Working with world-leading particle physicists, This is Loop have been inspired by the elusive neutrino or ‘ghost particle’ and Geist explores the hunt that is played out in enormous neutrino detectors to prove the existence of these particles. Geist is a touring artwork designed for exhibition in the public realm and is expected to see audiences of upwards of 2 million over 5 years.
Geist is a large-scale sculpture shaped like an octagonal carousel, 6m in diameter, each of its faces a 3x3m window into a figment of reflection and light, created by a mirror illusion and showing a suspended illuminated orb. Our Alupanel Silver Mirror was chosen to reflect the illumination and create the dramatic artwork.
The illusion is interactive; only by the proximity and movement of the audience, does the suspended particle of light come to life. Individually addressable LED modules start flickering and glimmering in the presence of people. The public are the cause of the artwork’s existence, their interactions eliciting a response from the artwork; a version of the ‘hide and seek’ played out in a neutrino detector where only an interaction with an atom reveals the neutrino.
The scientific narrative of Geist has involved input from particle physicists at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, part of the Science and Technology Facilities Council, and the Physics Department at Oxford University. The collected group of physicists have provided access to and context for real neutrino oscillation measurements from the T2K neutrino experiment in Japan. In collaboration with new-media artist Motus Art sound artist Dan Bibby, This is Loop have re-interpreted actual neutrino interactions seen by T2K, using input from motion sensor cameras and complex code, into the animation of moving light and audio for Geist. The type of ‘neutrino’ seen will depend on the neutrino oscillation probabilities from T2K. When the audience ‘interacts’ with the sculpture, Geist will reflect a visual and audio representation of the detection of a neutrino.
This is Loop are an award-winning, Somerset based creative studio, led by Harriet Lumby and Alan Hayes, that make and tour original audio-visual artworks around the world; seeing audiences upwards of 1.5 million in the last couple of years alone. Their acclaimed sculptural artwork plays with reflection, moving light and illusion and sits at the intersection of art, science and technology.
“We are super excited about unveiling Geist, the artwork has been a collaborative effort to take deep scientific theory and data and interpret it into a public artwork. Neutrinos are one of the most significant areas of current scientific research and have the potential to answer fundamental questions about the existence of the universe.
We’re honoured to have the support of the STFC and the physicists at Oxford university and to get the opportunity to work with real data from the Kamiokande Neutrino detector in Japan is a dream come true.” Alan Hayes, This is Loop
Find out more about the fantastic projects from In the Loop at www.thisisloop.co.uk
Photo credit: Alan Hayes, This is Loop