Ambient Magnetic Dipoles: Amplified Mapping of Dipole Moments Through Magnetoresistance Sensors, Analog Differentiation Techniques and Ferromagnetic Fluids.

Ferromagnetic fluid, magnetoresistance sensors, 60 gallon liquid tank, electromagnets, wires, instrumentation amplifiers, operational amplifiers, solid state relays, resistors, capacitors, 555 oscillators, tripods, chalkboard, laboratory notebook, rectifier diodes, PC boards, multimeters, Tenma 30V current supplies, cinder blocks, and other laboratory equipment

dimensions variable

at the Carpenter Center for Visual Arts at Harvard University

2008

Brief Description

Both physics and the visual arts can be said to generate ways of looking at the universe. Traditional painting, photography, and video use the physical world, as understood and represented through visible light (400-750 nm electromagnetic radiation) as a basis for art-creation. This visual investigation is then mapped onto visible physical objects, such as oil on canvas, film, or silver gelatin print, through the operation of the painter or camera. At the same time physics theories and experiments allows us to understand the fundamental, mostly invisible, structures that govern the world we live in. Just as light permeates our world, so do magnetic fields as created by our planet, by our technology, and even by our bodies. This project, Ambient Magnetic Dipoles, one part of Liu's three-part undergraduate dissertation, endeavors to shift the focus of the physical world seen through visible light to the unseen physical world of magnetic fields.

A sensor array consisting of circuits with magnetoresistance sensors at its core are mounted on a matrix of tripods. These sensors pick up slight fluctuations in the magnetic field and send the signal to a central circuit fixed on top of a giant tank filled with a suspension of saline solution and ferromagnetic fluid.

This circuit system on top of the tank calculates the most effective way to display the space’s magnetic field and controls a matrix of electromagnets in the tank that approximates the magnetic field in the space of the sensor array at any given time.  Magnetic fields are invisible, however, the existence of the ferromagnetic fluid (a liquid that is extremely sensitive to magnetic fields) allows to viewer to see the magnetic field inside the tank. 

Viewers are encouraged to take any magnetic objects such as cell phones, music players, and move them around the sensors. By influencing the magnetic field in the sensor grid, the viewer can change the composition of the ferrofluid inside the tank.

Finally, every activity, measurement, and thought of the project has been documented since the start in a standard laboratory notebook in the same fashion as one would document a physics experiment.  This notebook is presented to the viewer as well.

Please download the full pdf  (5.1 mb) of the undergraduate dissertation that provides a full exposition and discussion of this piece.