TALK about sparking someone鈥檚 interest. The hazards of the High Voltage Lab at the Technical University of Denmark in Lyngby held a certain charm for photographer Alastair Philip Wiper. 鈥淚t鈥檚 full of devices that to me looked like sculpture,鈥� he says. 鈥淵ou could be in a modern art museum.鈥�
The lab runs tests on commercial products to see how well they cope with real-world power surges and lightning strikes 鈥� by delivering jolts of up to 1.2 million volts.
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The image above聽left shows Joachim Holb酶ll, deputy head of the lab, peering up at the giant impulse generator, which sends a massive electrical discharge between the two spheres. 鈥淏ig stuff is always cool,鈥� Wiper says. 鈥淵ou can鈥檛 help but just go, 鈥榳ow, human beings built this鈥�.鈥�
Wiper likes to contrast the huge and impressive with the small and disregarded. For four years, he has been developing a project with the working title Unintended Beauty, showcasing scientific and industrial objects with overlooked aesthetic appeal. So he was intrigued by the collection of discarded electronic components in Holb酶ll鈥檚 office, such as the GE GL-833A triode (above right). Triode vacuum tubes were the first devices able to amplify electric signals, making it possible to develop appliances like radios and TVs.
But it was the triode鈥檚 odd shape rather than its historical importance that caught Wiper鈥檚 eye. 鈥淚 quite like the fact that a lot of people won鈥檛 really know what it is,鈥� he says. 鈥淚t looks like a 50s sci-fi robot or something.鈥�
This article appeared in print under the headline 鈥淪hocking beauty鈥�
