Professor’s “˜Alphabet Soup’ spells out the artistic side of science
By Allison Fung
April 7, 2008 11:28 p.m.
Scientist Thomas Mason didn’t think he would end up an artist.
A professor of physics and chemistry and biochemistry at UCLA, Mason has expertise in studying particles rather than paintings.
But “Lithoparticle Dispersions: Colloidal Alphabet Soup,” a product of Mason’s research of particles in viscous liquid, was recently featured in New York’s Museum of Modern Art, or MoMA.
The project was prepared by both Mason, who holds UCLA’s John McTague Career Development Chair, and fellow scientist and graduate student Carlos Hernandez.
In “Alphabet Soup,” microscopic fluorescent particles in the shape of letters of the alphabet are suspended in liquid. The letters are clearly defined, an extraordinary feat considering the extremely small size of the particles. Mason described the letters as “a thousand times smaller than nine-point Times New Roman font.”
The significance of “Alphabet Soup” is notable in the scientific world.
The dispersion of particles in liquid is not a novel idea, but it has progressed to a point that the dispersion could now be designed, Mason said.
Previously, particles in liquid were only in the most basic of shapes, such as spheres. The particles of the letters in “Alphabet Soup,” however, are designed by light, allowing more complex shapes to be formed. They are then lifted completely off the plate on which they were created and put into liquid.
According to an article published in The Journal of Physical Chemistry, the particles “are not limited to simple slab-like shapes and can be used to create complex” designs.
“It’s a statement,” Mason said. “We’re no longer bound by synthetic methods of the past. We can do something much more complicated.”
For example, particles can now be concentrated into square crosses or triangular prisms or, in this case, letters.
The fact that the letters in “Alphabet Soup” were colored by fluorescent dyes is a step forward in both the scientific and artistic worlds. Mason said it shows increased control over the composition of microscopic particles while demonstrating creativity with science.
“I think there is an aesthetic quality in what people do, regardless of their fields,” Mason said. “With art there is a creative aspect to it. Science is much the same.”
Mason said that the “ordered chaos” in “Alphabet Soup” appealed to him.
“There is a presence of order and randomness,” he said. “There is also a strong use of color and shading.”
The museum’s exhibition is called “Design and the Elastic Mind” and features work of unlikely artists such as Mason: designers, engineers and other scientists.
According to the museum’s Web site, the exhibition “focuses on designers’ ability to grasp momentous changes in technology, science and social mores.”
Mason said the title of the exhibition is relevant to the work displayed.
“We’re creating all these new things. … (There is) lots of human design going on. It’s hard for us to stretch our minds to understanding them. Our minds have to be highly elastic,” Mason said.
The display of “Alphabet Soup” at the Museum of Modern Art is the culmination of a project that Mason has been working on since he arrived at UCLA five years ago. He graduated from the University of Maryland with a degree in electrical engineering and continued on to do graduate work in physics at Princeton.
While a graduate student, he created a field called thermal microrheology, a way to look microscopically at the viscosity and elasticity of soft materials, such as liquids, according to a university press release.
Mason said he is delighted at the reception the art world has given his research.
“I never would have expected science to be at MoMA,” Mason said. “It’s a real honor.”
