HYDROGENY

EVELINA DOMNITCH, DMITRY GELFAND

Nature’s simplest atom and mother of all matter, hydrogen, feeds the stars as well as interlaces the molecules of their biological descendants - to whom it ultimately whispers the secrets of quantum reality. Emanating from an array of electrodes at the bottom of a water-filled chamber, strings and strata of hydrogen bubbles slowly rise to the surface. A white laser sheet illuminates the bubble trajectories as it breaks up into its constituent spectrum of colours. Some researchers presume that these nanobubbles of dissolved gas are the carriers of water’s magnetic ‘memory’, enabling electromagnetic fields to saturate its innards for hours and even days after their initial appearance. In the seas and oceans, the lingering presence of electromagnetic fields photonically imparted by sunlight triggers the electrolysis responsible for most of Earth’s hydrogen. An essential form of photosynthesis, solar water splitting is the cleanest and most efficient means imaginable for generating and storing energy. Hydrogeny continues Evelina and Dmitry’s work in constructing art installations that offer ever-transforming phenomena for the viewer’s observation. ‘The immediacy of this experience’, write the artists, ‘allows the observer to transcend the illusory distinction between scientific discovery and perceptual expansion’.