And connecting the dots of the story behind it!
As a beginner physics student, I once entered the physics lab in a thrill of anticipation. I was about to reproduce defining experiments in physics, week after week.
The very first assignment was about … diffraction patterns! In a tiny, dimmed room I set up a laser or a Sodium-vapor lamp, diffraction gratings, and projection optics. The task was to measure the positions of the diffracted images of the slits of the diffraction grating, using a ruler projected onto the plane where the diffraction patterns emerged. They were better in line with the results of theoretical calculations! I recall vividly that we were warned that it would be futile to fake results: We had to provide realistic error bars, explain how errors would propagate through different steps of the calculation, and we would not be able to fake noise realistically!
This is a straight-forward exercise: it is very well-known physics. You need to keep track of numbers – back then, with pen and paper. But I do remember how exciting it was to see those feeble little stripes in the dark. Finally, I was doing physics – with professional equipment! That fascination of light in a dark lab never left me, and I specialized in laser physics for a few years! I still see the delicate green and cyan hues of colors of Argon ion laser beams, illumination dancing particles of dust.
For me, diffraction patterns were as sublime as a complete double rainbow in front of stunning scenery. But I had not connected the dots between physics/engineering and art yet. I considered myself a text-only / code-only person, and I dreaded the task of creating “an illustration” for this blog.
During the pandemic, many people started new hobbies. I installed mathematics software SageMath. I searched for the best way to display a certain pesky function, and I found vibrant contour lines most appealing. I went on to display all kinds of stuff by calculating contour lines – ellipses and circles flowing in space like delicate wire loops.
When the pandemic wave surged by the end of 2021, by math art turned dark. Bright wire loops were floating in a sea of black. I was looking for an uplifting view on Life the Universe and Everything, looking for the perfect colors to shine in the dark. I had also started drawing stuff related to physics and technology. Not much of that made it onto this website, with the exception of my antique telephone and light dispersed by a prism. Experiments like the latter stirred me into the right direction: The rainbow it was! Delicate wire loops in spectral colors, like laser beams of monochromatic light. The wire loops should form a fabric, a porous surface. But what surface should it be?
Whenever there are overwhelming choices, I make up strict rules for myself to fuel creativity. It had to be a function with relevance in physics! I wanted to create something that looked a bit like the actual pattern of spectral colors you see, but not quite. I wanted to celebrate the elegance of diffraction: There should be a tantalizing hint at the beauty of the underlying mathematics, but only in a subtle way.
So, I draw the diffraction curves with code, rather than painting the visible diffraction patterns. The peaks in these curves indicate where the intensity of diffracted light is high. It depends on the combination of the width of the slits, their distance and the position on the screen. Already overlaying such diffraction curves for different colors in 2D space made them look somewhat three-dimensional.
I wanted to immerse my curves in three-dimensional space, in a black universe. The structure should flow in deep space like a spaceship or a galaxy or anything of alien origin that somebody would come up with … that had watched too much Star Trek in formative years. My rules said, the arrangement of patterns had to be simple and straight-forwarded and grounded in physics. I just stacked the patterns upon in each other, as if I would capture light of each wavelength on a different screen of its own. Born was the Ribbon of Diffraction (even with space probes).
My physics/math art ventured into something more tangible when I swapped my lines for shiny metallic tubes. This might have been my peak realism. I have been longing to find the bare essence of a digital drawing. I am not plotting measurement data points but displaying mathematical functions. So, I had always figured I need lines. But under the hood, I create little line or curve segments by connecting the dots.
So, why not simply omitting the connecting segments? Not connecting the dots!
Diffracted Surge is made up of diffraction curves of a range of spectral colors. The ribbon extends to infinity – to angles of 90 degrees. You look at the “short side” of the ribbon, just slightly tilted. The diffraction grating that would cause has three slits: Pronounced and smaller peaks alternate with one another. Intensities are also weighted using the intensity of blackbody radiation – assuming “white light” from a star like the sun is diffracted into each “components”. I am using a temperature of 7000K here, higher than the sun’s ~5500K.
Created with javascript code, using threejs and p5js. I work iteratively: Create a fabric of diffraction curves based on a certain geometry of the diffraction grating. Look at the structure from different angles. Spot the uncommon view. Replace the lines by dots. Tweak the geometry of the grid. Tweak the density and size of dots. Repeat.
My goal is to take something allegedly straight-forward you seem to know well – and turn it into an unfamiliar experience, applying a seemingly simple operation – like changing the point of view.
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Related posts about diffraction art:
Diffraction Patterns for Everyone! (Double Star Gate)
Stargate of Diffraction. Escaping the Labyrinth of Colorful Wires.
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