Sinks (2023) are a series of thermal sculptures exploring ‘heat’ as both a material and an active process that occurs through space.
PTC heaters blow hot air onto a steel sheet. A simple control system drives the heaters through a preset pattern, allowing the warmth to concentrate then diffuse through the metal.
A thermal camera witnesses these events and helps to project the thermal data back onto the steel sheet, revisualizing an otherwise ethereal event.
Viewers are invited to touch the metal and feel the temperature gradient across the materials. This interaction allows for a transfer of energy between the viewer and the piece. A “warm” feeling is a transfer from Sink to viewer, “cold” the other way around. If you touch long enough, you will see a mark left behind.
As viewers cross in front of the camera, their thermal signature is also projected onto the sheets. This projection will happen even if they are not directly touching the metal.
Sinks exist to facilitate an energy transfer, part of a series of simple actions that form a system of visualization. This steel experiences a thermal rhythm that exists just beyond our visual perception. Technology helps to revisualize that rhythm into something we can witness, while also revealing our connection to the system. It is both sponge and mirror- a tool to convert energy and to release it, a platform for irreversible choreographies.
This concept relies on the use of infrared thermal imaging, a technology not usually encountered in such a public facing way. It is a very useful, if niche, tool, but thermal imaging carries a burden through its uses in security, surveillance, and modern weaponry. It is subject to lawsuits and regulations.
While we might’ve gotten used to infrared thermometers during this last pandemic, it’s rare to see a full thermal print of one’s self.
Sink 2 was on display for the CURRENTS 826 Winter/Spring show, Resonances, until April 9, 2023.
Sink 12 is on display in ABQ, NM, at 516ARTS for Southwest Contemporary’s 2023 12 New Mexico Aritsts to Know Now group show until the end of August 2023.
PTC heaters blow hot air onto a steel sheet. A simple control system drives the heaters through a preset pattern, allowing the warmth to concentrate then diffuse through the metal.
A thermal camera witnesses these events and helps to project the thermal data back onto the steel sheet, revisualizing an otherwise ethereal event.
Viewers are invited to touch the metal and feel the temperature gradient across the materials. This interaction allows for a transfer of energy between the viewer and the piece. A “warm” feeling is a transfer from Sink to viewer, “cold” the other way around. If you touch long enough, you will see a mark left behind.
As viewers cross in front of the camera, their thermal signature is also projected onto the sheets. This projection will happen even if they are not directly touching the metal.
Sinks exist to facilitate an energy transfer, part of a series of simple actions that form a system of visualization. This steel experiences a thermal rhythm that exists just beyond our visual perception. Technology helps to revisualize that rhythm into something we can witness, while also revealing our connection to the system. It is both sponge and mirror- a tool to convert energy and to release it, a platform for irreversible choreographies.
This concept relies on the use of infrared thermal imaging, a technology not usually encountered in such a public facing way. It is a very useful, if niche, tool, but thermal imaging carries a burden through its uses in security, surveillance, and modern weaponry. It is subject to lawsuits and regulations.
While we might’ve gotten used to infrared thermometers during this last pandemic, it’s rare to see a full thermal print of one’s self.
Sink 2 was on display for the CURRENTS 826 Winter/Spring show, Resonances, until April 9, 2023.
Sink 12 is on display in ABQ, NM, at 516ARTS for Southwest Contemporary’s 2023 12 New Mexico Aritsts to Know Now group show until the end of August 2023.
