Dr. Elliot McGucken is a fine art photographer and physicist, and that combination matters.
His ongoing series Spacetime Light Cone Sculptures dx4/dt=ic pulls directly from Einstein’s theory of relativity, specifically the light cone, a geometric model describing the relationship between space, time, and the speed of light.
To make it visible, McGucken flies drone-mounted lights through night skies above remote American landscapes, using long exposure to trace glowing cones and hourglass forms that hang in the darkness like diagrams of the cosmos made physical.
Above the Trona Pinnacles and Alabama Hills, the sculptures look like portals or strange transmissions from somewhere just outside our understanding.
The work holds two things in tension: deep scientific concept and pure visual wonder.
The land does its part too, its scale and silence making the light feel even more precise, more deliberate, more strange.
Similar to the work by Reuben Wu, the drone based light work is otherworldly and inspiring.
Find more of his work at emcgucken.com and on Instagram.
Images © Copyright Dr. Elliot McGucken. Used with artist’s permission.
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