Interaction of Light & Matter

Photos from the final presentations of projects in the Interaction of Light & Matter course at UChicago in Fall 2012. Sidney Nagel and James Carpenter organised this collaborative art-science course at the University of Chicago this quarter. The course brought together students from the arts and sciences and challenged them to think about low-level light. The brief was to use their knowledge in their respective fields to end up with a final artistic exploration of the nature of low-level light.

I took photos at the final presentations. All the projects were quite interesting and innovative; and to my surprise very different from each other. Unfortunately I did not have my camera duringe one demonstration; and the project I participated in was demonstrated in utter darkness and so could not be photographed!

a silhouette stands in front of a glowing square as dots of light streak from his feet to the bottom of the frame
an oil lamp with a bokeh in the background
a blurred silhouette in faded orange light
people stand in front of oil lamps casting shadows in the background
a girl casts a shadow with a bright white halo
photographer casts a shadow with a bright halo
blurred spots of light flow towards the top
a square box emits an orb of bright light
a corridor of geometric shapes
circles of light appear through a textured veil with a few dark lines
circles of light appear through a textured veil with a few dark lines
faint circles of light
people cast shadows on an abstract square light
silhouette over geometric shadows
shadow cast on a cicular light
man stands around a bokeh of light
silhouettes over oil lamps
— Chet, Corinna, Marco, Nicole
strips of colour under different coloured lights
girl looks at a painting in red light
man looks at paintings of swirls in red light
man takes photos of painting in green light
people look at paintings in red light
— Jen, Julian, Maymay
— Andrzej, Annette
— Claire, Gwen, Hannah
— Eran, Leela
A couple of these photos were used in the article Twilight Zone by Lydialyle Gibson in The University of Chicago Magazine.
Send me (Learn more)