I,Science Issue 35 Artwork

For the latest magazine issue ‘Other Worlds’, our Pictures Editor, Natasha Gertler, decided to take a unique approach to sourcing the images. She reached out to the students of Imperial and commissioned artwork to compliment a number of the magazine’s articles in the hope of bringing a new dimension to the topics discussed.

In addition to showcasing the journalistic talents at Imperial, this issue is also a platform for showcasing Imperial’s artistic talents, and we would like to thank all the contributors for their involvement.

Below, in order of magazine appearance, we look at each piece more closely, accompanied by a short description by the artists of their inspirations and creative processes.

If you would like to be involved in contributing artwork for the next issue, please contact Natasha at natasha.gertler16@imperial.ac.uk.

FRONT COVER by Emils Gedrovics – This photo captures my friends collection of carnivorous plants in glass vials double exposed with a stuffed bird underneath a green glass. I started playing around with the double exposure technique roughly two years ago and it quickly became my favourite way of capturing memories. As many people do, I regularly struggle with mindfulness, finding myself in one place, whilst mentally wandering somewhere completely different. I realised that the double exposure technique is able to portray my mind being in two or even more different realities (perhaps worlds) and is often more accurate in representing my memories than a single exposed photo. There is also something comforting in seeing that this clashing of different worlds can result in something so beautiful, where both of the components are complementary to one other.

THE BIRTH OF OTHER WORLDS by Maddy Dench –The woman in the picture is intended to seem abstract or unusual. A familiar shape but in an unfamiliar landscape and carrying a crystal ball. She is a wanderer of a new world but maintains an earthling’s resemblance.

MOVING HOMES by Lizzie Riach – The Vast Expanse (21x23cm), white acrylic, chalk & condensed charcoal on black card. Working with white on black paper makes it much easier to create strongly contrasted and dramatic pieces. The theme was ‘the human colonisation of space’, and I think my illustration conveys the sense of the frightening and supposedly ever-expanding universe, as well as giving subtle references to the big bang and fragility of human life. Personally, this floating astronaut fills me with the fear of being alone and lost in the darkness of Space, like in one of those old-school sci-fi movies.

HUNTING HALLUCINATIONS by Helena Spooner – This painting was about hallucinations, and so I wanted to have a single figure central to the composition with a slightly trippy background, to represent how hallucinations can be quite isolating because they are only happening to you. The mouths and eyes allude to some of the different types of hallucinations people can have, as often they can be either visual or auditory, as well as adding to the slightly surreal nature of the background. I chose to use acrylic for the main figure and the more realistic elements of the background to make them stand out against the rest of the background, which was done in watercolour.

AT THE CROSSROADS OF YOUR MIND by Judit Agui – Colour print. A machine that freezes your dreams in a desired moment in time, just like a photograph freezes the fluctuations of melting ice. A ripple of colours under a polarised light.

CHASING VISIONS by Judit Agui – Georgia on my mind. Acrylic on canvas. Movement, shapes, the intensity of life, smells and flowers. Dreams are a dynamic unpredictable array of emotions that you can taste upon awakening.

UNDERWATER WORLD by Louisa Lim – I wanted to highlight the etherealness that jellyfish have using light and colour. I think this links to the otherworldly quality of being underwater. It’s a world we have difficulty in truly experiencing for ourselves. These creatures which exists so differently from us lend themselves to our imagination and hence can appear completely ethereal. The photo was taken at Bristol Aquarium using my HTC One M8 phone at the time. If only we could spend more afternoons dreaming of jellyfish!

PERILOUS CLIMATES by Kalyani Lodhia – This photo was taken in Ubud, Bali. We woke up at 4am to get to the local market that happens every morning before the tourist stalls open. I really wanted to capture a bird’s eye view of some stalls so I climbed a precarious ladder to get to a balcony of sorts to take this photo. This particular lady told us her fish were caught off the southeastern coast of Bali by small boats. What I noticed was that all of the fish stalls were selling mostly the same species of fish, suggesting they were all locally caught. Most of the sellers were poor and rely on small local boats to catch their fish, not the large trawlers that are most commonly found in the South, an area wealthier due to a larger influx of tourists.

A TIMELESS WORLD by Amy Thomas – Charcoal process – I used charcoal pencils to create gradients and shading to highlight the reindeer features. I added a sun and moon to illustrate the circadian rhythms. Watercolour process – using watercolours I was able to get the more ethereal feel by changing the ratio of water:paint and using different brush strokes. I used colour to represent the day/night cycles.

THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS by Maddy Dench – Mixing familiar trends and technologies such as body modification and touch screen LEDs, this illustrates a possible scenario where the two are combined to augment reality. In this image the incorporation of technologies into the body is more than just aesthetics, it works with the body and is some sort of control centre for the human.