Previous Mellon Collaborative Fellowship
The Physics and Aesthetics of Light
The Physics and Aesthetics of Light
Architect James Carpenter and physicist Sidney Nagel (University of Chicago, Department of Physics) investigated the physics and aesthetics of light. This fellowship, hosted by the University of Chicago’s Department of Physics, The James Franck Institute, and the Enrico Fermi Institute, included the following components:
- Research trip by Carpenter and Nagel to Greenland to observe low-level light conditions (December 2011);
- Team-taught course for graduate and undergraduate students entitled The Interaction of Light and Matter: Art and Science, run through the Department of Visual Arts and cross-listed in Physics and Theater & Performance Studies (Fall 2012).
- Co-presentation at the School of the Art Institute’s Conversations on Art & Science, entitled Illumination (Oct 9, 2012);
- Participation in Fluidity | Rigidity | Adaptability: Frontiers in Pure & Applied Jamming, a workshop and conference at the University of Chicago and Illinois Institute of Technology, October 26-28, 2012;
- Participation in a roundtable hosted by the University of Chicago’s Arts/Science Initiative (Nov 8, 2012); and
- Class project presentations and critiques, December 6 – 7, 2012.
Course
The Interaction of Light and Matter: Art and Science
Fall 2012
Department of Visual Arts, cross-listed in Physics and Theater & Performance Studies
The way in which light is reflected, transmitted and absorbed by the materials around us determines how we view the world and interact with our environment. Light is also a powerful probe for investigating the physical and chemical properties of matter. The interaction of light and matter, the topic of this course, is thus important to both art and science. We hope to discover how the combined exploration of these intertwined roles sheds a greater understanding to both artists and scientists practicing their separate disciplines. Can the sensibilities of artists raise significant scientific questions and can the discoveries and understanding of science have important aesthetic consequences?
Underlying the course will be a thorough exploration of light in general and it’s interaction with the widest range of environments and materials. A critical investigation of light phenomena as they are perceived within various environments will be explored as well as the physiological and cultural impact of light. Shadow and the absence of light will be the emphasis of study and the result will be an experiential manifestation of light.
Fellows
JAMES CARPENTER
Jamie Carpenter is a distinguished architectural designer based in New York City. His multi-disciplinary architectural design firm, James Carpenter Design Associates, is motivated by a deeply held agenda that seeks to merge ecological and aesthetic goals by exploring the natural world to manifest its material, structural and environmental beauty in the built environment.
SIDNEY NAGEL
Ph.D., Princeton, 1974, Stein-Freiler Distinguished Service Professor, Department of Physics, James Franck Institute, Enrico Fermi Institute, and the College. Sidney Nagel’s work has drawn attention to phenomena that scientists have regarded as outside the realm of physics, such as the science of drops, granular materials and jamming. Another area of emphasis is his attempt to understand the properties of disordered materials. A perfect crystal of a chemical element or a compound is composed of an ordered arrangement of atoms, but in a disordered system-a glass, for example-the atoms are in disarray. Disordered systems also exist on a larger scale, as with the sand grains in a sand pile. Nagel’s honors include election to the National Academy of Sciences in 2003 and the American Physical Society’s Oliver Buckley Prize in 1999.