TEDGlobal 2013
Fabian Oefner: Psychedelic science
Filmed:
Readability: 3.7
1,896,701 views
Swiss artist and photographer Fabian Oefner is on a mission to make eye-catching art from everyday science. In this charming talk, he shows off some recent psychedelic images, including photographs of crystals as they interact with soundwaves. And, in a live demo, he shows what really happens when you mix paint with magnetic liquid--or when you set fire to whiskey.
Fabian Oefner - Photographer
Fabian Oefner creates stunning visual representations of natural forces. Full bio
Fabian Oefner creates stunning visual representations of natural forces. Full bio
Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.
00:12
An image is worth more than a thousand words,
0
553
3842
00:16
so I'm going to start my talk
1
4395
2127
00:18
by stop talking and show you a few images
2
6522
2668
00:21
that I recently captured.
3
9190
3167
00:42
So by now, my talk is already 6,000 words long,
4
30712
4030
00:46
and I feel like I should stop here.
5
34742
2148
00:48
(Laughter)
6
36890
2420
00:51
At the same time, I probably owe you
7
39310
1821
00:53
some explanation
8
41131
1006
00:54
about the images that you just saw.
9
42137
3103
00:57
What I am trying to do as a photographer,
10
45240
2723
00:59
as an artist, is to bring the world
11
47963
2483
01:02
of art and science together.
12
50446
3377
01:05
Whether it is an image of a soap bubble
13
53823
2339
01:08
captured at the very moment where it's bursting,
14
56162
2766
01:10
as you can see in this image,
15
58928
2472
01:13
whether it's a universe made of tiny little beads
16
61400
2608
01:16
of oil paint,
17
64008
2498
01:18
strange liquids that behave in very peculiar ways,
18
66506
4343
01:22
or paint that is modeled by centrifugal forces,
19
70849
4266
01:27
I'm always trying to link those two fields together.
20
75115
3966
01:31
What I find very intriguing about those two
21
79081
2390
01:33
is that they both look at the same thing:
22
81471
3279
01:36
They are a response to their surroundings.
23
84750
2824
01:39
And yet, they do it in a very different way.
24
87574
3893
01:43
If you look at science on one hand,
25
91467
2047
01:45
science is a very rational approach
26
93514
3423
01:48
to its surroundings,
27
96937
1481
01:50
whereas art on the other hand
28
98418
2089
01:52
is usually an emotional approach to its surroundings.
29
100507
4303
01:56
What I am trying to do is I'm trying
30
104810
2017
01:58
to bring those two views into one
31
106827
2641
02:01
so that my images both speak to the viewer's heart
32
109468
3950
02:05
but also to the viewer's brain.
33
113418
3194
02:08
Let me demonstrate this based on three projects.
34
116612
4666
02:13
The first one has to do with making sound visible.
35
121278
5054
02:18
Now as you may know,
36
126332
1018
02:19
sound travels in waves,
37
127350
2626
02:21
so if you have a speaker,
38
129976
2323
02:24
a speaker actually does nothing else
39
132299
2049
02:26
than taking the audio signal,
40
134348
1884
02:28
transform it into a vibration,
41
136232
3597
02:31
which is then transported through the air,
42
139829
2701
02:34
is captured by our ear,
43
142530
1862
02:36
and transformed into an audio signal again.
44
144392
3541
02:39
Now I was thinking,
45
147933
1846
02:41
how can I make those sound waves visible?
46
149779
4220
02:45
So I came up with the following setup.
47
153999
2116
02:48
I took a speaker, I placed a thin foil
48
156115
3720
02:51
of plastic on top of that speaker,
49
159835
2235
02:54
and then I added tiny little crystals
50
162070
2667
02:56
on top of that speaker.
51
164737
1977
02:58
And now, if I would play a sound through that speaker,
52
166714
2900
03:01
it would cause the crystals to move up and down.
53
169614
3882
03:05
Now this happens very fast,
54
173496
2299
03:07
in the blink of an eye,
55
175795
1952
03:09
so, together with LG, we captured this motion
56
177747
3687
03:13
with a camera that is able
57
181434
1686
03:15
to capture more than 3,000 frames per second.
58
183120
3475
03:18
Let me show you what this looks like.
59
186595
3473
03:22
(Music: "Teardrop" by Massive Attack)
60
190068
5367
04:03
(Applause)
61
231406
5318
04:08
Thank you very much.
62
236724
1263
04:09
I agree, it looks pretty amazing.
63
237987
3244
04:13
But I have to tell you a funny story.
