Zoom around the Milky Way at different wavelengths with Chromoscope: X-Ray, Visible, Hydrogen α, Far-IR, Microwave, Radio. (You can also download it.)
posted by Korou on Dec 8, 2009 - 12 comments

Soyuz rocket rolls to launch pad. A fine photoset of an otherwise routine Russian rocket rollout. I can tell that photographer Bill Ingalls loves rockets. His favs.
posted by Chinese Jet Pilot on Sep 29, 2009 - 34 comments

Light Art Performance Photography Long exposure photographs mixed with performance art. [via]
posted by dhruva on May 15, 2009 - 3 comments

Time to turn off the lights. "Cities needlessly shine billions of dollars directly into the sky each year and, as a result, a fifth of the world's population cannot see the Milky Way. Malcolm Smith explains why a dark sky has much to offer everyone." [Via]
posted by homunculus on Jan 1, 2009 - 47 comments

The Nature of Light and Color in the Open Air "Moreover, this book is written for all those who love Nature; for the young people going out into the wide world and gathering together round the camp-fire; for the painter who admires but does not understand the light and colour of the landscape; for those living in the country; for all who delight in travelling; and also for town-dwellers, for whom, even in the noise and clamour of our dark streets, the manifestations of Nature remain." - Marcel Minnaert [more inside]
posted by jquinby on Dec 23, 2008 - 17 comments

Primal source at GLOW (video), Burble London (an implementation of Open Burble) (video), Evoke (video) - the transformative artworks of Haque Design and Research. Interview with Usman Haque. Previously.
posted by Artw on Sep 21, 2008 - 6 comments

Computer Art
posted by Blazecock Pileon on Sep 19, 2008 - 25 comments

Julien Briton draws calligraphy with light. [Via]
posted by gottabefunky on Aug 20, 2008 - 11 comments

*relativity by Drzach & Suchy. "Our work explores the relativity of perception and the dependence of appearance on the surroundings. It illustrates the fact that the message communicated to the observer can dramatically change with varying external conditions. Multiple images are encoded within a single physical object — a white panel, which displays the separate images under appropriate lighting conditions. The underlying principle of our technique is based on a simple observation: the shadow cast by an object depends not only on the object itself, but also on the light; therefore the same object under changing lighting conditions can totally change its appearance." [Via]
posted by homunculus on Aug 13, 2008 - 11 comments

Light Photography
posted by empath on Jul 30, 2008 - 12 comments

10 Amazing Light Graffiti Artists and Photographers: From Light Writing to Extreme Exposures. [Possibly NSFW]
posted by homunculus on Jul 15, 2008 - 15 comments

The very angry caterpillar is a film made by the previously discussed Lichtfaktor for UK children's television programme Blue Peter. It stitches together light paintings using stop-motion (frame-by-frame) techniques.
posted by nthdegx on May 15, 2008 - 1 comment

Light makes a comeback. “New technologies — more sophisticated imaging techniques, fluorescent molecules that act as beacons of light in the cell, and the computing power to gather and stitch together multiple images and create videos from high-powered microscopes — make it possible to harness one of light’s key advantages: gentleness. Unlike higher-resolution techniques, light microscopes can image biological structures without killing them or chemically fixing them. At Harvard, the resurgence of light microscopy is making it possible to see structures and events that have never before been seen in the context of living cells and organisms.” Also don't miss the video samples of “in vivo” imagining.
posted by Frankieist on Apr 19, 2008 - 12 comments

Apparently, the new black is... really, really black. "Researchers in New York reported this month that they have created a paper-thin material that absorbs 99.955 percent of the light that hits it, making it by far the darkest substance ever made -- about 30 times as dark as the government's current standard for blackest black." But what possible benefit to society could come from this blacker than black substance? Why, invisibility cloaks, of course! [more inside]
posted by willie11 on Feb 20, 2008 - 53 comments

Breathtaking photos. No further links necessary. Rarindra Prakarsa is a photographic amazement.
posted by pjern on Feb 12, 2008 - 122 comments

"To never stop fighting means not knowing victory / So give me blank books to fill up with history" sing Adam Kline and Joanna Newsom in The Honey, The Power, The Light [youtube] [more inside]
posted by finite on Oct 28, 2007 - 11 comments

