Tag Archives: reflection

Colour: an art/science open call for submissions

The submission deadline for this open ‘art/sci’ call is January 17, 2018 (from a November 29, 2017 Art/Science Salon announcement; received via email),

COLOUR: WHAT DO YOU MEAN BY THAT?

An exhibition exploring colour as a phenomenon that crosses the
boundaries of the arts and sciences.

Artists and designers revel in, and seek to understand, the visceral,
physical and ephemeral qualities of colour. Sir Isaac Newton began his
scientific experiments with light and prisms as ‘a very pleasing
divertisement, to view the vivid and intense colours produced
thereby’. His investigations ultimately changed our understanding of
the fundamental nature of light and colour. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
challenged Newton’s understanding as limited, and introduced colour as
an emotionally charged phenomenon. He proposed an alternative
methodological approach based on ’empathic observation’.

COLOUR: WHAT DO YOU MEAN BY THAT? calls for art inspired by, or
questioning, scientific concepts about colour: art that encapsulates
colour knowledge from multiple perspectives.

We are not looking for the merely colourful – rather we look for work
engaging ideas, theories and aspects of colour – both conceptual and
physical – that highlight colour knowledge as richly meaningful across
diverse ways of knowing.

To this end, we invite proposals that present, consider, or respond to
research about colour and colour phenomena. Work may relate to:

* physical colour phenomena, e.g. light sources, interference,
iridescence, scattering, reflection
* chemistry of dyes & pigments
* colour vision / colour perception
* colour renderings of energies outside of the visible spectrum
(ultraviolet, infra-red, etc.)
* colour meanings (cultural, scientific, philosophical)
* cross-sensory colour sensations and understandings
* colour theories
* colour histories

SHOW DATES: MARCH 7-25, 2018.

COLOUR: WHAT DO YOU MEAN BY THAT? is jointly sponsored by Propeller
Gallery and the Colour Research Society of Canada [1]

SHOW LOCATION: Propeller Gallery, 30 Abell St, Toronto, ON, Canada

SUBMISSION DEADLINE: Wed Jan 17, 2018, 11:59pm [which timezone?]

SUBMIT YOUR APPLICATION HERE:
HTTP://HUUTAART.COM/OPENCALLS/COLOUR-WHAT-DO-YOU-MEAN-BY-THAT [2]

SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS:

You may submit more than one submission, provided the concept is
substantially different for each piece, with a maximum of three
submissions. With each submission, please provide at least one image
(maximum 4 images) relevant to your proposal.

Details about yourself and your work including:

* Name, address, email, phone number, with a brief bio.
* Title of Work, Year, Medium, Size and Value in $CAD.
* A brief written statement about the work, including how the work
deals with, or draws its inspiration from, diverse ways of knowing about
colour (max. 150 words).
* NON-REFUNDABLE SUBMISSION FEE OF $50.00 PER SUBMISSION.

CURATORIAL TEAM MEMBERS: Doreen Balabanoff, Robin Kingsburgh, Janet
Read, Judith Tinkl

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

* 25% commission collected on any work sold as a result of this
exhibition.
* For more information visit our website: www.propellerctr.com [3]
* If selected, you agree to allow us to use your submission material,
without compensation, in any potential catalogue/publication for this
exhibition.
* Selected artists will be contacted by email not later than January
31. Delivery instructions will be given at that time.
* An event at the exhibition, related to International Colour Day,
March 21st, will be announced in early 2018.

Please direct inquiries to:

Nathan Heuvingh
Gallery Director
gallery@propellerctr.com
1-416-504-7142

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PropellerTO/ [4]
Twitter: @PropellerTO
Instagram: @propellerygallery_to

The co-sponsor for this upcoming exhibition, the Colour Research Society of Canada has a website that proved to be a delightful surprise.

Getting back to COLOUR: WHAT DO YOU MEAN BY THAT?, good luck with your submission, and should it be accepted, good luck with sales!

