Fabrication Methods for Polarized Light Collages

Abstract

In this thesis, we discuss the best methods of fabricating polarized art collages, inspired by the artwork of Austine Wood-Comarow that creates brightly colored images from cellophane, a colorless birefringent material, placed in between two polarizers. Her artwork appears alive as the colors morph between images seamlessly and invites viewers to interact with it to explore the many images hidden within. To recreate the same color and image shifting result with a more streamlined process, we created a visualization tool and tested various laser cutting settings and fabrication processes. The visualization tool takes in two vector image inputs and allows the user to play around with the color and image shifting by mimicking the rotation of the polarizers or birefringent material. The optimal fabrication process of incrementally layering cellophane sheets with water as a temporary adhesive produces quality polarized light mosaics that reliably demonstrate the image morphing behavior.