John Lennon’s lighthouse. He said, ‘Well, actually, I invited you because I wanted to know if you can build the lighthouse in my garden,’ and I said: ‘Oh, dear, no, no. It’s just a conceptual idea. I don’t know how to build anything.’ Yoko makes a dream of John's come true in Iceland. It’s geothermal. Amy Goodman's take on the subject. And, of course, video.
posted by LeLiLo on Oct 17, 2007 - 14 comments

Buildings UI, good and bad
posted by nthdegx on Aug 13, 2007 - 38 comments

The Art of Edgar Lissel " Lissel works with bacteria, using their photo-tactical characteristics for his images."
posted by dhruva on Nov 15, 2006 - 2 comments

The iBar (Interactive Bar). YouTube link.
posted by fandango_matt on Aug 18, 2006 - 21 comments

Auroras have had many explanations throughout history. Now, science has answered many questions, thanks to spending a lot of time in Antarctica taking time-lapse films.
posted by MetaMonkey on Aug 15, 2006 - 14 comments

"The trick to education is to teach people in such a way that they don't realize they're learning until it's too late."
Fluorescein-dyed water appears suspended in midair, only to "flow" upwards moments later. The careful dance of a splashing drop is frozen and taken for granted, painstakingly analyzed in a brilliant defiance of how water should behave. Such is the wonder of what modder Nate True calls his Time Fountain (YouTube embedded & worth it)—a well-documented, DIY version of classic science center favorite, the Water Piddler. MIT's own Strobe Alley is lined with photos created using the same technology, pioneered by Harold Eugene Edgerton, a professor whose work you're almost certainly familiar with. Naturally, some beautiful pieces have followed under the same ideal, courtesy Martin Waugh.
posted by disillusioned on Aug 8, 2006 - 14 comments

Sous La Mer . Underwater nudes by Alberich Mathews. Webs of light. [via]
posted by nickyskye on May 28, 2006 - 18 comments

"Light Pollution - and the return of the night" (more inside)
posted by slimepuppy on Feb 8, 2006 - 54 comments

Protest and Peachblow! Many hands make (neon) light work at Dan Flavin exhibition.
posted by ascullion on Jan 19, 2006 - 7 comments

Little visual miracles. For more than forty years that most American of photographers, Chevalier in the Order of Arts and Letters Lee Friedlander, has recorded modern American urban life -- with its jumble of people, signs, buildings, and cars, and television sets. He likes to turn a common blunder of amateurs -- photographing something nearby with one's back to the sun -- into a leitmotif. His shadow plays the role of alter ego, sticking to the back of a woman's fur collar, clinging to a lamppost as a parade of drum majorettes passes by, reclining like a stuffed doll on a chair. Clever jigsaw puzzles, his pictures frequently reveal themselves to be laconic, austere poems to what Friedlander has termed "the American social landscape',' meaning mostly ordinary places and affairs. "Friedlander," an exhibition of more than 480 photographs and 25 books covering decades of work, runs at MoMA through Aug. 29, before traveling to Europe until 2007. More inside.
posted by matteo on Jun 14, 2005 - 8 comments

Sensacell Modular Sensor Surface. Make sure to check out the Quicktime movie. You can turn your entire home into the Michael Jackson "Billie Jean" video!
posted by ColdChef on May 30, 2005 - 7 comments

Electrifying art! This is my favorite, but maybe you'll prefer fine art or kitsch or deco.
posted by centerpunch on Mar 5, 2005 - 4 comments

Resources for lighting designers and enthusiasts: The Lighting Wiki; [extensive] Glossary of Lighting Terminology (and another); Lighting Design Resources (inc. "Fun with Light"; and Professional Lighting Resources.
posted by nthdegx on Feb 16, 2005 - 4 comments

Polarization.com - polarized light in nature & technology. [via MoFi]
posted by Gyan on Dec 8, 2004 - 3 comments

World Sunlight Map. A neat little map showing the encroaching blob of darkness as parts of the world slip in and out of nighttime.
posted by Salmonberry on Nov 28, 2004 - 33 comments

Rachel Wingfield does all sorts of cool stuff with electroluminescent technology. I want some.
posted by majcher on Aug 28, 2004 - 2 comments

The end of the light bulb? E. Fred Schubert, a professor at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute "claims to have invented a 99-percent efficient reflector that promises to speed the replacement of light bulbs with LEDs." According to researchers, this could happen within the next five years. The current prototype is bankrolled by the ARPA and The National Science Foundation "recently award Schubert's team a $210,000 grant to create in three years a commercial version of his patented omnidirectional reflector."

