CARBON is the building block of life as we know it, but this image reveals that the element is also a universe unto itself.
Artist Charles Lindsay created this magnified image by suspending carbon in water and manipulating it using electricity, vibration, temperature changes and infrared light 鈥� a process he calls 鈥渁 hybrid between a kind of drawing and photography鈥�.
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鈥淪urface tension, microscopic dirt, ambient humidity and temperature play a role in the final results,鈥� he says. The image appears in his book, Carbon, published last year.
Lindsay came across the intriguing patterns of carbon suspensions while experimenting with photograms, a method of producing images with light-sensitive materials instead of a camera. He placed his carbon suspensions on clear substrates and then digitised them using an image scanner.
鈥淭he images maintain this illusion of scientific photography,鈥� he says. 鈥淓ven though we know better, we read photographs as truths, and there鈥檚 a power in that.鈥�
Lindsay, who studied exploration geology before becoming an artist, was the first artist in residence at the SETI Institute, which hunts for extraterrestrial intelligence, and is now the director of this art programme.
He wonders whether distant, alien worlds could harbour life made of silicon or some other element 鈥� places where the carbon that is so vital on Earth would be just a footnote.
This article appeared in print under the headline 鈥淐arbon cascade鈥�
