youlookingatme?

a day of huge machines looking at tiny things - the Electron microscopes are great photo opportunities. They are colossal science fiction like machines with great names and lots of wires and knobs. They are the stuff of old school 'real' science, enabling you to access information about matter that is so beyond the naked imagination.  Alignment is all with calibration taking time and I was struck by the masculine nature of the language used around the process.

you looking at me?

what are you looking at?

establishing what is wanted determines how you look.

where room stability is crucial

in stillness and silence a planet sized plinth steadies the space

viewing an energy filter beam star like images

a focused probe

the language of imaging in a light field talk of high angles under a dark field is oddly masculine

rough pumping the turbo, gun tilt adjustment, a chamber core of negatives, recovering a vacuum, contrast at the expense of resolution, optimum conditioning for imaging, beam damage and sample drift.

going back to real space there is awe

but
a

fear of damaging the sample by observing it.