The Invisible Sculptures (or Inference Sculptures as Prof. Ben Whitaker of The Superposition claims they should be called) came out of conversations I had been having with Mike Nix about methodologies and processes of scientific research on a sub-atomic level.

 

The morning after one such conversation The Stanley & Audrey Burton Gallery contacted me to make work for light night that celebrates the centenary of Leeds’ Sir William Henry Bragg and William Lawrence Bragg winning the Nobel Prize and that responded to " their services in the analysis of crystal structure by means of X-rays"

 

The technique used to make the invisible sculptures was developed with Dr. Mike Nix during The Superposition’s ASMbly Lab in September 2013. It works by adding heavy metals to clear resin to change the refractive index. Objects were then cast in this altered resin and these were then immersed in cylinders of unaltered resin.

 

In the week proceeding Light Night 2013 we took the technique out of a laboratory environment and into a sculptural/casting workshop. It was far from straight forward and the process is still being refined.

 

On Light Night 2013, the invisible sculptures were dotted around a dimmed Parkinson Court in University of Leeds. The objects were then viewed, picked up, played with and inspected by the audience using mini LED torches. 

 

Mark Steadman from University of Leeds’ Museum of the History of Science, Technology and Medicine generously provided the natural forms that were cast.