Implausible Rainbows
The installation attempts to imitate some of nature’s most astonishing wonders: rainbows and other atmospheric optical phenomena, such as halos and solar coronae. Using multiple highly-focus light sources and specialized optics, the transdisciplinary collaboration of artist Lukas Truniger and scientist Bruce Yoder create synthetic rainbows that move and transform slowly in the exhibition space. The piece plays with the perception of the visitors who navigate the room, contemplating each rainbow from different positions. Inspired by the coupled motions of our solar system, it uses periodic rotations of both sound and light to produce an ever evolving environment. Implausible Rainbows raises questions about how we interact with our world and explores the intrinsic human desire to imitate, as well as to exert control over nature. The installation highlights ideas of climate engineering and weather control. While other atmospheric phenomena like clouds are of a highly geostrategic interest, these approaches are here reused for a purely artistic and poetic experience.
Lukas Truniger
Lukas Truniger is a visual artist and electronic musician, working with generative media in the broadest sense. He creates singular experiences challenging the modalities of perception. His work pinpoints at unseen connections of artificial, natural and cultural systems, further blurring their supposed division and can take the form of multimedia installations, speculative infrastructures, and audiovisual performances. He was awarded with the Lumen Price 2024 (London) and his work has been shown internationally since 2016.
Bruce Yoder
Bruce Yoder is a senior research scientist at the ETH Zürich in the field of physical chemistry. He focuses on the spectroscopy of aerosol particles and fundamental studies of light-matter interactions to bring a deeper understanding of our world. Since 2018, he has collaborated on the art project Ethereal Fleeting, a machine for synthetic clouds, with the goal of generating moments of reflection and provoking thoughts through the reproduction of delicate balances found in nature by synthetic means.
Special Credits
Implausible Rainbows has been developed through a research and production residency at LABoral Centro de Arte within the European programme EMAP European Media Art Platform and has received support from Pro Helvetia – Swiss Arts Council, Ernst Göhner Stiftung, Stiftung Anne-Marie Schindler and Cassinelli Vogel Stiftung.