Our collaged poster to inspire guests.
On December 5th, Imperial College held an event to explore low temperatures. Around 1,000 guests came to discover and participate and we created a giant collage inspired by Matisse’s cut-outs.
Temperature is a measure of how much something is jiggling and all jiggling matter creates light: outer space at 3K, you and me at 310K and the Sun’s surface at 6,000K. Some of this light is visible to the human eye and some is invisible. The light spectrum produced by any thing tells us its temperature.
We asked guests to help us create the spectrum of sunlight by cutting light photons out of paper. Some were small low energy photons of infra red light and others were bigger, higher energy ultra violet ones. Some were in the middle making the colourful visible light we see. Everyone cut out a shape that made them think of the Sun.
We loved sharing these ideas with everyone and enjoyed the tremendous curiosity, application and creativity. The finished work is nine square metres and comprises almost 500 collaged pieces.
We are delighted.
Thank you to the Imperial College Outreach Team who organised a brilliant event and our team - Thom, Luke and Kyle from the Centre for Cold Matter. In their labs they create conditions colder than outer space to observe Nature more closely.
Below are pictures from the event and some snapshots of the finished work. Scroll to the bottom to see the two page handout.
Find out about Imperial College Lates here.
Two page handout:
