Installation · 2026
Lodestone
Iron filings: a magnetic field made visible, live in the browser
~700
filings, not a fluid solver
Hundreds of copper needles settle along an invisible field. Four poles drift; your cursor is a fifth. The filings turn, lag, and leave a faint afterimage: ferrofluid without the simulation cost.
Problem
Magnetic fields are usually drawn as tidy textbook diagrams, or simulated as heavy particle fluids. Neither feels like matter answering a force.
Approach
We scatter a jittered grid of short strokes and align each one to a 2D dipole field. Poles orbit slowly; the cursor is a strong charge. Angle lag and a faint trail make the metal feel heavy.
Outcome
A piece that reads as an instrument on a workbench: copper hair on charcoal, alive the moment you move, cheap enough to keep running.
Touch · live form
Client
Self-initiated
Year
2026
Stack
Canvas APIVector FieldsMagnetic Dipoles
Next project
Afterglow