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Mangesh
Field of Beams
by Mangesh - May 23, 2007 - 7:05 AM

boxlighfield1.jpgboxlighfield2.jpg

I saw these beautiful pics on TheCellar and was thoroughly confused until I read this fascinating (and somewhat scary) explanation.

Richard Box, artist-in-residence at Bristol University’s physics department, got the idea for Field (2004) — 1,301 fluorescent tubes powered only by the electric fields generated by low overhead powerlines — after a conversation with a friend. “He was telling me he used to play with a fluorescent tube under the pylons by his house,” says the artist. “He said it lit up like a light sabre.” Box decided to see if he could fill a field with tubes lit by the waste energy emanating from powerlines. Box denies that he aimed to draw attention to the potential dangers of powerlines, “For me, it was just the amazement of taking something that’s invisible and making it visible,” he says.

Via TheCellar.

Comments (3)
  1. That’s frackin’ awesome.

    At my old job, I used to do something similar with a Tesla coil (although only with one fluorescent light).

  2. Although, I’m very curious as to how bright they actually got–the photos could just be a long exposure.

  3. It looks so surreal, kind of like a sci-fi alternate universe special effect or something (if that even makes sense).

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