Embodying and Liquefying
Imaginary solutions and problems
Workshop with Yunchul Kim
Dates: Nov. 11, 2pm – Nov. 13, 2013
Location: LIQUID THINGS Project space (EG15) Vordere Zollamtsstraße 3, 1030 Vienna
(Workshop limited to 15 people.Please register via ? email: info@liquidthings.net with the subject: “interested in Embodying and Liquefying”.)
One of the more recent developments in materials science is the creation of artificial ›metamaterials‹. These new engineered
materials possess properties that may not be found in nature. Metamaterials such as, for instance, photonic crystals are
distinguished by the fact that their optical nanostructure can be controlled by electromagnetic fields. Thus, they are tuneable,
transitive, and active. What was previously regarded as imaginary and fictive has now been realized.
In this workshop, we shall experiment with an electromagnetic field generator and metamaterials: paramagnetic particles,
photonic crystals, and various colloidal suspensions. We will engineer nano-sized light-gates and produce small tuneable
amorphous fluid spheres. Moreover, we will explore phenomena such as magneto-hydrodynamic flows and unique fluid patterns
which are generatable and controllable.
In addition, we shall discuss how a previously ›imaginary‹ materiality can be embodied and liquefied, i.e. dynamically realised
in the ›real world‹. Because materiality excites our senses before we even begin to interpret it, it allows us to approach
the world symptomatically and physically. Active matter is able to reactivate our senses – and with the imagination of new
senses the conception of new materials becomes possible.