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Explore the mystery of black holes at an art exhibition in Jasper this month.
Project Black Hole is a media art installation by Scott Portingale debuting at the Jasper Dark Sky Festival.
Using mathematical models and theories of gravitation as inspiration, Portingdale has created a set of black hole sculptures for the gallery environment.
The sculptures will be brought to life by projected media that was photographed using in-camera cinematic techniques, giving the sculptures a visual dynamic of the light and matter surrounding the event horizon.
鈥淓veryone knows what a black hole is or have heard the word but I hope this brings curiosity,鈥� said Portingale.
鈥淭his is not an educational piece. What we know of black holes, they are completely absurd.鈥�
Portingale is a director and animator living in Edmonton.
His multimedia approach to making films blends in-camera techniques like time-lapse and stop-motion animation into films with themes rooted in the natural world, the scientific pursuit, and the human experience.
His short films have been screened across multiple platforms including international film festivals, art galleries, and installations - and he has picked up awards along the way.
Portingale said his background in experimental filmmaking, coupled with an obsession with science, led him to create this work inspired by one of the greatest examples of natural phenomena in the cosmos, the black hole.
鈥淚 hope the people who see the exhibit carry the mystery with them of a black hole,鈥� said Portingale.
Portingale describes black holes as a cosmic boundary of both physical reality and knowledge. 鈥淭he fact that we discovered these structures through mathematics a century before observing them brought to my attention that mathematics is not only a pursuit of measurement, it is an observational tool,鈥� he said.
Project Black Hole will be displayed at Habitat for the Arts daily from October 18 to October 27.
The artist himself will be there on the shoulders of the exhibit, from October 15 to 20 and 25 to 28.
