A new lens on infinity
Exhibition unites artists and scientists, showcasing works where technology and art converge to spark creativity, Li Yingxue reports.
In the dim glow of Beijing's Songzhuang Art Center, a "pupil of light" slowly forms — 12 spotlights flare to life in sequence, their beams bending through a circle of crystal lenses until an eye gazes back at the viewer.
The installation, Flying Starry Eyes, is the latest creation of artist Li Bo. At its core is a cutting-edge caustics algorithm, usually confined to the realm of optical engineering. Li has transformed it into a vessel for memory.
Each lens is etched with microscopic convexities that redirect light, projecting a fleeting gaze that seems to appear, vanish, and reappear with time.
For Li, that gaze is not abstract: it carries the weight of her father's final look before his passing, a moment that could not be held but has been refracted into permanence.
"Those glances, impossible to grasp yet etched deep within me, are like these crystal-like lenses — hidden in time, almost imperceptible, until a beam of light calls them forth," she says.
