The Electrochemical Glass January 2006

The Electrochemical Glass Strange Attractor Journal 3 R.D. Brown, January 2006 The Electrochemical Glass began on October 11th 1997 after an accidental discovery involving an experimental lamp constructed from moss, copper and a battery powered fluorescent light. I watered the moss with fertiliser, only to discover that where the aluminium heat sink of the lamp driver met the copper bowl, a strong chemical reaction occurred, producing a marvellous bright blue copper compound contrasting through the white corroding aluminium. My basic understanding of chemistry suggested that the reaction might be one involving copper and aluminium hydroxides. I also discovered, perhaps unsurprisingly, through attaching a meter to the metals that a small electric current was being generated. Further experiments with varying metals, liquids and compounds led to a simple design using three discs of metal, copper, aluminium and iron, layered over cotton wool and sandwiched between sealed sheets of glass. A glass stopper allows the water and fertilising liquid to be added, and also allows any gasses to escape during the reactions. The Glass you see is now nine years old and at various times it decides to grow, the most spectacular elements being the unforeseen shoots of iron, driven by electrical activities between the metals. It works as primitive battery, evolving and changing over time, producing complex electrochemical reactions between the dissimilar metals. Copper plates the iron producing golden sheens, whilst the aluminium and copper compounds into startling blue colours reminiscent of lapis lazuli. An artwork that visibly changes over time, constantly reflecting the nature of process back to the viewer, has the effect of bringing into awareness the invisible changes that are occurring within and without. The glass can be seen as a reflective object for contemplating time, process and complexity contrasting memories of the object with that of past experiences - evoking ideas of transformation associated with alchemy and hyper-dimensions. Through sensory and remembered experiences of change we might be able to observe higher dimensions of process and temporal form. An understanding of space-time appears not to be so acute in our visual domain as it is the aural. We seem to see external change in living creatures as a series of snapshots, though we are good at perceiving smaller windows of time as degrees of motion. In contrast the means by which a seed grows into a plant over time appears almost magical. The ability to deeply appreciate and conceive of time based phenomena suggests hyper dimensional cognition, an ability demonstrated visually by many of the artists written about in Linda Dalrymple Hendersons wonderful book, The Fourth Dimension, Non Euclidean Space and Modern Art.

Computers have been used to simulate higher dimensions, with visualisation such as a Hypercube made famous by Thomas Banchoff in the 1970s. Present day computers simulate cell growth, viral activities, neurons and and nano technologies. There are interesting contrasts and similarities between digital emergence and complexity and those present in the liquid world of the Electrochemical Glass. Both worlds have bounded frameworks that embody limitless processes, producing selforganisation, order, chaos and un-predictability. The Glass is comprised of three base metals and demonstrates how emergent complexity can evolve from the interaction of simple elements. The three discs are arranged in a geometric triangle so as to be equidistant from each other. The resultant electrochemical activity is highly interactive, generating complex physical changes which are driven by electrical activity from the dissimilar metals. Energy ebbs and flows as metals transmute and cybernetically self effect through changing their chemical environment. There is a complex recursive and dynamic interaction of ions, atoms, minerals and electrical fields. Materials transmute and flow giving rise to a growing and emergent form of energy and time. There are interactions between millions of atoms, ions, chemical compounds, and interactive flows of energy and matter. To describe the system with sufficient mathematic accuracy in order to simulate the process digitally may not be currently possible. Real Analogues of dynamic processes with complex electrochemical interactions may thus have capabilities and properties beyond that of the digital computer. Why simulate when there are riches to be had through analogue means? By chance on the internet I recently discovered the webpage Peculiar Sounds from Aluminum, demonstrating how rich complexity can be found from the interaction of copper and aluminium. A copper wire touches a drop of salt water resting on a piece of aluminium, connected to an amplifier the simple circuit produces the most amazingly rich and complex soundscapes that sound as if they are being generated by a complex bank of synthesisers [1] Alternative representations of time based processes using non-digital media are not new, before we simulated neurons on computers, in the 19202 R.S. Lillie created artificial neurons using iron wires in nitric acid which exhibited properties very similar to real neuron fibres. [2] In the 1950s the cybernetician Gordon Pask, invented what has become named Pasks Ear. This was an experiment using growing metals as an electronic device that could be trained to respond to a sound. It represents an alternative paradigm to the digital world of fixed circuits that are either on or off in this electrochemical world, there are potential gradients, analogue resistances and a physical manifestation of circuit. How might a sound effect the growing of a metal circuit? Rumour has it that the circuit actually resonates and vibrates to the trained sound it later recognises.

Pasks notes are few and far between, but there are researchers who are trying to recreate and understand his work, including Peter Cariani who documented Pasks Ear in 1993 [2]. A recent event in Brighton, Finding Fluid Form [3] was attended by Peter Cariani and a number of other admirers of Pask, and from the many discussions at this event there are indications that analogue electrochemistry might be making a comeback. In the South of England Jon Bird and Andy Webster are recreating Pasks Ear [4]. Whilst the American artist Bill Seaman suggests electrochemical computing as a new way forwards [5]. As Research Artist in Residence at Edinburgh Informatics, I will be continuing investigations into the electrochemical worlds of emergent growth and form. I plan to create a series of experimental interactive electrochemical glass objects inspired by Gordon Pask to be situated within the digital culture of informatics as provocative interventions of an alternative paradigm to the digital, demonstrating the true complexity of the real [6].

Web References 1 http://home.earthlink.net/~lenyr/alsounds.htm 2 http://homepage.mac.com/cariani/CarianiWebsite/PaskPaper.html 3 http://www.brighton.ac.uk/architecture/findingfluidform/ 4 http://www.andywebster.info/machinista_submission.html 5 http://digitalmedia.risd.edu/billseaman/textsPF_electochemical.php 6 http://artsinformatica.blogspot.com/