Chrysler Chandelier

What does light look like? Luke Jerram’s kinetic sculpture makes light visible by converting photons into movement. As infrared light (from the sun and tiny LEDs) shines on the sculpture, it warms up the vanes inside each glass globe, or radiometer. The black sides of the paddles absorb more heat than the white sides, and the uneven heat distribution causes the vanes to spin. Because the process only occurs within a near-vacuum, radiometers containing more air will spin less. With 330 radiometers delicately wired to an acrylic framework, the sculpture shimmers, casting flickering shadows onto the nearby walls. It also emits a faint clinking—the sound of light.

2014.4