Visual Art · Polarized Light Microscopy
Crystallization and
Dissolution, Accelerated
This series explores the interplay of light, color, and matter at the microscopic scale. Using polarized light microscopy, I recorded four common salts over 10+ hours of crystallization and dissolution. By accelerating the footage, the hidden behaviors of these substances — their growth, melting, and reformation — are revealed, along with the vibrant interference colors that emerge as polarized light passes through their crystalline structures. What unfolds is a dynamic choreography of light and matter, where scientific observation meets visual poetry.
Sodium Chloride
NaCl — table salt
The most familiar salt on Earth, yet deeply strange under polarized light. NaCl crystallizes in the cubic system, which renders it optically isotropic — it does not rotate polarized light and appears nearly black between crossed polarizers. What becomes visible instead are the boundaries, inclusions, and the kinetics of growth: edges racing outward in perfect right angles, the geometry of the face-centered cubic lattice made briefly legible.
Magnesium Sulfate Heptahydrate
MgSO₄·7H₂O — Epsom salt
Epsom salt crystallizes in the orthorhombic system, producing long needle-like or prismatic crystals that burst outward from nucleation points like frozen fireworks. Under polarized light, these crystals display vivid first- and second-order interference colors — yellows, magentas, and blues shifting as thickness varies across each arm. The dissolution sequence is equally dramatic: the needles thin from the outside in, bleeding color as they retreat.
Sodium Bicarbonate
NaHCO₃ — baking soda
Sodium bicarbonate belongs to the monoclinic crystal system and exhibits strong birefringence — a pronounced difference between its refractive indices along different optical axes. The result is a rich palette of interference colors across each crystal face. As the solution dries, flat rhombic plates stack and overlap, creating a tiled mosaic of shifting hues that reconfigures continuously with subtle changes in concentration and temperature.
Monoammonium Phosphate
NH₄H₂PO₄ — MAP
Monoammonium phosphate crystallizes in the tetragonal system, forming elongated bipyramidal or prismatic crystals with a distinctively ordered symmetry. Under polarized light, MAP produces high-order interference colors and pronounced extinction positions as crystals rotate relative to the polarizer. Its crystallization front advances with unusual regularity — almost architectural — while dissolution proceeds in reverse with the same quiet precision.
Propose a Salt
Curious what another substance looks like under polarized light? Send a proposal — name the salt, tell me why it interests you, and I'll consider it for a future recording session.
Thank you — your proposal has been received. I'll be in touch if your salt makes it onto the stage.