1.1

“Magic of Light” Art Poster Collection

Our first and one of the most ambitious projects was to create a poster collection “Magic of Light” (Fig. 1.) designed by students from media and design programs to highlight the IYL 2015. In this interdisciplinary project, we proposed for guidance the IYL 2015 milestones and encouraged our students to contribute their own ideas as well.

2015 Milestone Anniversaries in Light Science

Several major anniversaries in 2015 have significantly influenced the attractiveness of IYL 2015 [1]. These were:

Figure 1, shows a selection of the best works, which were combined on a postcard used for promotional purposes in the run-up to the IYL2015. In a larger poster format, this selection was also exhibited to promote the IYL 2015 at the following venues:

The posters can continue to be used to reference the event also in the future, thanks to their enormous, worldwide impact factor. By mid-2016, we had received a total of ca. 2600 user requests and counted more than 10,000 poster downloads from around the world. A number that far exceeded our expectations. From our point of view, it is also notable that until the beginning of 2014, when googling for “International Year of Light”, the Magic of Light website appeared as the first search result.

Another created poster series “No football, Just photonics” (Fig. 3.) could round up the success. The core idea of the series was to transfer optical components and devices:

Figure 3.

Artwork poster: “No football, Just photonics”. © offenburg-university.de Featured in the poster series “No football, Just photonics” are: optical comb generator, Raman scattering, photo coupler, optical ring resonator, optical fiber, optical amplifier, Mach-Zehnder coupler, erbium-doped fiber amplifiers

all working their magic on a soccer field (Fig. 3) [3].

1.2

Live broadcasts of astronomical events highlighting the IYL and the IDL

During the IYL 2015, in the early morning hours of September 28^th, a total lunar eclipse occurred, presenting an excellent opportunity to highlight the IYL 2015 at Offenburg University with a live broadcasting event. Starting just after midnight, we reported from astronomical observatories around the world, conducted interviews with scientists and covered a range of other astronomical topics.

Fig. 4:

Live broadcasts poster © Luis Arellano / Offenburg University

The live broadcast was viewed by over 70,000 viewers from 143 different countries, totaling more than half a million viewer minutes during four hours of broadcasting.

We have reported about our experiences in previous papers, “Astronomical phenomena: Events with high impact factor in teaching Optics and Photonics” [4] and “Astronomical events and how to photograph them” [5].

Furthermore, the iBook “Moonbook” prepared by our students can be downloaded for free [6].

With the experience from the previous live broadcasts, we have decided to broadcast the longest total lunar eclipse of the 21^st century on July 27^th, 2018. This time we have decided not to use a studio and to take advantage of the landscape of the highest peak in the Black Forest, the Feldberg. In addition, we streamed this live broadcast in 4K.

Figure 5.

Total lunar eclipse – July 27^th, 2018, from Feldberg in the Black Forest

Our expectations were far exceeded when we noticed that our broadcast was viewed by almost half a million viewers. At the second event, we could still refer to the IDL and emphasize the importance of optics and photonics in society, science, technology and art, even though the lunar eclipse did not coincide with the IDL day.

1.3

A Century of General Relativity Theory

One of the major milestones of the IYL 2015 was the centennial of Albert Einstein’s General Relativity Theory, in which he showed how light is at the center of every structure of space and time.

Fig. 6:

Event poster of the meeting “A Century of General Relativity Theory” © Luis Arellano / Offenburg University

On November 25^th, 1915 Einstein revolutionized the field of physics with the publication of his General Relativity Theory. In recognition of this extraordinary achievement, Offenburg hosted a lecture evening on the exact same day, 100 years later. As a highlight of the IYL 2015, the event was well publicized through the local press and attracted a wide audience. Nevertheless, the number of about 450 participants far exceeded our expectations.

As invited speaker, we were very happy to welcome the Director of the German Mathematical Institute from Oberwolfach, Professor Stephan Klaus. This allowed us to draw special attention to “The Race for the General Relativity Theory” between Einstein and David Hilbert. The two other lectures of the evening were:

The speakers managed to not only make the significance of the General Relativity Theory tangible to a broad audience, but also explain its controversial nature and the competition surrounding it at the time of its development.

A central aspect were the predictions postulated with the General Relativity Theory – only when one of them was actually proven, through the total solar eclipse of 1919, did Einstein become the celebrated ‘pop star of science’ as which we know him today. The seven major predictions Einstein had made regarded the following: [7]

The lectures were accompanied by many illustrative experiments, including an experiment demonstrating the principle of measuring gravitational waves – the only prediction of Einstein’s not yet proven by then, on November 25^th, 2015. In retrospect, we have been especially happy about this part of the evening, as on February 11^th, 2016 the LIGO Observatories announced their detection of gravitational waves: They were measured during a collision of two black holes having masses of around 29 and 36 sun masses, which circled around each other and then merged into one black hole of 62 sun masses. In accordance with Einstein’s famous equation, E = mc², the resulting difference of three sun masses was energy emitted in gravitational waves. Thanks to the light, and to laser, we can still measure this fusion today, 1.3 billion years after the fact. With his General Relativity Theory, Einstein had predicted such measurements 100 years earlier. [8]

Other significant achievements of Einstein’s were cited in the lectures as well. Even without the theory of relativity, science historians consider Einstein as one of the most important physicists. To him we also owe the photoelectric cell, laser, the development of plastics, the fields of astrophysics and nuclear physics. Without General Relativity Theory we would not have sharp images on TV and computer screens and no precise GPS navigation tools. In short, without Einstein we would almost certainly not have the living standard we enjoy today.

