Beamlines
2021
Phenakistoscope Sculpture
Spinning board: enlarged images of acrylic paint on radiochromic film, printed on photo paper and attached to painted wood; frame: painted steel; mirror
Spinning board diameter: 49 cm; frame: 157 x 50 x 40 cm; mirror diameter: 55 cm
Beamlines originates from a visit to a particle accelerator in Lower Austria and conversations with medical physicists working to develop eye cancer treatment solutions. Using a pre-cinematic optical technique in order to bring together drawing and photographic practices, Beamlines also engages with the history of science -- as the phenakistoscope was invented by scientists captivated by an optical phenomenon called "the persistence of vision."
The work's images are a product of an artistic-scientific dialogue. Each image is an enlarged photograph of backlit radiochromic film that has been painted upon. The radiochromic film was originally used by physicists to measure the beam of accelerated particles -- allowing them to visually verify their calculations of the beam's radiation dose and field size. Functioning similarly to a polaroid picture, the self-developing film exposes a dark blue circle on yellow-tinted film. Such a photographic process reveals what would otherwise remain invisible to the human eye.
By painting along the marks left behind by the beam, I traced and attempted to understand the drawn line and movement of the accelerated particles. At the same time, I left behind my own marks of my hand's movements and accelerated energy. When the painted film was lit from behind and photographed, the radiochromic film disappeared and only the brush strokes remained. Here, photography renders the scientific process of the beam invisible and the artistic process of lines visible.
With the images placed in their phenakistoscope form, the viewer is invited to engage in this artistic-scientific dialogue by accelerating the sculpture while looking through a slit. In doing so, energy moves from the mind, through the hand, and into the artistic device, producing a beam of radiating energy that reflects through the mirror and back into the viewer's eyes.
