Fluids whirl, vapors spin and water shatters in “Chaosmosis: Assigning Rhythm to the Turbulent,” an exhibition that offers both scientific insights and arresting imagery. The pieces were inspired by the study of fluid dynamics, but also by the frenzied skies in canvases by British proto-impressionist painter J.M.W. Turner. While many of the works in the National Academy of Sciences show are videos, there are also photographs and 3D-printed objects.
The splintered water is documented in a set of bluish laser prints that demonstrate the results when droplets hit silicon wafers ultra-cooled by liquid nitrogen. The beads of water flatten into fried-egg shapes and crack like window glass, yielding patterns that are chaotic yet lovely.