Catalog view is the alternative 2D representation of our 3D virtual art space. This page is friendly to assistive technologies and does not include decorative elements used in the 3D gallery.
Imagine you could obtain an 'impossible' image of any object or phenomenon that you think is important, with no limits on spatial, temporal, energy, signal/noise or cost resolutions. What image would you create? (the answer can be a hypothetical image of course!)
This was the question I asked every scientist I spoke to during my Arts at CERN/Collide Barcelona residency. Not to source impossibility, but rather, to find the types of affordances that draw lines between what is possible and what is impossible.
The COVID pandemic brought an abrupt halt to my research; only on the occasion of an online commission in the frame of the HEK Net Works (2021), I found the push to revisit and process the contributions I had collected. I started by compiling all the im/possible images in a single document to create an initial categorization. I then created the BLOB to present an initial classification
The BLOB (Binary Large OBject) gives a home to the collection of Im/Possible images that all together illustrate the concept of the impossible image and the relationships between affordance, resolution and compromise. As different Axes of Affordance cut the BLOB, they define what is possible to resolve, and what images are compromised, or in other words, will never be rendered. While normally these compromised images would never find their way to our eyes, the hypothetical realms of the BLOB offer pasture to these impossible renders.
In the summer of 2021, I was invited to curate a physical exhibition of Im/Possible images at the Lothringer 13 Halle (München) - an opportunity to transform the Lothringer into a real space actualisation of the virtual BLOB. This exhibition spawned the Im/Possible Summer school and the Im/Possible Reader, which both represent a moment in my im/possible images research, which I will extend in 2023 with unnamed colours and im/possible rainbows. I consider the BLOB and its contingents as a framework to introduce thinking through impossibilities.
Map to the BLOB of Im/Possible Images. Featuring an Ecology of Compression Complexities. ⦁ Dots ━ Lines ▩ Blocks ⌇ Wavelets ⟗ Vectors
Added by: Mark Sutton (trigger, CERN) A proton consists of 3 quarks which are, besides gluons, the fundamental building blocks of the universe. These subatomic particles, the smallest particles we know of, are far smaller than the protons and neutrons in which they are found. But Quarks are also smaller than the wavelengths of (visible) light. This means there is no equipment available for actually taking this image.
Added by: Rafael Ballabriga Sune A colour X-ray imaging technique that produces 3D cut-through pictures, to help doctors diagnose their patients more accurately. At the moment the time penalty for creating these scans is too high to use in practice. "Medipix is a family of read-out chips for particle imaging and detection. The original concept of Medipix is that it works like a camera, detecting and counting each individual particle hitting the pixels when its electronic shutter is open. This enables high-resolution, high-contrast, very reliable images, making it unique for imaging applications in particular in the medical field."
Missing images are ubiquitous, but seldom considered. I think we are actually conditioned not to think about what is missing. This is one way for bias to slip into our routines.
Moon texture by NASA, Andromeda by Andrei Shirkin In the sky, the Andromeda galaxy is about 3x as big as the moon or the Sun. If you hold up your thump in front of you, you see it will be roughly the same size as both the moon and the Sun. Andromeda would be much bigger. It is however impossible to capture the Andromeda galaxy and the moon in one picture: Andromeda is too far and not bright enough. Next to the Moon the galaxy would wash out. All the photos we have of the night skye in which we see both the Moon and Andromeda are doctored.
Moon texture by NASA, Andromeda by Andrei Shirkin In the sky, the Andromeda galaxy is about 3x as big as the moon or the Sun. If you hold up your thump in front of you, you see it will be roughly the same size as both the moon and the Sun. Andromeda would be much bigger. It is however impossible to capture the Andromeda galaxy and the moon in one picture: Andromeda is too far and not bright enough. Next to the Moon the galaxy would wash out. All the photos we have of the night skye in which we see both the Moon and Andromeda are doctored.
Planck constant time is the smallest slice of time, while the Quantum Vacuum is a state with the lowest possible energy, in which every possible state is possible at the same time, if these states even each other out at that particular interval. In other words: a possible slice of everything all at once, with a zero sum of nothing. (this explanation is written by a non-physicist and is up for debate!)
Only 5% of our universe is made out of ordinary matter and energy (energy and matter we know and understand), while the rest is divided between 27% dark matter and 68% of a form of energy known as dark energy. Dark matter is called dark because it does not appear to interact with the electromagnetic field, which means it does not absorb, reflect or emit electromagnetic radiation, and is therefore difficult to detect.