0 comment Saturday, May 24, 2014 | admin
Last week, the artist Heather Barnett came to Central St Martins to talk about her work with slime moulds.We were introduced to her work and taught how to look after our own Slime Mould pets.Unfortunately, my slime mould pet died instantly after an incident on the central line, which was a real shame as I was looking forward to nurturing it.
Potentially, I could have nurtured my slime mould to grow and survive for months, feeding it carbohydrates and keeping it in a dark, damp environment.I could have conducted experiments to see which food the slime mould prefers.
This is a time lapse video which Heather Barnett made to experiment with the likes and dislikes of the slime mould.
If my slime mould had survived, I could have set a maze for the slime mould to complete.The slime mould figures out the fastest possible route between food sources, after exploring each possible direction.
Efficiency in nature has become interesting to me as I continue to study soap bubbles and films. Soap bubbles are similar to the slime mould if you consider efficiency, soap bubbles use the least amount of surface area in an enclosed shape (a sphere). Both soap films and slime moulds have been known to find the quickest point from A to B, when simulating road networks.
Slime Mould Road SimulationSoap Film Road Simulation
Interestingly, slime moulds are considered to have memory, learning to stay away / retreat from threats.These intelligent organisms are fascinating insights in to how nature can work to achieve maximum efficiency as an end result.
Pictures by Anita, Slime mould made by Heather Barnett.
Here are some pictures taken from Slimoco, the Slime Mould collective website, where you can learn to make your own slime mould and share your experiments.
Potentially, I could have nurtured my slime mould to grow and survive for months, feeding it carbohydrates and keeping it in a dark, damp environment.I could have conducted experiments to see which food the slime mould prefers.
This is a time lapse video which Heather Barnett made to experiment with the likes and dislikes of the slime mould.
If my slime mould had survived, I could have set a maze for the slime mould to complete.The slime mould figures out the fastest possible route between food sources, after exploring each possible direction.
Efficiency in nature has become interesting to me as I continue to study soap bubbles and films. Soap bubbles are similar to the slime mould if you consider efficiency, soap bubbles use the least amount of surface area in an enclosed shape (a sphere). Both soap films and slime moulds have been known to find the quickest point from A to B, when simulating road networks.
Slime Mould Road SimulationSoap Film Road Simulation
Interestingly, slime moulds are considered to have memory, learning to stay away / retreat from threats.These intelligent organisms are fascinating insights in to how nature can work to achieve maximum efficiency as an end result.
Pictures by Anita, Slime mould made by Heather Barnett.
Here are some pictures taken from Slimoco, the Slime Mould collective website, where you can learn to make your own slime mould and share your experiments.
Labels: Anita Chowdry, Bubble, Efficiency, Heather Barnett, Intelligent Organism, Maze, Network, Road, Simulation, Slime, Slime Mold, Slime Mould, Slimoco, Soap Film, Youtube
0 comment Friday, May 23, 2014 | admin
When reading Hubble: A Journey Through Space and Time the other day, I was astonished to discover that that a bubble nebula exists in the constellation Cassiopeia.
Source
The bubble has formed due to extreme stellar winds and radiation from a nearby star which is 10 times more massive than our sun. This means that the bubble itself is six light years across, that is one big bubble!
I was excited by this discovery, as I have been working with soap bubbles in my art work for about a year now. I'm interested in the universality of roundness from the micro to the macro, so of course, bubbles fascinated me for this reason.
This is a photogram I made from blowing soap bubbles on to photo-sensitive paper and exposing the paper to light for 4 seconds. The result looks astonishingly like a far-away galaxy.
I have made lots of posts on soap bubbles in art and science, here is a directory of bubble-related entries:
"Bubbles" / "A Child's World" by Sir John Everett Millais
How To Make A Photogram With Soap Bubbles
Artist: Kim Pimmell / / Soap Bubbles & Ferrofluid
Artist: Jane Thomas // Soap Bubble Experimentation
Artist: Richard Heeks // Soap Bubble Planet Photographs
Nature.com // Hurricanes On A Soap Bubble
Do Bubbles Freeze? // Emmanuel Coupe
Living Inside Your Own Bubble
BBC: Bubbles In Space
Melanie K's Bubble Planet
Artist : Pery Burge // Inksplosions & Bubbles
Soap Bubble Popping In Slow Motion
Artist: Tomas Saraceno // Bubble Sculptures
Artist: Simon Thomas // Studies Of The Soap Bubble
Bubble-Smith Sterling Johnson
Labels: Art, Bubble, Bubble Directory, Bubbles, Emmanuel Coupe, Jane Thomas, Kim Pimmel, Melanie K, Ngc 7635, Photogram, Richard Heeks, Science, Soap, The Bubble Nebula, Tomas Saraceno, Universe