My inspiration for this piece came from an article by the science writer Oliver Sacks, called Greetings from the Island of Stability. It is a short history of the Periodic Table following the announcement in February 2004 of the discovery of two new elements, 113 and 115.
What struck me was the infectious sense of unknown exploration and also the strange nature of the elements the further up the Periodic Table you travel. For example, the elements that lie between 101-111 are fantastically unstable (the Sea of Instability) yet those from 112-118 are, theoretically, relatively stable. Sacks highlights element 111 as an example. A heavier analog of gold, element 111 breaks down in less than a millisecond and it is difficult to have more than an atom or two at a time, so we may never hope to see what “super-gold” looks like. It was this notion of stability versus instability that first got me thinking.
Particle was commissioned by Ergodos and was generously supported with funds from the Arts Council of Ireland.