Our collaboration started with brainstorming a list of ideas to pursue. We started off with many ideas touching the themes of ecological art and playing with light, and we settled on two to choose from. Our first idea was connected to Tanuj’s Ph.D. research on light as a force used for propulsion – there are scientific applications out there utilizing the force of light impinging on a surface, and this makes for an interesting art piece mainly because light is not something we associate feeling forces with. Further, the light itself can be invisible to humans (infrared, for example) for this piece making it even more intriguing to a viewer if an object were to move apparently with no force acting on it. However, we did not go ahead with this idea because it would require powerful sources of light. This and ensuring the safety of viewers isn’t impossible to deal with, but would require a lot of engineering. We went ahead with our second idea – Plant Precept – portraying the color of light that plants perceive, as opposed to the familiar green we humans see all the time.
With Plant Precept*, we wanted to explore the color of light perceived by plants using their absorbance/reflectance spectra, and mount an exhibition for people to experience that. We wanted to take a concept familiar to viewers and turn it on its head to make them question what goes on behind the scenes, something common to both scientists’ and artists’ pursuits. The following sections talk about the science involved in this idea, the exhibit design, and some of the logistics we dealt with while working on the project. Photosynthesis, light spectra, color calculation, and dichroic glass Photosynthesis Photosynthesis is the well-known process by which plants utilize mainly carbon dioxide and water (but also other components) to create carbohydrates, which plants use as food. This process generates oxygen, and very crucially requires light to run this whole process. While the process of photosynthesis is quite complex, in our project we focus on the essential role of light. While Tanuj’s Ph.D. research explores and engineers how light interacts with matter, the process of photosynthesis goes one step further in that it is literally life-giving, not only to just photosynthetic organisms but to all living things.
*“Plant Precept” is the title of the show that we eventually came to. “Precept,” meaning something like a moral command or statute, makes this title engage the ethical question of how audiences are morally obligated to live when they consider the lives of plants and plant needs.