Bethany Shorb: Painting Machines

Opening Sept 13th, 2013. 7-9pm. On view until Oct 20th.

Viewers may be familiar with the seminal physics class demonstration in which square steel plates are sprinkled with salt or sand, an electronic musical tone is applied, and through the resultant exural vibration, a visual representation of the plate's resonant frequency is depicted. These, "Chladni Figures," are named for musician and physicist Ernst Chladni who in 1787, rst ran a violin bow across a brass plate lightly covered in sand and pictorially recorded the waveforms that appeared.

These visual representations of sound are the foundation for Shorb's high-gloss perversion of the ephemeral impermanence that denes traditional sandpainting. In an unlikely crossing of sacred geometry and car culture, rather than brushed away and destroyed after the meditative act or scientic experiment, these granular patterns are instead baked into an impenetrable, industrial polymer on aluminum, kaleidoscopically tessellated and contradictorily blasted with both a diabetic shock of candy colored hot-rod surface nish and cold, Detroit acerbity.

With an adoring nod toward science-fair kitsch, Shorb re-creates classic sonic experiments with a modied sub-woofer, tone generation software, and industrial pigments typically used in the automotive industry. As the input amplitude is increased and a harmonic frequency found, the powdered pigment bounces about on the aluminum plates until settling at nodal points (areas of no movement) and moving away from antinodal points (areas of intense vibration) thereby producing intricate patterns of linear motion and cyclonic rotation which are then immobilized into a single, sonorous visualization. When more plates from the same frequency are tiled together, more of the waveform comes into view, reminiscent of Tibetan

Bethany Shorb, CEO and Principal Designer of Cyberoptix was born in Boston, MA in 1976. She received her MFA in Sculpture from Cranbrook Academy of Art and BFA from Boston University. Her photography and product design work have been widely published in the United States and abroad; her visual art and product work have been exhibited throughout the US and included in numerous private and public collections.

Viewers may be familiar with the seminal physics class demonstration in which square steel plates are sprinkled withsalt or sand, an electronic musical tone is applied, and through the resultant exural vibration, a visual representationof the plate's resonant frequency is depicted. These, "Chladni Figures," are named for musician and physicist ErnstChladni who in 1787, rst ran a violin bow across a brass plate lightly covered in sand and pictorially recorded thewaveforms that appeared.

These visual representations of sound are the foundation for Shorb's high-gloss perversion of the ephemeralimpermanence that denes traditional sandpainting. In an unlikely crossing of sacred geometry and car culture,rather than brushed away and destroyed after the meditative act or scientic experiment, these granular patterns areinstead baked into an impenetrable, industrial polymer on aluminum, kaleidoscopically tessellated andcontradictorily blasted with both a diabetic shock of candy colored hot-rod surface nish and cold, Detroit acerbity.

With an adoring nod toward science-fair kitsch, Shorb re-creates classic sonic experiments with a modiedsub-woofer, tone generation software, and industrial pigments typically used in the automotive industry. As theinput amplitude is increased and a harmonic frequency found, the powdered pigment bounces about on thealuminum plates until settling at nodal points (areas of no movement) and moving away from antinodal points (areasof intense vibration) thereby producing intricate patterns of linear motion and cyclonic rotation which are thenimmobilized into a single, sonorous visualization. When more plates from the same frequency are tiled together, moreof the waveform comes into view, reminiscent of Tibetan

Bethany Shorb, CEO and Principal Designer of Cyberoptix was born in Boston, MA in 1976. She received her MFA inSculpture from Cranbrook Academy of Art and BFA from Boston University. Her photography and product designwork have been widely published in the United States and abroad; her visual art and product work have beenexhibited throughout the US and included in numerous private and public collections.