64
241231
2359
04:15
I got an indoor sunburn doing this
65
243590
2514
04:18
while shooting in Los Angeles.
66
246104
2048
04:20
Now in Los Angeles, you could get a decent sunburn
67
248152
2275
04:22
just on any of the beaches,
68
250427
1726
04:24
but I got mine indoors,
69
252153
2070
04:26
and what happened is that,
70
254223
1709
04:27
if you're shooting at 3,000 frames per second,
71
255932
2821
04:30
you need to have a silly amount of light, lots of lights.
72
258753
4489
04:35
So we had this speaker set up,
73
263242
2529
04:37
and we had the camera facing it,
74
265771
1599
04:39
and lots of lights pointing at the speaker,
75
267370
3386
04:42
and I would set up the speaker,
76
270756
1355
04:44
put the tiny little crystals on top of that speaker,
77
272111
3046
04:47
and we would do this over and over again,
78
275157
2821
04:49
and it was until midday that I realized
79
277978
2761
04:52
that I had a completely red face
80
280739
2337
04:55
because of the lights pointing at the speaker.
81
283076
3086
04:58
What was so funny about it was that
82
286162
2306
05:00
the speaker was only coming from the right side,
83
288468
2727
05:03
so the right side of my face was completely red
84
291195
3367
05:06
and I looked like the Phantom of the Opera
85
294562
1842
05:08
for the rest of the week.
86
296404
2842
05:11
Let me now turn to another project
87
299246
2103
05:13
which involves less harmful substances.
88
301349
3520
05:19
Has anyone of you heard of ferrofluid?
89
307852
3640
05:23
Ah, some of you have. Excellent.
90
311492
2522
05:26
Should I skip that part?
91
314014
1877
05:27
(Laughter)
92
315891
1582
05:29
Ferrofluid has a very strange behavior.
93
317473
3263
05:32
It's a liquid that is completely black.
94
320736
2252
05:34
It's got an oily consistency.
95
322988
2494
05:37
And it's got tiny little particles of metal in it,
96
325482
3460
05:40
which makes it magnetic.
97
328942
2139
05:43
So if I now put this liquid into a magnetic field,
98
331081
3553
05:46
it would change its appearance.
99
334634
2793
05:49
Now I've got a live demonstration over here
100
337427
3795
05:53
to show this to you.
101
341222
2576
05:59
So I've got a camera pointing down at this plate,
102
347533
2953
06:02
and underneath that plate, there is a magnet.
103
350486
3528
06:06
Now I'm going to add some of that ferrofluid
104
354014
2992
06:09
to that magnet.
105
357006
3304
06:17
Let's just slightly move it to the right
106
365609
4129
06:25
and maybe focus it a little bit more. Excellent.
107
373330
4758
06:30
So what you can see now is that
108
378088
2193
06:32
the ferrofluid has formed spikes.
109
380281
2397
06:34
This is due to the attraction and the repulsion
110
382678
3353
06:38
of the individual particles inside the liquid.
111
386031
3709
06:41
Now this looks already quite interesting,
112
389740
2243
06:43
but let me now add some watercolors to it.
113
391983
3554
06:47
Those are just standard watercolors
114
395537
2454
06:49
that you would paint with.
115
397991
1631
06:51
You wouldn't paint with syringes,
116
399622
1343
06:52
but it works just the same.
117
400965
4988
07:10
So what happened now is,
118
418798
2112
07:12
when the watercolor was flowing into the structure,
119
420910
3244
07:16
the watercolors do not mix with the ferrofluid.
120
424154
3351
07:19
That's because the ferrofluid itself
121
427505
2336
07:21
is hydrophobic.
122
429841
2183
07:24
That means it doesn't mix with the water.
123
432024
2163
07:26
And at the same time, it tries to maintain its position
124
434187
3009
07:29
above the magnet,
125
437196
1365
07:30
and therefore, it creates those amazing-looking
126
438561
3395
07:33
structures of channels and tiny little ponds
127
441956
3333
07:37
of colorful water paint.
128
445289
2580
07:39
So that was the second project.
129
447869
1751
07:41
Let me now turn to the last project,
130
449620
2352
07:43
which involves
131
451972
4772
07:48
the national beverage of Scotland.
132
456744
2090
07:50
(Laughter)
133
458834
2320
07:53
This image, and also this one,
134
461154
3920
07:57
were made using whiskey.
135
465074
3271
08:00
Now you might ask yourself,
136
468345
1490
08:01
how did he do that?
