The Future of Light Art: Ortwin Hess | Active Nanophotonics and Metamaterials with Quantum Gain on the Nanoscale

Light is a messenger from the universe. The arts are the messengers of light.  

Everything we know, we know from light – that is the claim by astrophysics at least. One thing is clear: From quantum optics (»The Angular Momentum of Light«) to chronobiology, from nano-optics to photonics, a new frontier of scientific research on the nature of light is emerging. These options, which offer us new theories and practices of light, from biophysical chemistry to the lithosphere, also have an impact on artistic possibilities. 

For this reason, renowned experts and institutions from the sciences and arts of light met at the symposium „The Future of Light Art“ at the ZKM | Karlsruhe from February 8 - 9th, 2018, to open up the new horizon of the light spectrum in an exchange of experiences.

Prof. Ortwin Hess holds the Leverhulme Chair in Metamaterials at Imperial College London. He has been awarded the 2016 Royal Society Rumford Medal for pioneering active nanoplasmonics and optical metamaterials with quantum gain.

Video documentary:

ZKM | Videostudio

Camera: Frenz Jordt
Live-Editing: Moritz Büchner
Editing: Andy Koch