Image credit: Video still from “Path. 13, Quaver Cipher” (2023)
Born in Indonesia and living/working in Singapore, Boedi Widjaja has been having “conversations with” the cosmic ray muon and muography as part of his “Path.” series, a group of works that combines themes of exploration and homeland with the cosmic and invisible. Here, he describes some of the works from this series including: “Path. 11, Blindness” (Commissioned by the Exactly Foundation), “Path. 12, River Origin 浪淘沙” (Commissioned by BIO:ART SEA:T [Southeast Asia Taiwan] curated by Tang Fu Kuen and partly supported by the National Arts Council [Singapore] Creation Grant and Exactly Foundation), and “Path. 13, Quaver Cipher” (Supported by the National Arts Council Creation Grant and screened at Helwaser Gallery, New York, NY) as well as his thoughts on this field of study, his creation process and upcoming works.
When did you first learn about the cosmic ray muon and muography? What inspired you to incorporate it as a subject in your “Path” series? You also contacted Hiroyuki Tanaka to discuss muography and cosmic ray muons. How was that interaction?
I learnt of the existence of muon particles through an online article that mentioned the use of muography in archaeological imaging, at the cusp of the global pandemic. Piqued by curiosity, I went to read more about muons and was struck by how different they are—the unimaginable distance that cosmic rays cross to reach earth and the strange dilated time that muons occupy. On top of that, I was also drawn by how close they come, the fact that muons penetrate matter and my body every second. The extreme otherness of muons and its radical proximity to me led me to wonder—between a muon and I, what happens when our respective otherness touch? How do we perceive each other in the small space that we share? These thoughts resonated a lot with the question that I am exploring in my art and I decided to explore muons through my “Path.” series, a body of work that speaks to migratory notions of belonging, physical movement and isolation.
As I was scrolling through the internet for information about muography, I kept coming across Prof. Tanaka’s name. His creativity and knowledge of the field is astounding! Through Muographix’s website, I learnt of his interest in visual art and sent him an email to get in touch. I didn’t know what to expect at first as Prof. Tanaka must be a busy man. Therefore, I was pleasantly surprised when he replied quickly. We went on to chat about my artistic exploration into muons and in the process, he kindly agreed to come on board as a scientist consultant!
Could you describe the “Blindness” project and the process you went through developing your own technique to “blindfold” the CMOS device in a digital smartphone camera for visualizing the presence and movement of invisible cosmic ray muons?
The project “Blindness” asks questions about the flattening of reality into screen-based images. Singapore’s drive towards becoming a “smart nation” projects a future that is framed by machine vision. In a digital, hyper ocular-centric world, the camera becomes the human’s primary sensing organ—from autonomous cars, surveillance to AI—through which reality is perceived and virtualised into frictionless data. As a human being with a corporeal body, I wanted to see if I could recover some friction—a trace of tactility and spatial movement from the photographic process. The natural phenomenon of muons materially crashing into the CMOS sensors of our devices helped me to “hack” the ocular logic of the camera. CMOS image sensors detect visible light as well as ionising radiation photons such as muons. To isolate the muon traces, I blindfolded a CMOS device to block off light—turning it momentarily into a tactile sensing instrument—and applied a code to visualise the muon signals on the sensor, which bore traces of their trajectories and intensities. The signals were then transformed through a photographic technique that I developed—a hand manipulation of an inverted camera lens—to produce a series of muographic marks that bore both traces of my hand’s micro movements and the vast cosmic space.
An important component of the “River Origin 浪淘沙” and “Quaver Cipher” projects is poetry, by 2nd century poet Zhang Qian and 21st century Tse Hao Guang respectively. What motivated you to choose these specific poets and words to highlight ideas and meaning in your projects?
I was fascinated by a story which was mentioned in the Tang poem 浪淘沙 (Waves Dredging Sand), that told of the mysterious crossing from the Yellow Riverhead waters to the Milky Way, by the Han Dynasty explorer Zhang Qian in his journey to the ancient Silk Road. The beginning of a river that ends with a myth, mirrors how I feel towards my ancestral beginnings—a distant place that I feel connected through language, inherited familial stories and folklore. The poem was written by Liu Yuxi, someone in exile who was pining for return. I couldn’t help but notice a pattern of movement and space across all the agents—muon, river, explorer, poet and artist. I had collaborated a number of times with Tse, being an admirer of his playful, sophisticated, materially conscious and process driven poetics. For “Quaver Cipher”, Tse devised a way of hacking into AI transcription algorithms to produce unpredictable textual outcomes, resulting in the mistranslations that happen in the film, which points to the gulf between a human and muon.
Could you describe the cosmic ray muon sensor device, made of double geiger-counters and an open-source algorithm, that you created and which is featured in the “River Origin 浪淘沙” and “Quaver Cipher” projects? What was your experience like during the process of designing and using this device?
I designed and built the muon tracker by adapting from an open-source code, and housing a double-geiger counter and electronics inside a 3D printed shell. When a muon hits the tracker, the particle triggers light and sound—a Morse Code recitation of a verse in the Tang Dynasty poem 浪淘沙(Waves Dredging Sand). The choice of using a double-geiger counter was informed by aesthetic and practical considerations. For the performance work, I wanted to show that my encounter with muons took place in the physical world hence it was important to somehow demonstrate that material—albeit invisible—reality. The front end of digital technology is becoming immaterial (and virtual) even as its back end grows physically big. Our handheld devices, enabled by the cloud that is running on hectares of data centres is an example. Therefore, I didn’t think that a particle detector with a digital interface was suitable. I wanted more friction in a material sense. The double-geigers, with their exposed gas tubes and circuitry, acted as a physical medium through which muons and I interacted. I considered using a plastic scintillator but due to practicalities, went on with the double-geigers. When I held the tracker close to my body, sensing its weight, and as it translated the invisible muons into perceivable light and sound, I felt a direct and palpable connection with the cosmos.
The themes of language, codes, boundaries, and bridges/rivers seem to be present throughout your “Path” series. How did the cosmic ray muon relate to these themes? What was the nature of the “conversations” you had with the cosmic ray muons?
The sense of otherness that the muon and I perceive in each other, as we occupy the same physical space in close proximity, forms the premise for our repeated attempts at communication in the film. Resonating with Zhang Qian’s bewilderment as he incidentally walked the Milky Way, I ask the muons where I am and where I should go. The muon “replies” in cryptic messages, an encoded form that obfuscates whatever intentions it has. Translations and mistranslations recur in this interdimensional exchange between a human and a cosmic muon.
What intrigues you the most about muography and cosmic ray muons? Do you have plans to continue to explore this subject in future projects?
The paradox of closeness and separation. How far cosmic rays traverse to come to earth and the close interaction between muons with our bodies. The tension between distance and proximity continues on in muography; it is a way to “see”, not ocularly from afar but through the physical contact between materials. I am currently working on two new projects. The first is a new interdisciplinary project that consists of a multimedia installation that activates through real-time muon tracking, with augmented reality (AR) elements integrated with the physical installation. The second is a hybrid genre film that draws on new findings on how our DNA is hit by muons, which leads to genetic breakages and mutations.