01 / Question
Can the essence of an aurora be captured?
Shrine for Dancing Spirits began with an attraction to auroral light: a phenomenon in which matter, energy and magnetic forces produce changing forms. The research asked whether something of that physical behaviour could be brought into a smaller experimental apparatus.
Developed with Verena Bachl, the project moved through test chambers, gas and pressure experiments, electrode arrangements and magnetic fields. It treats the experiment itself as part of the artistic work.
- Year
- 2016
- My contribution
- Concept, hardware, prototyping
- Artistic authorship
- Verena Bachl & Karsten Schuhl
- Context
- artistic and material research collaboration
02 / My contribution
Building the conditions for an experiment.
My contribution focused on concept, hardware and prototyping. Each apparatus provided a different way to investigate the luminous material, from small glass tubes to larger chambers.
The work depended on the relationship between a chamber’s geometry and the conditions inside it. Changes in pressure, gas composition, electrodes and magnetic fields became design variables, but also exposed the limits of control.
Small glass tubes used as early test chambers. Photograph: Verena Bachl.
The experimental equipment assembled on the workbench. Photograph: Verena Bachl.
03 / Material experiments
Changing pressure, gas and volume.
Early studies used small volumes to create and observe vacuum plasma. Further experiments increased the chamber size and varied the shape and distribution of electrodes.
Introducing helium produced a brighter white-pink appearance in the documented tests. Maintaining the balance between pressure and gas composition proved difficult, making the stability of the conditions an important part of the investigation.
A chamber during a plasma experiment. Photograph: Verena Bachl.
A larger chamber with a distributed electrode arrangement. Photograph: Verena Bachl.
04 / Magnetic fields
Giving a luminous volume a changing form.
Magnetic-field studies compared how different arrangements altered the plasma. The four-view comparison records changes associated with different pole orientations.
Controlling a larger volume with low-energy magnetic fields proved difficult. Experiments with an electron gun offered another approach: concentrating ionisation into a region that could be shaped using custom electromagnets.
Comparison of plasma forms under different magnetic-field arrangements. Photograph: Verena Bachl.
An apparatus used in the later experiments. Photograph: Verena Bachl.
05 / Findings
Control comes with material conditions.
The research showed that the phenomenon could be approached in an experimental setting, but sustaining and shaping it required substantial energy and continued regulation of pressure and gas composition.
The resulting forms remain inseparable from those conditions. The project’s value lies both in the images produced and in the material knowledge gained through constructing, testing and revising the apparatus. It was presented at Weißensee Academy of Art Berlin in October 2016.
A luminous form recorded during the experiments. Photograph: Verena Bachl.