dustin

THE MOIREÉ SOIRÉE
Dustin Atlas 

Choreography of interplay:
Lines move, mingle, and sway;
Dancing the night away.
Lightly—but not ballet
Patterns play and portray,
Contrasting regions overlay,
Spaces emerge and splay,
As edge detectors give way
To perception on full display.
This marks the moiré soirée.

This project explores the constructive role of gathering lines and edges in space. Typically, when light enters the eye, the brain processes this information with edge detectors. These dedicated cells are excited by neighboring zones of unequal brightness. When activated, they create contours to process the observed objects and/or environments. However, when corresponding, repetitive patterns of lines are superimposed on one another, they produce a shimmering, visual effect known as the moiré effect. I have used this interaction as an artistic medium for exploration to create highly structured spatial experiences from nothing more than lines, light, and movement.