00:00This was the image that, like, inspired everything.
00:05This is gravitational lensing right here happening
00:08because of this galaxy cluster in the front.
00:10It's, like, really big, and it's affecting the light behind it.
00:15So this is actually the same galaxy.
00:18It's just kind of stretched out.
00:20And that got me thinking about, you know, the warping of light in space.
00:25Scientists are able to use this effect to look at events that are happening,
00:31like, you know, something like a star goes supernova.
00:34If they look at it through a gravitational lens and say they can see it here,
00:39but they know that over on this side, it's going to appear, like, three seconds later.
00:45Just because of the way the light is warped,
00:47so the way the light is traveling around the gravitational lens can affect, like, events.
00:52And they can, like, predict events because they'll watch the event over here
00:55and they'll be like, oh, wow, let's capture that.
00:57And then they'll look at the gravitational lens effect
01:00where they know it has, like, a three-second delay.
01:03And they'll be able to catch, like, the supernova,
01:05which you wouldn't be able to normally catch.
01:07So we went through the Witten's collection
01:10to find abstract paintings that I could use,
01:15that I was inspired by to create these gravitational lensing sculptures.
01:20So my vision was that I would take the painting into ZBrush
01:24and look at it head-on and break it apart into shapes
01:29and then explode them in the Z-axis.
01:31So it's just, like, tracing and outlining all of the different abstract forms
01:35and, like, picking out which forms
01:37and then kind of deciding which forms belong in front of other ones,
01:42which ones are in the foreground, which ones are in the background.
01:45And then it's kind of just deciding then what's in front of the other one
01:50and, like, pushing and pulling and deciding where everyone belongs.
01:54And, like, each abstract form became, like, a cute little character.
01:58And I gave them all, like, little nicknames.
02:00And I was like, okay, you belong in the front of the line
02:02and then these ones going behind you.
02:05And the idea was to make not only for everything to line up
02:09so when you're looking at it front-on, it looks like the painting,
02:13but also create an environment
02:16because the viewer is not just supposed to view the sculpture
02:19or view the painting.
02:21They're supposed to interact with it kind of like architecture.
02:23So the intent was for it to be, like, larger than life.
02:26It was supposed to be big.
02:27It was supposed to be grand.
02:28It was supposed to be architectural.
02:29It was supposed to be an environment.
02:30So in the VR space, you can walk through the painting.
02:35I'm Ashley Zielinski, and my piece, Twin Quasars,
02:38is on view on Whitney's Art Court.
Comments