Guest artists at CERN illustrate the imperceptible
Cascade allows visitors to visualize the subatomic particles that continuously rain down from the atmosphere.
Yunchul Kim, Dawns, Mine, Crystal, Korean Cultural Centre UK, London, courtesy of the artist and KCCUK, photo by Mark Blower
It happens continuously. Speedy protons from space slam into molecules in Earth’s atmosphere, sparking reactions that produce, among other things, muons. Typically, those muons descend imperceptibly to Earth’s surface. But lately, a minute subset of those cosmic-ray-elicited particles have triggered a vivid display at an art installation in London. The display—part muon detector, part sculpture—is the latest example of artwork inspired by researchers at the world’s most famous physics facility.
Since 2011, researchers at CERN have welcomed a dozen or more artists from around the world into their labs each year as part of the organization’s artistic residencies . For a three-month stint, artists are rewarded 15 000 Swiss francs (about $15 000) plus expenses. The aim is to give artists time and space to explore particle physics and fundamental research, says Monica Bello, head of arts at CERN, and to provide a platform for interdisciplinary dialogue.
Argos is made up of 41 Geiger–Müller tubes.
Yunchul Kim, Dawns, Mine, Crystal, Korean Cultural Centre UK, London, courtesy of the artist and KCCUK, photo by Mark Blower
CERN isn’t the only place artists can go to immerse themselves in cutting-edge science. Among the institutions with similar schemes are Fermilab near Chicago and the Broad Institute in Cambridge, Massachusetts, which specializes in biomedical and genomics research. But CERN’s prominence, international reach, and focus on fundamental research make the particle-physics laboratory a particularly stimulating artistic setting. In return, physicists learn from artists “a way of thinking that is purely human,” Bello says, and “a framework full of ideas that is very powerful.”
A variety of artists working in different media have brought their talents to CERN. Alumni include artists from fragment.in , a Swiss-based design studio that creates interactive installations focusing on video game designs, and Mariele Neudecker , a UK-based artist whose work uses film and photography to investigate how cultural constructs are disseminated around the world.
The CERN program doesn’t require artists to showcase their science-inspired work in exhibitions, but some have. The latest installation comes from Yunchul Kim , an electroacoustic composer and artist based in Berlin and Seoul who last year spent two months at CERN and one month at the Foundation for Art and Creative Technology (FACT) in Liverpool, UK. In 2016 Kim won the COLLIDE International Award as part of a collaboration between CERN and FACT.
In recent years, Kim’s works have focused on the artistic potential of fluid dynamics and metamaterials. He regularly collaborates with materials scientists, architects, poets, and dancers. “As an artist, I make my own experiments with my own imagination,” Kim says. From the outside, he explains, CERN is a bit of a black box, but artists who visit CERN can help the general public understand what scientists are up to.
The visibility of the tubes running through Tubular depends on whether a muon has been detected.
Yunchul Kim, Dawns, Mine, Crystal, Korean Cultural Centre UK, London, courtesy of the artist and KCCUK, photo by Mark Blower
During his CERN residency, Kim learned how physicists have detected cosmic rays using Geiger–Müller tubes. When placed one above the other, the gas-filled ionization detectors can register the downward trajectories of muons produced when charged particles from space strike the atmosphere. Inspired, Kim decided to build a far more visually pleasing set of particle detectors, in the form of a trio of networked structures. The trio, called Cascade, aims to portray the invisible events of the cosmic world. “I am very interested in these cosmic events which cannot be perceptible,” Kim says.
The first piece, called Argos, is composed of 41 Geiger–Müller tubes. Every time Argos detects a particle, it flashes. If the particle is a muon, Argos sends a signal via Wi-Fi to Impulse, a chandelier-like structure. A mixture of water and glycerin then starts flowing to the third structure, Tubular. When empty, the 18 meters of narrow polymer tubing that run through Tubular are visible. But once triggered, the tubes seemingly disappear because of the refractive indices of the polymer and the liquid.
Cascade is on display at the Korean Cultural Centre near London’s Trafalgar Square through 3 November. It will be moved to FACT on 22 November.