What is it?

Inspiration for WALT Art comes from the WALTA physics project. Extremely high energy particles enter our atmosphere and collide with other particles, spawning clusters of energized daughter particles. The particles are presumed to be billions of years old and perhaps are generated when a galaxy collapses.

The collision events are rare and the particles so highly energized they inspire investigation. To study particles penetrating our atmosphere, researchers use lucite which has been coated with material that "scintillates" when it is hit by a particle of energy.

We are creating an interactive art installation illustrating the randomness and size of the events -- including art pieces based on the luminous properties of the scintillating lucite. We'll play with light and time to create an environment which makes the viewer want to know more.

Thursday, March 4, 2010

The Pyramid Builder

Closeup of work going on under blue light
Forty five degree angles, or sixty?

Ask AutoCAD.
One of the wood shop table saws

The main assembly for the art installation will involve a housing -- imagine an aluminum rack for a bank of servers or electronics painted flat black -- with frames holding the slices of scintillation material.

Ross and Ian are building the frames from plywood and scrap lumber.


I'll post more photos from wood shop in the next blog. I had been working a piece of scintillation material with a flexible shaft drill and there were tiny, scratchy, and very electrostatic pieces of material everywhere. I didn't want to risk damaging the camera.
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