Excited Physical Colour

A series of 5 neon lights based on diagrams of the physical structure of butterfly scales. The work explores the the different ways that colour can be experienced by humans, showing that certain phenomena can emerge from different processes. We perceive colour through the absorption and reflection of light on an object. We can also experience the flashes of iridescence of butterfly wings thanks to the physical structures of their wings catching and reflecting light. And though a subatomic process, we can experience the intense glow of neon light as electrons are excited up into a higher shell within an atom, emitting a coloured photon of light as they come back down. Exploring the phenomenon of colour through these 3 different processes made me think about intelligence. We know the phenomenon of intelligence has emerged at 2 sites via independent processes in humans and in cephalopods. Like colour, in what other ways might it come to manifest and be perceived and experienced in organic and synthetic beings?

The neon lights draw from the diagrams created by scientists in this paper. Through their research, they discovered that the different hues of butterfly iridescence emerge from particular kinds of physical structures in the wing scales. They translated these structures into a range of line diagrams, mapping hue to form. These diagrams formed the basis for the neon light designs.

Exhibited at Assembly Point 2022 Narrm Australia. Supported by an Australia Council grant and City of Melbourne Creative Spaces.

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