Protrude, Flow 2008 (2008)
Shown at Reina Sofia National Museum in madrid.
Enabling people to experience a strong aesthetic feeling is the main purpose of “Protrude Flow 2008.” This experience cannot be acquired in everyday life, and once experienced, can never be forgotten. People watch ferrofluid spikes reflecting light—like a mirror—being pulled up under a strong vertical magnetic field surrounded by white LED illumination, and see a mountain composed of many sharp sword-like spikes. The ferrofluid motion has been carefully designed to allow people to feel the exact timing of the movements, by making the liquid move very slowly, so that they begin developing expectations as to what will happen next. Fluid, much like living life, moves and breathes. The moment when many protrusions occur at once on the dark, lustrous, flat surface of the fluid is the central moment in this installation.
People’s experience upon seeing ferrofluid in a strong magnetic field is apparently different from seeing any “ready made” object, and “nonsense machines;” it is also different from seeing past phenomenon-art works. This work is meant to make us feel a new reality and materiality, based on similar virtual “surreal” images, especially computer generated ones, in such media as TV or cinema. Of course, the physical phenomena of gravity and magnetism is a very important component, but this work is not just a visualization of the unseen force, it rouses in us an unknown reality. This piece is an “artificial-nature” machine, created with a déjà vu feeling, and combines the physical phenomena with our imagination. It lies between substance and poetry and is as if a sword from some other space has cut into our ordinary existence. It also gives us a strong tactile sensation. In person, I sometimes see the ferrofluid spikes as a growing living sprout, and at other times, am reminded of the violence inherent in its existence.
Since 2000, when I started creating my own ferrofluid work, I have shown people not only the actual ferrofluid installation but also its images. People’s desire for imagery and existence has been a theme in my work. For this reason, I initially planned to use a digital camera to take high-speed images of the ferrofluid in a real exhibition, and project the same images onto a large screen. But later, I decided not to use the digital camera to make the installation simple, and allow people to experience the phenomenon with their own eyes. I removed the camera, and then designed a computer program that controls the ferrofluid very accurately and slowly in carefully planed sequences. The expression of time-based movement became radically abstinent.
The electromagnet has a simple straight geometry. It was selected for its metallic texture and color. Traditional Japanese gold papers were used as electromagnet covers. The combination of a strong and heavy magnet and the slow movement of the soft organic-shaped liquid make for a contrasting but restrained aesthetic expression.
Although not visible from the outside, I painted a coil of the upper electromagnet concealed inside the gold aluminum cover, black.
The actual installation differs from the original plan because of two reasons: technical difficulties and the reevaluation of the aesthetic. The original plan called an electromagnet weighing 24 tons, and it was turned down on the grounds that it was not practical. The final work shown at the “Machine and Soul” exhibition used an electromagnet weighing 4 tons. I made the basic design of the electromagnet in Japan with Japanese engineers, and then worked for several months with Spanish engineers over the Internet to develop the electromagnet in Spain.
The electromagnet is 2 meters high, and the thick steel pole circuit strengthens the magnetic field. The strength of the magnetic field at the center point between the two coils is about 1500 gauss (at 35 Amp DC). As magnetism decreases very quickly, there are no physical effects even if the audience is only a meter away from the center of the magnet. Ferrofluid is put inside a round thin container that is 7 cm and that has a diameter of 80 cm. The ferrofluid, upon the strengthening of the magnetic field via a DC control system, generates many spiky shapes in accordance with the law governing instability in a ferrofluid interface. Distance between the two coils can be adjusted using a jack located inside. Potentially, modifying the coil’s position and/or the computer program can change the movement, shape, and position of the ferrofluid.
By producing Protrude, Flow 2008, I hope to spread the idea of “Science and Engineering for Art and Culture.” Ferrofluid, the material used in my piece, was originally invented in NASA’s Apollo space program in the early 1960s, and now is widely used in the industry, for example for sealing applications in machines with rotary motion (for example, some silicon growth systems use ferrofluid). These high-tech materials are changing our industry, but they do not appeal to our every day lives as they are not visible; as such, these invisible materials are considered to not have any direct relationship with art. But I have noticed that if artists and designers are more exposed to these materials, we can cultivate a new future where art and science will have a mutual influence and mutual understanding, and it may so happen that new engineering methods would be developed for use in art, rather than for use in the military.