Silvia Verdolini & Manuel Scortichini

Light in Reflection

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ABOUT THE INSTALLATION

Light in Reflection is a game where light coming from few spotlights can be “transported” by multiple reflections off rotating mirrors. When light reaches the target, it reflects out of the installation in a rainbow of colors. Inspired by the words of the famous Italian physicist Galileo Galilei: “the book of nature is written with geometrical characters”, the artists have built the installation based on the golden spiral shape. Besides having a suggestive mathematical formulation, the golden spiral can be found in nature in the most diverse situations: from the structure of a shell, to the patterns created by the seeds of a sunflower up to the vast galaxies arms.

This science-art duo would like to convey that there are always many paths to reach the same goal or state of mind even if starting from similar locations and situations. Like the many light paths crossing and intersecting, our lives cross and intersect, creating a better world where diversity enriches us

ABOUT THE SCIENTIST & ARTIST

Silvia Verdolini is a post-doctoral researcher in Astronomy. She studies the role and the properties of interstellar bubbles in the near and far universe, and done some work on planet formation. Over the years, she has contributed and collaborated on a number of outreach events and children activities, trying to convey the beauty of physics through the vastness of our cosmos. Someone says that people’s identity is determined by what they love: so Silvia is not just astronomy, but also a good book, a glass of wine, the smell coming from a kitchen and long walks.

Contact: silvia.verdolini@gmail.com

Manuel Scortichini is a student of architecture He works as a craftsman at the family-owned company. During this time he gathered experience as a gardener, carpenter, and bricklayer. He has a passion for interior design of recycled objects. In particular he likes to make use of forgotten objects reshaping them into new forms and to reinvent materials into handy pieces of furniture. He takes part of a newly growing political party in Italy, he has fought corruption and worked towards a more environment-friendly politics.

Contact: manuel.scortichini@gmail.com

KNOW MORE

We explore the wave-particle duality nature of light. Light is emitted and absorbed in tiny “packets” called photons. According to quantum physics, a photon is a quantum of light, or the smallest possible packet of light at a given wavelength. Photons, like any other elementary particle, exhibits the properties of not only particles, but also waves. This duality addresses the inability of the classical concepts “particle” or “wave” to fully describe the behavior of quantum-scale objects. A central concept of quantum mechanics is that the movement in space of elementary particles, such as electrons or photons, is described by a probability wave. We cannot know exactly where a particle is, but we know its most probable position. According to the experiment used, light shows either behavior: particle or wave. With the “Light in reflection” installation we show both behaviors.

Photo Credit : Mitwa A.V.

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