Untitled (Experiment 597)

Description

Since the 19th century, photography has been employed to document scientific phenomena otherwise invisible to the human eye: X-ray photographs revealed bones under flesh, microphotography showed blood cells or the anatomy of insects, and telescopic photography explored the surface of the moon. In more recent years, technological advancements have enabled a range of sophisticated imaging techniques that allow a visual depiction of scientific interactions. This image is an example of a “bubble chamber” particle trace at Fermilab, in which colliding subatomic particles leave a trail in a chamber filled with liquid hydrogen. Scientific evidence of particle composition and behavior can create, for a lay observer, the appearance of an appealing abstraction.

Untitled (Experiment 597)

Anonymous Fermilab Photographer

1980s

Accession Number

150491

Medium

Gelatin silver print

Dimensions

Image: 16.3 × 22.5 cm (6 7/16 × 8 7/8 in.); Paper: 22.2 × 25.2 cm (8 3/4 × 9 15/16 in.)

Classification

gelatin silver (developing-out-paper) pr

Museum

The Art Institute of Chicago

Chicago, United States

Credit Line

Acquired through cooperation with Fermilab