Work
Protrude, Flow
Sachiko Kodama, exhibited as part of Silicon Dreams
- Date:
- 2008
Enabling people to experience a strong aesthetic feeling is the main purpose of Protrude, Flow 2008. The strong electromagnet, which has a simple, basic geometry, and the slow movement of the smooth, organic-shaped liquid make for a contrasting but restrained aesthetic expression. The artist has designed a computer program that controls the ferrofluid very accurately and slowly in carefully planned sequences. The expression of movement in time becomes extremely sober and poetic. Ferrofluid, the material used in my piece, was originally invented in NASA’s Apollo space program in the early 1960s, and now it is widely used in industry for, among other things, sealing applications in machines with rotary motion (for example, some silicon growth systems use ferrofluid). These high-tech materials are changing our industry, but they have little noticeable effect on our everyday lives because we do not see them; as such, these invisible materials are regarded as not having any direct relationship with art. The electromagnet stands two metres high, and the thick steel pole circuit strengthens the magnetic field. The strength of the magnetic field at the central point between the two coils is about 1,500 gauss (at 35 Amp DC). As magnetism decreases very quickly, there are no physical effects even if the audience is only one meter away from the centre of the magnet. Ferrofluid is put inside a round, thin container that is seven centimetres tall and that has a diameter of 80 centimetres. When the magnetic field is intensified via a DC control system, the ferrofluid generates many spiky shapes in accordance with the law governing instability in a ferrofluid interface. Distance between the two coils can be adjusted using a jack located inside. Potentially, the movement, shape and position of the ferrofluid can be changed by modifying the coil’s position and/or the computer program.
