Kim Pimmel, about whom I posted last year just before Tron Legacy disappointed the hell out of everyone, alerted me yesterday to another short-film-slash-science-demo he’s made. This one’s called Compressed 02, and really must be seen to be understood.
The piece is simple in scientific structure: he’s creating a field of bubbles, then introducing dyes and ferrofluids (basically: microscopic particles in a solution, which can become magnetized when a magnet’s around) which are drawn through the bubble structures’ narrow tubes. He’s scored and edited all that into a lovely abstract narrative.
The thing I like about Kim’s work is that he creates fairly straightforward scientific demonstrations, but then gives the audience a totally different way of exploring them by putting them into a narrative context. It gives the entire exercise a bit of a DIY patina, allowing the viewer to think, “I see how this was made; I bet I could do it,” therefore engaging their minds (regardless of whether they actually could do it or not; the best performances make it look effortless). It’s like science made social and then artful.
#abstract