Premiere new art installation 'Dark Distortions'

On 12 March 2020 the new installation ‘Dark Distortions’ premiered at Science Gallery Dublin.

Created in collaboration with Woven Studio, European Space Agency (ESA) and Leiden University in the Netherlands, the installation will be on display from 13 March.

The work – ‘Dark Distortions’ – was inspired by Euclid, a forthcoming ESA mission to study the mysterious nature of dark matter and dark energy, which is due to launch in mid-2022.

Dark matter is thought to account for 85% of the matter in the universe. Visible stuff within galaxies – such as stars and planets and dust – has insufficient gravitational pull to prevent galaxies from disintegrating as they rotate.

But galaxies don’t fly apart in this way, so astrophysicists proposed that they must contain “dark” matter that has sufficient mass to keep galaxies intact – but which has never been seen directly.

Thijs Biersteker’s art installation consists of a constellation of moving lenses, which bend light just as large concentrations of dark matter act as gravitational lenses. The constellation is surrounded by layers of lenses on lenses, which represent the way in which dark matter is thought to accumulate in a fractal-like pattern.

‘Dark Distortions’ forms part of an exhibition called INVISIBLE at the Science Gallery Dublin that combines art, physics and philosophy. The gallery is currently closed to visitors due to public health concerns.