"Schubert claimed that lighting accounts for 25 percent of U.S. electrical energy consumption. Since white LEDs emit more light per dollar and generate less unwanted heat, they are potentially a major energy saver." (see EE Times link)

Meanwhile, some of the oldtimers seem to be pretty refractory.
posted by tcp on Jul 24, 2004 - 10 comments

Monsoon Dawn, Roden Crater

I've always wanted to make light something that you treasure. Not just light reflected in glass, or in a scrim, or on the surface of some object. But light objectified. We generally use it to illuminate other things. But I wanted to force people to pay attention to the thingness and revelation of light. This is a place that will do that.
James Turrell [more inside]
posted by y2karl on Apr 10, 2003 - 14 comments

High Tec Shadow Play 'In Rotterdam, Canadian artist Rafael Lozano-Hemmer used two 7000 watt lamps to create 1200 square metres of projected images which were overlayed by the shadows of passer-by's. A computer based tracking system monitored the shadows. Once the shadows matched the projected image, a new image (or "scene") was triggered. ' An impressive (if extravagant) bit of public art (QuickTime)
posted by rolo on Jan 31, 2003 - 15 comments

you know, you're right... it really does look like my morning coffee. but wait just a minute, didn't we say it was more of a blue-green Tidy-Bowl kind of hue? now i am all confused. good thing i didn't go through with that "paint my house the color of space" idea...
posted by grabbingsand on Jun 24, 2002 - 14 comments

Graffiti with lights, long exposures and a bunch of cameras. ...beautiful stuff.
posted by tomplus2 on May 14, 2002 - 9 comments

Researchers at the University of Utah and Ohio State have developed a light-tunable plastic magnet. "The researchers developed a plastic material that becomes 1.5 times more magnetic when blue light shines on it. Green light partially reverses that effect." My mind is now completely blown.
posted by mr_crash_davis on Feb 5, 2002 - 9 comments

freeform light: glowing wires, cool to the touch. uses very little power, and usable for...anything you need to light. really beautiful light sculptures waiting to be created.
posted by patricking on Dec 9, 2001 - 7 comments

Future of computing - Light or Molecules?
posted by tiaka on Jun 23, 2001 - 5 comments

Researchers say they have slowed light to a dead stop, stored it and then released it as if it were an ordinary material particle. Cool, huh?
posted by tiaka on Jan 19, 2001 - 21 comments

The end of Edison's greatest invention. All good things must come to an end, I suppose. This one lasted longer than most of the 19th century's great inventions -- like the steam locomotive.
posted by Steven Den Beste on Dec 12, 2000 - 10 comments

Speed of light broken. But it may be awhile before we can harness it for anything useful. Fascinating, nonetheless.
posted by scottandrew on Jul 20, 2000 - 13 comments

Can the speed of light be broken? It's not 1 April, so this actually might be true. It'll be interesting to see the paper in Nature, if and when.
posted by aurelian on Jun 5, 2000 - 5 comments

THAT'S a speeding ticket... Scientists push light up to 300 times the SPEED OF LIGHT. I just got a floaty-glowy feeling. Some interesting interesting stuff is happening in our world. My favorite quote from the article: "That is so fast that, under these peculiar circumstances, the main part of the pulse exits the far side of the chamber even before it enters at the near side. " [Note: link is for NYT, free registration req'd]
posted by cCranium on May 30, 2000 - 12 comments

I'm a gadget freak and I've got lights in my house controlled by my computer. But the folks at misterhouse.net have taken it 10 steps further. There's a web interface to all sorts of things, inlcluding the lighting system, the vcr, and reminders of new mail. That's some pretty nifty geek stuff they have going on there.
posted by mathowie on Nov 16, 1999 - 0 comments