Neil Calder (COM) stands next to the SLAC drift chamber, talking with a guest at the exhibit opening (Photo by Elizabeth Clements, Fermilab)

By Neil Calder

The most popular exhibit at the opening of the Summer Exhibition at New York’s P.S.1, one of the world’s most prestigious contemporary art centers, was a surprise. Not a sculpture nor a video installation, but a cloud chamber from SLAC.

The exhibition ‘Signatures of the Invisible’ opened on June 29, presenting the work of leading European and American contemporary artists as they respond to new concepts of reality generated by particle physics research. The exhibition will tour the U.S., with stops planned in Chicago and the Bay Area.

Five thousand visitors who came on the opening day were fascinated by the equipment on display—a drift chamber, a klystron, klystron collectors, an element from the D0 detector, a cosmic ray counter and films of SLAC and Fermilab. But the star of the show was the cloud chamber, perfectly mounted in a dark room. The "wows!" "oohs!" and "aaahs!" from the crowd showed their fascination of the trails left by cosmic rays passing through the chamber.

Congratulations to Chip Dalby from Scientific Arts. The exhibition curator was so impressed by a short film that Chip had prepared that it was mounted as one of the art works.

Thanks to Mo Olson (EFD), Chris Pearson (KM), Joseph Perl (SCS), Chip Dalby (TIS), Norman Graf (SLD), Joni White (COM) and Terry Anderson (TIS) for their outstanding contributions.