Decay

Christian Petersen Art Museum, Ames, IA

phosporescent doped wall, laser system, control, programming and safety systems.

As if by magic, patterns are created then slowly fade before your eyes. A simple dark blue laser dot or line moves across the canvas creating a pattern revealed only as a fleeting after image- slowly fading as soon as it is created. It is the persistence of photonic decay that allows us to see that laser projections are merely dots of light moving so fast our eyes can not see them as individual dots, but rather blur them into complete shapes. Slowing down the laser allows us to see what and how we see.

As if by magic, patterns are created then slowly fade before your eyes. A simple dark blue laser dot or line moves across the canvas creating a pattern revealed only as a fleeting after image- slowly fading as soon as it is created. It is the persistence of photonic decay that allows us to see that laser projections are merely dots of light moving so fast our eyes can not see them as individual dots, but rather blur them into complete shapes. Slowing down the laser allows us to see what and how we see.

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Special thanks to Christopher Edrington, Roberta McHatton, Nancy Gebhhart, Lynette Pohlman and our project volunteers.