Einstein was the only scientist ever to receive a ticker-tape parade in New York City, on April 2^nd, 1921 [9]. Another aspect highlighted during the lecture program was Einstein’s achievements as a human being, a pacifist and human-rights activist. To give only a few examples, he was one of the few scientists opposing the First World War; he was the youngest member admitted, on June 7^th 1924, to the order of merit “Pour le Mérite”, but renounced his membership in 1933 [11]; he was offered the presidency of Israel in 1952 [11]; he was co-author of the 1955 Russell-Einstein Manifesto [10] highlighting the dangers posed by nuclear weapons and calling for peaceful resolutions to international conflict, which is widely regarded as the beginning of the peace movement.

2.1

Live Interactive Twitter Wall

Another successfully realized project was an interactive Twitter wall (Fig. 9, Fig. 10). This allowed live visualization of all tweets with the hashtag #IYL2015, or #IDL2018 respectively on a globe. Furthermore, the tweet senders had the opportunity to follow their tweets live online on the Twitter Wall. The Twitter wall was performed at several main events:

Figure 9:

Twitter Wall

Fig. 10.

Twitter Wall operating at World of Photonics in Munich

So, for example the visualization was projected in the foyer of the UNESCO headquarters building during the opening ceremony of the IYL 2015, but also allowed for worldwide interaction, meaning that people who were not present at the opening ceremonies could still participate by visiting the website.

2.2

“A Maze: Ingenious Pipes” An Interactive Projection with Photo Shooting

“A Maze: Ingenious Pipes” was an interactive projection where attendees could stage themselves and print out a Polaroid photo, resulting in some amazing shots through the projection of maze-like pipeline on their face.

This interactive project is involving projection and photography simultaneously. In a dark room, a pattern is projected onto the participants face. The pattern is randomly generated by a computer and has an evolving shape similar to dendritic growth or maze-like pipeline. The participants are given a self-timer and see themselves in a control monitor. Depending on the pattern the participant can trigger the timer and have the image printed out as a Polaroid photograph

This project engaged a group of students, who had to bring in their combined knowledge of computer science, electrical engineering, design and photography to master the installation. Meanwhile we have added an extension such that the resulting image is sent to the participant’s mobile phone and can be viewed in 3D using a cardboard. A sample of this type of result can be seen in Figure 11. As can be seen in this example, this installation was also presented at the ETOP in Quebec.

Fig. 11.

Example of a stereoscopic image that was sent to the participant’s mobile phone.

2.3

Helium Neon LASER – Plasma LASER Exhibition

To underline the special meaning of the day May 16^th, the day when the first laser operated (1960) [13], we set up a HeNe laser at the International Day of Light Inaugural Ceremony. It was not a ruby laser like Theodore Maiman’s (Fig. 8) [14], but a HeNe plasma laser that was manufactured in the late 1960s. By this we wanted to focus the attention of the audience to the importance of the date and finally it is also a big highlight to operate an old HeNe plasma laser [15] (Figure 12)!

Figure 12.

HeNe operating Laser

Some technical details: The helium–neon laser or simply HeNe laser, is a gas (plasma) laser and the gain medium consists of a mixture of 75% helium and 25% neon at a total pressure of about 1 mm of Hg. The HeNe laser operates at a wavelength of 632.8 nm, in the red part of the visible spectrum.

2.4

Interactive Interdisciplinary Art and Photonics Project - “The Power of Your Eye”

An interactive media installation entitled “The Power of Your Eye,” based on the principle of eye tracking, was also presented at the IDL Inaugural Ceremony at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris. The interaction was described on the postcard (Figure 13). The viewer looks at the screen and fixes their gaze on one of the circles on it. The fixated circle then begins to rotate; when it is fixated again, it comes to a standstill. To determine the position of the gaze, an eye-tracking bar is attached to the lower edge of the screen. In our media installation, a commercial eye tracking bar was used. It takes over the movement of the computer mouse, and is controlled accordingly by the participant’s image.

Fig. 13:

“The Power of Your Eye” - Postcard with operating instructions on the back side.

The animation of the circles was programmed using Adobe Flash that time. The circles themselves are the result of different patterns created with ten LEDs on a rotating disk by long-term exposure. A special challenge was the calibration of the eye-tracking bar in order to match as large a number of participants as possible without calibrating for each individual.