities for anyone to play -- his body of work displays a particular fascination with science and technology.
One of his sculptures, for example, is derived from the seismogram of the 2011 Japan earthquake. Others are based on data as well: charts of the fluctuations of the New York Stock Exchange and the Dow Jones Industrial Average. Still other pieces reference microbiology, optics, and the history of sound recording.
He's even created chandeliers out of that geekiest of objects: the Crookes radiometer (or "light mill") -- the little "lightbulb" with the spinning "windmill" inside that we all coveted in the science museum's gift shop when we kids.
"Scientists and artists start by asking similar questions about the natural world. They just end up with completely different answers," the U.K.-based Jerram told Seed magazine recently. "The nice thing about being an artist is that I can jump around from one area of interest to [another] -- microbiology one week and the gravitational pull of the moon the next. Scientists don't seem to be allowed to do that anymore."
Here's a look at some of Jerram's work, which has been featured in exhibitions associated with the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Venice Biennale in Italy.
The image above shows the artist's "Tohoku Japanese Earthquake Sculpture," the aforementioned piece based on the seismogram. Jerram rotated the seismogram using a computer-aided design system and then created the sculpture with a 3D printer. The piece is a foot long and 8 inches wide. He's also created a glass version of the piece that will be displayed at a gallery show in New York next month.
Seismogram
Cast-glass data sculptures
The pieces, he says, "were made to contemplate the meaning of the current global financial crisis and are a method for capturing and crystalizing important periods of time in the economy."
They're shown in the background here, on display in the U.K., with the glass version of the Japan quake piece in the foreground.
The form
The mold
A sudden change
"The human impact of the 2009 crash, as shown in the sudden change in the artwork's diameter is really significant," Jerram notes on his Web site. And the piece does give the data a real visceral punch -- that sudden shift to a small diameter creates a point where the sculpture looks particularly fragile, as if it might snap in two and fall apart.
Malaria
"Made to contemplate the global impact of each disease, the artworks were created as alternative representations of viruses to the artificially colored imagery we receive through the media," Jerram -- who is color-blind -- says on his site. "In fact, viruses have no color, as they are smaller than the wavelength of light. By extracting the color from the imagery and creating jewel-like beautiful sculptures in glass, a complex tension has arisen between the artworks' beauty and what they represent."
T4 bacteriophage
This, and more such pieces -- depicting the bugs behind HIV, swine flu, smallpox, and other diseases -- were shown at Glasstress, a collateral event of the Venice Biennale in Italy.
Classy radiometers
"Beautiful, flickering shadows are formed as sunlight passes through the artwork," Jerram says on his site. "Observed from a distance, the sculpture is a form of flickering, shimmering delicate moving glass. A gentle 'clinking' sound can also be heard as they turn."
At least one such piece will be shown in New York next month, Jerram says. The image above shows a digital mock-up of a 20-foot-tall chandelier (along with a detail of an existing, smaller, piece).
The radiometers can be powered at night with artificial light.
A talking ring
"Shelina, I'll love you forever. Marry Me!... Shelina, I'll love you forever. Marry Me!..."
The silver ring was etched using a vibrating diamond stylus, and Jerram was of course inspired by Thomas Edison.
But did Shelina accept? Click ahead...