Black Trough, 2017 (in collaboration with Nika Jurlin, astrophysicists)
installation, 100 x 75 x 110 cm
Dark matter is undefined material that scientists cannot see even with the use of the most advanced technology, of radio-telescopes, for example, or optical telescopes. Dark matter is not anything known and has never been directly observed. It is one of the biggest mysteries of astrophysics today. Its existence has been inferred from gravitational effects, such as the movements of visible matter (stars, gas, dust), the bending of light on its way from source to observer (gravitational lensing), its influence on big structures such as galaxies, and its impact on the cosmic microwave background, or CMB. Dark matter is part of space and is found everywhere in the universe.
The installation Black Trough conjures up the omnipresence of dark matter all around us from the standpoint of art, and with the use of a certain fluid presents its entwining of the galaxies, the stars and everything else that we can detect with the naked eye or with the use of technology available today.
Fluids are divided into what are called Newtonian and non-Newtonian. Newtonian fluids are characterised by having a constant viscosity notwithstanding any force that is exerted upon them. Water is an example: its viscosity is always the same and it flows equally irrespective of any force exerted. The properties of non-Newtonian fluids are just the opposite; their viscosity changes with a modification of the force that we exert on the fluid. An example is the fluid that is presented in the installation Black Trough. It is chosen to represent dark matter because of its interaction with any visitors who happen to be in its vicinity. It is viscose when the force we exert upon it is small, but when the force is increased, the viscosity decreases. The visitors can touch the substance and affect it more or less strongly in order to study its properties. They can also place various objects upon it and study the way in which this fluid withdraws into its interior.