Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh - Tropism Exhibit including Simulated Bee and Butterfly Vision

The Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh Sat 20 June — Sun 27 Sept 2015 will host the first exhibition in Scotland by artists from the Dutch art collective Tropisme. "Featuring photographs of plants taken with unusual, often scientific, visualisation techniques, the exhibition provides a surprising and spectacularly different view on plants. Botanical installations located around the Garden will fuse art, poetry and science and combine audio, video and classic museum displays." It includes a video animation "Insecta Spectra" created by long time animation artist Robin Noorda which consists of some of my best simulated butterfly and bee vision works.

Works such as these were included, as well as an explanation of the background of insect vision in comparison to our human vision. Here for instance Helianthus tuberosus (Jerusalem artichoke) in human vision, simulated butterfly and bee vison (left to right)


Insects (butterflies, bees, ...) and some animals are able to see in ultraviolet (UV) light. Bees for instance can see Green and Blue and UV, but no Red, but butterflies and birds can see Red, Green, Blue and UV, and both able to see what we humans cannot see - UV. To make that visible for us humans, I have developed a special color mapping method, which allows to simulate, how we would see the world, if we had such special receptive eyes.

I hope you enjoy the beauty of the exhibit!

Stay tuned, more will follow on that fascinating subject...