Object/sculpture (2024)

Hommage to an insect´s eye

The object merges the visual apparatus of insects and birds with flame sensors and cutting edge wafer technology.

The sculpture is based on the shape of an ultraviolet sensor for the 185 to 260 nanometer range, sensing fires and fighting off danger and enlarged 35 times. Where the sensor once measured radiation, a silicon wafer inlay appears. The wafer  whith its purple shimmer is a metaphor for an insect’s compound eye, which can see UV radiation up to 300 nanometers and uses this for orientation and foraging, simply put, for survival.

A wafer, before it is further manufactured into GPUs (graphics processing units), undergoes extreme ultraviolet (EUV) photolithography at 13.5 nanometers, a cutting edge technology used to create as many microscopic circuits as possible. A data center with a large number of GPUs provides training for artificial intelligence.

The sculpture can be read as a momentary screenshot of an imagined 3D animation, oscillating between instinct and algorithm.

Size: 62 cm x11 cm x 22 cm

Material: Aluminium, Acrylic glass, silicium wafer

with support of TU Delft, Quantum Wafer Lab