COS Experience 2010

A personal reflection on 2010, Art under the Microscope as part of Cambridge Open Studios

Open Studios 2010 Open!

3D and QR codes feature in July Open Studios in Milton

This year, Chris's exhibition is inspired by the familiar and the new. Featuring a new collection of prints of familiar objects around the home and garden giving unexpected images when viewed under the microscope. 3D films inspired a foray into 3D photos as part of the exhibition, giving perspective to landscapes and flowers. A first for this exhibition, images will be accompanied with QR codes (as gradually beng introduced to museums and newspapers), which provide additional information on the pictures to your mobile phone.

Sugar Crystals

Sugar crystals growing together in large blocks with their hexagonal ends stacked over each other, again viewed in polarised light.

Cox Apple

The streaks of a Coxs orange apple resolve into these spots in a multicoloured landscape, quite distinct from that seen with the nectarine.

Random Fabric

Another patchwork fabric remnant that had a larger random pattern. Here the abstract selection also clearly shows the fibres of the fabric being made of fibres themselves.

Poppy heart

The heart of the poppy flower has the fruit in the centre, surrounded by a ring of stamens. These are fantastic subjects for macrophotography, the only issue being the trembling of the petals in the slightest breeze.

Sugar 05

Two fused sugar crystals that had grown slowly over a couple of hours in a saturated sugar solution. the colours under polarised light and the hexagonal shape clearly distinguish sugar from salt under the microscope.

Salt crystal

Salt, or NaCl (sodium chloride) creates distinctive square or cubic crystals. This one grew over an hour on a microscope slide covered with saturated salt solution before being photographed. In contrast to sugar, salt will not show any colour effects under polarised light.

Borage

The small blue flowers of Borage might be a gardeners nightmare as they are difficult to remove from a lawn, but close up they have their own startling beauty, with the heart of the flower hiding the anthers and stigmas.

Muscles of a Headlouse

The headlouse is a much maligned creature and still a perennial school problem for many parents. However, instead of looking lousy under the microscope, the muscles within the creature are brought to glow. This was a complex photo made from photographs taken at 7 polarisation angles and 3 focal depths.