Anamorphic Artwork!

Head down to Catalyst to see a chemical reaction happening right before your eyes!

It’s arrived!  Catalyst is proud to present our very own pavement art, right outside the front doors. Generously funded by Dr Barrie Pennington and The Granada Foundation, the artwork will remain in place for up to 12 months and will give free access to the local community to engage in a joyful, thought provoking, unique experience, which would increase science capital and develop scientific knowledge.

So what is anamorphic art?  Anamorphic art is a distorted image created in such a way that it can only be recognisable from a certain viewing point. It’s an optical illusion where the two dimensional image is processed in the brain as a three dimensional image, causing the design to float or sink on top of the floor surface. It is carefully planned and measured and takes 4 days to create. To the visitor on first impression it looks unusual and isn’t fully appreciated until you are in the correct viewing position, and even better when looking through a lens, and then it pops out. In our design it is hoped that participants will be standing next to a super-size conical flask just as it erupts.

From 21st July until the end of August, we’ll be running a live science demonstration of the ‘Elephant’s Toothpaste’ reaction adjacent to the artwork, every weekday at 1:30pm (weather permitting). Come and have a look!

We are excited to bring this to the community of West Bank and Halton, and as far as we know there hasn’t been an anamorphic chemical reaction ever created before!