The polarizing art technique reveals colors through their corresponding wavelengths, according to our partner The Conversation.
Polarizing art uses two types of optical elements: “filters” (like commercial polarizing glasses) and a birefringent material (such as tape).
This analysis was conducted by Géraldine Guida, lecturer in electromagnetic optics and Bruno Gallas, researcher in nanostructure and optics.
By pushing the door of Anne-Lise King's studio, the visitor is first surprised to discover the artist leaning over a light table, cutting and sticking vulgar pieces of adhesive tape, while the walls are decorated with equally transparent paintings.
One could easily wonder what is the aesthetic interest of these dull-looking creations... It is only by wearing polarized glasses (for example 3D cinema glasses), that the colors of these creations appear to us in all their splendour, and that we understand that the paintings are in fact stained glass windows.
VIDEO:
Creation of a painting in polarizing art (Anne-Lise King - Youtube 2018)
At this point, most neophyte observers (and readers) are probably wondering: “but where is the color if the tape is transparent?
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Yes, we often imagine color as a pigmentation of matter.
Here, it is rather a question of wavelength selection.
Indeed, white light (like that emitted by the sun or, in the case that interests us, by the light table used by the artist) includes all the colors of the rainbow mixed together, each characterized by its own wavelength.
When they all arrive at the same time and in an anarchic way, our eye is not able to distinguish them.
However, the technique of polarizing art will precisely make it possible to operate a form of “storage” between all these wavelengths (that is to say these colors), thus making it possible to separate and visualize them.
This is called the polarization of light.
For this, polarizing art involves two types of optical elements: two polarizing filters (for example polarizing glasses, sold commercially) and a birefringent material (for example adhesive tape).
The polarization of light: filters
The polarization of light is a complex phenomenon known for a very long time.
In fact, light can be modeled either by a beam of photons (very energetic particles) or by electromagnetic waves (of the same type, roughly speaking, as the waves which propagate on a water surface).
This electromagnetic wave is itself composed of several components, including the electric field which interests us in the rest of the article.
The intensity of the electric field varies periodically during the propagation of the light ray, but its orientation can take any direction.
This is the case for natural sources of light, such as the sun.
But it is possible to “select” the light rays according to the orientation of their electric field, thanks to polarizing filters.
Polarizing filters make it possible to select light rays according to the orientation of their electric field © Géraldine Guida and Bruno Gallas (via The Conversation)
The devices used in polarizing art play with what is called rectilinear polarization.
A rectilinear polarizer is defined by an axis (the small slot shown in Figure 1).
For example, if the axis of the electric field of the wave is parallel to the axis of the polarizer, the wave is not absorbed.
On the other hand, the axis of the electric field of the wave is perpendicular to the axis of the polarizer, the wave is completely absorbed, ie it is invisible.
To simplify: the polarizing filter prevents the wave from passing, as through a grid.
But the scotch, in all this?
The importance of birefringent material: tape
In a birefringent material, the light does not propagate at the same speed along the horizontal or vertical axes: this material is said to be “dispersive”.
For example, the horizontal component of the electric field can be braked relative to the other, causing the electric field to rotate.
Instead of having a rectilinear polarization, we then have an elliptical polarization.
Each wave being modified in a different way, this elliptical polarization is different for each color (and yes: the colors do not go at the same speed in the material!)
Bi-refringent materials modify the electric field of light © Géraldine Guida and Bruno Gallas (via The Conversation)
In concrete terms, adhesive tape, a stretched plastic film, Iceland spar crystal… possess birefringence properties.
How to make a polarizing artwork?
Polarizing art uses all these polarization properties of light to “draw” paintings.
The light source is provided by a light table.
A first polarizer (placed behind the board) determines a rectilinear polarization with respect to the optical axis of the tape.
Then, the adhesive tape transforms this linear polarization into an elliptical polarization, different for each color.
The final shade depends not only on the thickness of the material (the number of layers of tape), but also on their orientation (if the tapes are more or less inclined with respect to the diagonal of the frame).
By stacking different thicknesses of adhesive tapes oriented differently from each other, you get different sets of colors that can be varied in many ways!
Finally, the second polarizer (placed in front of the board, whether it is a fixed filter, a filter to be held in the hand or even a pair of polarizing glasses) partially absorbs certain color ranges.
The table then becomes visible.
In addition, the colors appear and change gradually according to the rotations of the polarizers.
In the photos above, we can see a butterfly figure made of pieces of adhesive tape, without a polarizing filter (left photo) then between two rectilinear polarizing filters, whose transmission directions are perpendicular (middle photo) and parallel (right picture). The hues are complementary from one photo to another: for example, green becomes magenta, and blue becomes yellow when you turn one of the two filters a quarter turn © Anne-Lise King (via The Conversation )
By playing on the stacking and orientation of the portions of adhesive tape, and on the orientation of the filters, the artist can then create a palette of colors allowing him to give free rein to his imagination.
Our "ART" file
Polarizing art is one of the few colorization techniques that does not use pigment to make colors appear.
It provides solutions in many fields of application: it allows innovation in the field of design (lamp with changing colors), entertainment (magic trick, projections), publishing (creation of greeting cards) architecture or scenography (decorated bay windows).
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This analysis was written by Géraldine Guida, lecturer in electromagnetic optics at the University of Paris Nanterre (University of Paris Lumières) and Bruno Gallas, researcher in nanostructure and optics at Sorbonne University.
The original article was published on The Conversation website.
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This article was written in collaboration with Anne-Lise King, visual artist specializing in polarizing art.
The works of Anne-Lise King are to be discovered at the next SIAC contemporary art fair in Marseille, from March 11 to 14, 2022.
Declaration of interests
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Géraldine Guida has received funding from the DGA and the Ministry of Higher Education and Research.
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Bruno Gallas has received funding from the National Research Agency.
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