On February 11, 1800, European astronomer William Herschel noticed an anomaly while measuring the temperature of the color spectrum created by sunlight through a glass prism. A thermometer acting as a control, placed just outside the band of color, was a warmer temperature. Herschel had discovered infrared light, a form of light not visible to the human eye. This discovery revealed a doorway into an entire spectrum of electromagnetic light, of which humans can only perceive a small portion through the unaided senses.
Two years of experimentation with the materials of light and water have led to personal discoveries into the limits of perception. I have developed a creative practice in finding new ways to visually communicate these limits. The revelation of these limits provide a liminal space to consider what lays beyond them.
The piece listed in this entry, Circles of Confusion, comes from a broader range of experiments in which I took a basic scientific law, light travels in a straight line, and looked for ways to utilize this law to speak to the poetic.  How does an immutable law speak to our mutable existence?  I have enlisted oppositional forces in attempting to answer this question – natural and manufactured materials, light and shadow, flat and dimensional, analog and digital technology.

About the artist

Erek Nass graduated from the MFA program at Columbus College of Art & Design in May 2015.  During his time in the program, he developed an art practice experimenting with the materials of light and water.
He currently works at Angela Meleca Gallery, and teaches at Columbus College of Art and Design.