The printmaking workshop was organized as part of the REAL art program. Through the workshop, Laila aimed to gain a multifaceted insight into astrophysics while facilitating a meeting between several different fields of study.
The workshop took participants into the world of linocut, where lines were carved into soft linoleum. After covering the carved surfaces with printing ink, the lines appeared white. It was like cutting light in the dark...something the sun does every day
- Participants were tasked with creating an image directly tied to their research. For those of us who don't work directly with observations, like myself, it became an additional creative challenge. I decided to draw inspiration from the historical technique of the 'Flammarion engraving' and attempted to portray how the 'real' sunlight is digitalized before it reaches us. The images we receive have been processed by computers, so we never actually touch the actual images, only their digital representation - sequences of 0s and 1s in binary code," explains Mikolaj Szydlarski, one of the participants on this day.
REAL art: Interaction between art and research
Mats Ola Sand, a PhD candidate at RoCS, is responsible for the collaboration with the artist Laila Kongevold. Kongevold received the first REAL art grant last year for the art project 'The Sun within the Sun' at the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences.
- Our research theme is to understand the Sun, with a focus on the physics and dynamics of the solar atmosphere. We use both observations and simulations of the Sun in our research. Both aspects are visually beautiful and lend themselves well to visual art," says Mats-Ola.
The collaboration began in the fall of 2023 and has led to new perspectives, mutual interest, insights, and understanding among the staff at RoCS and the artist.
About the instructors
Laila Kongevold is a visual artist who works within a wide range of techniques and expressions, including installation art, photography, and printmaking. She is highly engaged in public art projects and has also co-edited the interdisciplinary art book 'Verdens navle' (The Navel of the World) with Henrik Svensen among others. Henrik H. Svensen is a professor of geology at the University of Oslo and has published several popular science books. He is also an active printmaker and part of the project group for REAL art.
