elinor portnoy: polar light

polar light 1 by elinor portnoy all images courtesy elinor portnoy

elinor portnoy, a recently graduate from holon institute of technology in israel has sent in images of her project ‘polar lights’.

when conducting her research she wanted to explore aspects of light and nature. learning about light phenomenon and how it can be obtained at home, she chose to focus on light polarization. elinor created three lighting fixtures that demonstrate the hidden optical principle of light polarization. by placing transparent plastic materials between two sheets of polarizers against a light source, the human eye can then see bold colors without using any pigments, all due to the optical effect. each one of the lighting fixtures uses a different plastic material and a different way to juxtapose the polarizing sheets, in order to create a various color effects.

light fixture no.1 the colors are achieved using a plain crumpled cellophane wrapping sheet

light fixture no. 2  here, the coloration results from using an adhesive layer of polypropylene

light fixture no. 3 the colors emitted are given by layering plain duct tape in random patterns