Hiking through molasses: How an Edmonton artist is making black holes in the pandemic

Scott Portingale makes black holes in his Edmonton garage — inspired by the points in space where gravity is so strong that nothing, including light, can escape. For his project, he conceptualises what one of the cosmic bodies might look like if they were visible and projects videos onto screens shaped like a funnel or hemisphere.

"The concept was built on trying to visualize the ultimate mystery: the black hole," says Portingale. "It is absurd to me that black holes exist — that material, light, space and time get twisted into oblivion."

The idea is that people can walk around an art gallery and look into his concept of the celestial objects.

But because of the pandemic, most gallery showings are on hold, and materials he would typically use to create effects and make his black holes are hard to get.

Now, he's making a documentary about how he "paints with gravity" and designs black holes for gallery exhibits. It essentially involves making "practical effects" — special effects, but without fancy tech.

"Practical effects are effects that you create in physical reality and then capture with a camera," says Portingale. "In a lot of films, what you see are digital effects. They're algorithms; they're programs to create artificial elements. You have an idea — you want to have gas or smoke. There are actual algorithms you can plug in."

But Portingale works to create effects on a small scale, making objects appear large on screen. 

"It's sort of a modern way of painting a black hole," he says. "Van Gogh would paint stars in the sky because of something that he saw in the sky. He was inspired by it."

The doc, to be released in 2021, will look at exactly how Portingale works.

"With the pandemic, it's like I'm hiking through molasses," says Portingale. "I often work with other people in the studio. I either collaborate with someone or have an assistant because there's lots of things I need to build."

Since the spring, he's been forced to work solo. 

"I'm doing almost everything now," says Portingale. "I'm constantly building, shooting, fixing, moving, cleaning, organizing media, sourcing materials, researching processes, rendering footage and communicating online." 

Once the doc is done, though, he hopes he'll be able to expand it to a virtual reality experience — so people can literally step inside his concept of a black hole.

Keep an eye on his website for updates on when the doc will be available.

À lire en français sur le site de Radio-Canada.

This story is part of Digital Originals, an initiative of the Canada Council for the Arts. Artists were offered a $5,000 micro-grant to either adapt their existing work or create new work for the digital world during the COVID-19 pandemic. CBC Arts has partnered with Canada Council to feature a selection of these projects. You can see more of these projects here.