Birefringence and NYC
Some words just jump off the page. I was reading along and "birefringence" leapt out and whacked me with the realization that a group of scientists are spending their careers studying something that I have been looking at for years as my personal cool optical phenomena awareness. Wood like tiger maple has "chatoyance" or the ability to change its luster depending on the angle of the viewer. I first noticed this playing with my corduroy pants in grade school. Light, then brush it the other way, dark. I could make stripes on my non stripey pants with careful brushing instead of listening to the teacher talk about the Civil War. Again. A guitar maker friend years ago explained how some woods will shift their highlights as the angle of the light changes.
And then I noticed the way the groundskeepers at Fenway can make stripes in the grass with careful mowing. There is a whole cadre of aestheticians riding around the ballparks and golf courses in the summer unleashing "birefringence" on the unknowing general public. Why is the grass two different colors when it's the same grass? Well obviously it's the propagation of light reflectance along multiple axes. Sweet. And this is exactly what I do for a living. I push light. Gently but with determination I make light do stuff. Ambient photons, light from ninety three million miles away, or waves from a halogen bulb on the ceiling are the pushees, the dancers, and the scratched facets in the stainless are the pushers. I'm just the coach.
With a little homework I discovered this fathomless field of non Newtonian materials, liquid crystals, polymorphism and the next level which is all about refraction and not reflection at all. We will discuss that later. Meanwhile, please come see what this humble choreographer is making the dancers do. "High stepping into town..." at The Affordable Art Fair in NYC next weekend.
HAVOC Gallery will be exhibiting the latest in my stainless light adventures alongside the smooth, wood lines of Joel Urruty's sculptures and Susan Madacsi's vibrant steel at The Affordable Art Fair, www.affordableartfair. com/newyork/, October 3-6, 2013.
See you in New York City.
