Spherical harmonics, like all quantum mechanical wave functions, are Nature’s way of bookkeeping itself so that the world is always prepared for the next interaction with the observer.
Invisibly small, a mathematical abstraction, twice in the same location. At the very best, a formula. Can we ever hope to connect with it? See it? Walk around it? Be with it? In this project we try to gain access to this other world, by allowing it to manifest itself in our world, in its own right. We want to see this ethereal entity called wavefunction, we want to see how it evolves in time, and see what it means to occupy the same space twice. Walk around it. Lean back and see how it does its thing, changing autonomously, driven by energy and time. Or taking the wavefunction off the autopilot, and sit at the control board of Time, and play with the wavefunction as if we were Time itself. We want to break through all the opaque layers that the wavefunctions are shrouded in and give it a perceptible place in our world, mixing its ethereal reality with ours, giving it a platform to tell us its story of unheard tales from another world.
This app shows a real time visualization of the transition between the states of spherical harmonics as they blend between one another. This visualization is driven by the movement of your eyes creating an erratic and ever-changing ordering and warping of states that is one with your own perception. This is achieved using the particle system to generate and manipulate the visualization based on the spherical harmonic formulas. The different states are mapped to the different rotations of your eyes such that as your eyes move to trace the spherical harmonic shape, the shape will respond and adapt to the movement of your eyes, forming a kind of communication between you and the visulalization. Each spherical harmonic is also tied to a sound that matches that particular harmonic, to create a smooth blending both visually and auditorially as the shape changes.
TAL creates perceptual technology to define a unique design methodology. This methodology is intended as a step system which bring a participant into embodiment through their senses, present awareness through their embodiment, and first person witnessing of their sense experience leading to insight, and eventually, the awareness of their awareness.
Arts and Humanities Research Enhancement Grant Principle Investigator: Jesse Reding Fleming
Co-PI: Kees Uiterwaal
Musical: Composer and Sound Design: Jay Kreimer
Technical Lead: Shane Bolan
Participant: Trystan Nord
the Awareness Lab (TAL)
Johnny Carson Center for Emerging Media Arts University of Nebraska-Lincoln