Barriers (clean room)

Nanotechnology clean rooms and characterization (microscopy) labs are among the most exquisitely controlled spaces on Earth. The air and water inside the clean rooms is so meticulously filtered that only a few thousand—or even a few dozen—microscopic particles linger in each cubic meter. In some zones, the lighting is tinted orange, featuring a soft amber glow that is chosen to block ultraviolet light and protect delicate samples. The entire facility is engineered to damp vibrations — often by suspending portions of the building on isolators or dampers — so that even minute mechanical disturbances are minimized.

In the Barriers (clean room), the images of the clean room are printed, some in blue-violet—the spectral opposite of orange—then crumpled, pierced, and stitched over, reintroducing noise and disorder, which, when transferred into the gallery or museum white cube, becomes controlled again. The prints become membranes, barriers between two distinct regimes of control.