Light Doesn't Bend That Way

I’ve been fascinated with light for as long as I can remember. Last year I started playing with the equations relating spectral power distributions to human cone cell activations. By setting simple scenes with refracting and emitting bodies, these images were captured by emulating long-exposure photography using computation (implemented in vanilla JavaScript and GLSL).

These scenes intentionally distort the dispersion equations governing how light transmits through different media with the intent of exploring the surreal, in a simultaneously physically grounded, yet physically impossible way.