New planetary system discovered!

Seven new planets and their accompanying moons.

‘planetary glyceronomy’

Fearful symmetry

The new images I’ve been doing in the lab at Exeter University contain an enormous amount of symmetry, with their complex branching forms often taking up regular patterning, and choosing the reflective route. Deep-rooted links with life forms, waterways and rocks such as agate are clear. Here are a few examples.

‘Exotic caterpillars’

‘Agate slice’

‘Liquid divisions’

‘In search of perfect symmetry’

Outflows

Here are three images which I’ve just been working on, taken in the last day or so, all showing miniature outflows of ink.

!cosmic-bubblestream-machine.jpg

‘Galaxy Egg: Cosmic bubblestream machine’

‘Green pool’

‘Sculpted leaf’

Let’s get biological…

I’m amazed at how greatly the images I’m doing in the lab at the moment are reminiscent of plant and animal forms. Here are a few examples from today.

‘Ernst Haeckel revisited’

‘Leaf detail’

‘Primitive life’

Lab Illusions

Nothing is quite what it seems….

Today in the lab I found semi-precious stone, lakes and mountains and what could have been an Annelid; not entirely sure.

‘Fire Agate’

‘Lakes and Mountains’

‘Annelid’

Soap and water, ink and data

The title is the name of a talk which I gave yesterday in a workshop at Exeter University which featured data visualization as its theme. Here’s the link to the day’s events funded by EPSRC’s ‘Bridging the Gaps’. The talks were highly varied in content – all new and interesting to me – a very enjoyable workshop. If anyone who did not go would like to know what I spoke about, please contact me and I’ll give you a brief overview.

Here are a couple of inksplosion images from today.

The first two ‘Cosmic networking’, and ‘Bubblemaze’, bear out something which I mentioned in my talk yesterday – that I like complexity very much, here seen in the varied textures of the inks.

The third; ‘Fly high’ features rather diffuse, glowing areas of colour – this is actually airborne flow because of high speeds of ink travel.

‘Cosmic networking’

‘Bubblemaze’

‘Fly high’

The deeper rhythms

I have been making videos of ink swirling in water in the lab, and watching these puts me in mind of the larger forces of nature, where fundamental rhythms and pulses dictate our day-to-day existence. The footage below has a pulsating flow, reminiscent of self-sustained circadian rhythms which drive the existences of living creatures. Hydro-chronobiological visualization!

Huffpost!

I’m delighted to have been featured in today’s Huffington Post in a piece written by Tara Kelly. Here’s the link to the article: Huffington Post Arts

Article about my work in Huffington Post

And here’s a detail of one of the images featured in the article, ‘Deep Coloured space’, taken from the sequence one second later on.

‘Deep Coloured space’ detail

What goes around, comes around .. new swirl footage

I have started to make footage for a new video which will feature swirl flo-viz. Here’s a clip from yesterday.

The swirl and reappearance of the coloured vortices as they move round gives this kind of visualization a periodic, rhythmic quality. Even as the colours begin to mingle we can still follow individual shapes as they complete their circuit. There are echoes of man-made objects, like the sweep of a clock hand, as well as large-scale phenomena such as the revolutions of planets and moons.

Giant vortices and coloured towers

There is a lot to be discovered in the world of swirl and spin, and last week in the lab I discovered more new effects and patterns. Here are a few below. I will be posting more to my gallery pages shortly.

And here is a link to the University’s College of Engineering, Mathematics and Physics website describing the first and second prize wins for myself and Professor Pete Vukusic respectively at IOP South West regional photography competition.

My description of the day at the IOP Branch Festival can be seen in an earlier post below, dated Sunday March 4th.

I’m getting my image framed up this week, so it should be up in the department very soon!

‘Solid Nebula’

‘The Big One’

‘Cosmic Vortex’