137
469835
1028
08:02
Did he drink half a bottle of whiskey
138
470863
1849
08:04
and then draw the hallucination he got
139
472712
2711
08:07
from being drunk onto paper?
140
475423
3614
08:11
I can assure you I was fully conscious
141
479037
2244
08:13
while I was taking those pictures.
142
481281
3110
08:16
Now, whiskey contains 40 percent of alcohol,
143
484391
4102
08:20
and alcohol has got some very interesting properties.
144
488493
4236
08:24
Maybe you have experienced
145
492729
1691
08:26
some of those properties before,
146
494420
2126
08:28
but I am talking about the physical properties,
147
496546
2719
08:31
not the other ones.
148
499265
2235
08:33
So when I open the bottle, the alcohol molecules
149
501500
4200
08:37
would spread in the air,
150
505700
1343
08:39
and that's because alcohol is a very volatile substance.
151
507043
4080
08:43
And at the same time, alcohol is highly flammable.
152
511123
4687
08:47
And it was with those two properties
153
515810
2149
08:49
that I was able to create the images
154
517959
2605
08:52
that you're seeing right now.
155
520564
2030
08:54
Let me demonstrate this over here.
156
522594
3471
09:04
And what I have here is an empty glass vessel.
157
532709
3318
09:08
It's got nothing in it.
158
536027
1309
09:09
And now I'm going to fill it with oxygen
159
537336
3808
09:13
and whiskey.
160
541144
2681
09:31
Add some more.
161
559962
2953
09:38
Now we just wait for a few seconds
162
566171
2015
09:40
for the molecules to spread inside the bottle.
163
568186
3047
09:43
And now, let's set that on fire.
164
571233
2397
09:45
(Laughter)
165
573630
4710
10:03
So that's all that happens.
166
591740
1538
10:05
It goes really fast, and it's not that impressive.
167
593278
3199
10:08
I could do it again to show it one more time,
168
596477
2606
10:11
but some would argue that this is a complete waste
169
599083
2731
10:13
of the whiskey, and that I should rather drink it.
170
601814
3852
10:17
But let me show you a slow motion
171
605666
2088
10:19
in a completely darkened room
172
607754
1695
10:21
of what I just showed you in this live demonstration.
173
609449
5250
10:33
So what happened is that the flame
174
621605
2733
10:36
traveled through the glass vessel from top to bottom,
175
624338
3992
10:40
burning the mix of the air molecules
176
628330
3049
10:43
and the alcohol.
177
631379
1829
10:45
So the images that you saw at the beginning,
178
633208
2816
10:48
they are actually a flame stopped in time
179
636024
4344
10:52
while it is traveling through the bottle,
180
640368
2478
10:54
and you have to imagine
181
642846
1218
10:56
it was flipped around 180 degrees.
182
644064
3466
10:59
So that's how those images were made.
183
647530
2438
11:01
(Applause)
184
649968
4356
11:06
Thank you.
185
654324
2773
11:09
So, I have now showed you three projects,
186
657097
3083
11:12
and you might ask yourself, what is it good for?
187
660180
2652
11:14
What's the idea behind it?
188
662832
1591
11:16
Is it just a waste of whiskey?
189
664423
1333
11:17
Is it just some strange materials?
190
665756
4225
11:21
Those three projects, they're based on very simple
191
669981
2813
11:24
scientific phenomena,
192
672794
1662
11:26
such as magnetism, the sound waves,
193
674456
2741
11:29
or over here, the physical properties of a substance,
194
677197
4042
11:33
and what I'm trying to do
195
681239
1912
11:35
is I'm trying to use these phenomena
196
683151
3149
11:38
and show them in a poetic and unseen way,
197
686300
3117
11:41
and therefore invite the viewer
198
689417
2419
11:43
to pause for a moment
199
691836
1900
11:45
and think about all the beauty
200
693736
2715
11:48
that is constantly surrounding us.
201
696451
3943
11:52
Thank you very much.
202
700394
1429
11:53
(Applause)
203
701823
4493
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Fabian Oefner - PhotographerFabian Oefner creates stunning visual representations of natural forces.
Why you should listen
Fabian Oefner is a photographer and artist who wants to blend the disciplines of art and science. His psychedelic images capture natural phenomena and present them in unique and eye-catching ways. To date, subjects have included sound waves, iridescence, even magnetic ferroliquids and fire. His aim: to create images that appeal to both a viewer's heart and brain.
Oefner's photographs have been exhibited in various countries and are part of private collections around the globe. Besides pursuing his own projects, he also works on ad campaigns. He works and lives in Switzerland.
Fabian Oefner | Speaker | TED.com