Glasswing butterflies teach us about reflection

Contrary to other transparent surfaces, the wings of the glasswing butterfly (Greta Oto) hardly reflect any light. Lenses or displays of mobiles might profit from the investigation of this phenomenon. (Photo: Radwanul Hasan Siddique, KIT)

Contrary to other transparent surfaces, the wings of the glasswing butterfly (Greta Oto) hardly reflect any light. Lenses or displays of mobiles might profit from the investigation of this phenomenon. (Photo: Radwanul Hasan Siddique, KIT)

I wouldn’t have really believed. Other than glass, I’ve never seen anything in nature that’s as transparent and distortion-free as this butterfly’s wings.

An April 22, 2015 news item on ScienceDaily provides more information about the butterfly,

The effect is known from the smart phone: Sun is reflected by the display and hardly anything can be seen. In contrast to this, the glasswing butterfly hardly reflects any light in spite of its transparent wings. As a result, it is difficult for predatory birds to track the butterfly during the flight. Researchers of KIT under the direction of Hendrik Hölscher found that irregular nanostructures on the surface of the butterfly wing cause the low reflection. In theoretical experiments, they succeeded in reproducing the effect that opens up fascinating application options, e.g. for displays of mobile phones or laptops.

An April 22, 2015 Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) press release (also on EurekAlert), which originated the news item, explains the scientific interest,

Transparent materials such as glass, always reflect part of the incident light. Some animals with transparent surfaces, such as the moth with its eyes, succeed in keeping the reflections small, but only when the view angle is vertical to the surface. The wings of the glasswing butterfly that lives mainly in Central America, however, also have a very low reflection when looking onto them under higher angles. Depending on the view angle, specular reflection varies between two and five percent. For comparison: As a function of the view angle, a flat glass plane reflects between eight and 100 percent, i.e. reflection exceeds that of the butterfly wing by several factors. Interestingly, the butterfly wing does not only exhibit a low reflection of the light spectrum visible to humans, but also suppresses the infrared and ultraviolet radiation that can be perceived by animals. This is important to the survival of the butterfly.

For research into this so far unstudied phenomenon, the scientists examined glasswings by scanning electron microscopy. Earlier studies revealed that regular pillar-like nanostructures are responsible for the low reflections of other animals. The scientists now also found nanopillars on the butterfly wings. In contrast to previous findings, however, they are arranged irregularly and feature a random height. Typical height of the pillars varies between 400 and 600 nanometers, the distance of the pillars ranges between 100 and 140 nanometers. This corresponds to about one thousandth of a human hair.

In simulations, the researchers mathematically modeled this irregularity of the nanopillars in height and arrangement. They found that the calculated reflected amount of light exactly corresponds to the observed amount at variable view angles. In this way, they proved that the low reflection at variable view angles is caused by this irregularity of the nanopillars. Hölscher’s doctoral student Radwanul Hasan Siddique, who discovered this effect, considers the glasswing butterfly a fascinating animal: “Not only optically with its transparent wings, but also scientifically. In contrast to other natural phenomena, where regularity is of top priority, the glasswing butterfly uses an apparent chaos to reach effects that are also fascinating for us humans.”

The findings open up a range of applications wherever low-reflection surfaces are needed, for lenses or displays of mobile phones, for instance. Apart from theoretical studies of the phenomenon, the infrastructure of the Institute of Microstructure Technology also allows for practical implementation. First application tests are in the conception phase at the moment. Prototype experiments, however, already revealed that this type of surface coating also has a water-repellent and self-cleaning effect.

Here’s a link to and a citation for the paper,

The role of random nanostructures for the omnidirectional anti-reflection properties of the glasswing butterfly by Radwanul Hasan Siddique, Guillaume Gomard, & Hendrik Hölscher. Nature Communications 6, Article number: 6909 doi:10.1038/ncomms7909 Published 22 April 2015

The paper is behind a paywall but there is a free preview via ReadCube Access.