Intermittent flashes of light were seen emanating at night from the physics department at Queen Mary, University of London, for six weeks last year. They were triggered by background radiation: subatomic particles detected by a hundred Geiger counters connected to photography flash-bulbs.
The installation What the Eye Can't See the Heart Can't Grieve For — devised by artist Matthew Tickle, in collaboration with physicist Fay Dowker, who seeks to interpret quantum physics — contradicts the adage provided by its title. It reminds us that the invisible can be dangerous.
The experience is now captured on DVD, where some images, such as the one shown here, evoke the surreal façades painted by René Magritte. An accompanying booklet remarks that “the work exists only as a series of moments of perception, as imprints on our retinas. The moment of looking is the point at which the art exists.
C.M.
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Lighting up the background. Nature 437, 817 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1038/437817a
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/437817a
