Gallery: What Happens When You Zap Instant Film With 15,000 Volts
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[Phillip Stearns](http://phillipstearns.wordpress.com/) is an artist who sees beauty where others see computer bugs.
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He collects images of artful computer abnormalities on his blog and has transformed images from fried cameras into [tasteful home furnishings](http://stag4.wired.com/design/2013/08/glitch-textiles/), but for his latest project called *[High Voltage](https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/phillipstearns/high-voltage-image-making?ref=live)*, Stearns is experimenting with electricity and chemistry.
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Each image in this series is created by zapping Fujifilm instant color film with electricity produced by a transformer used to power neon signs.
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Stearns' process isn't exposing the film per se.
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The light from the sparks accounts for some of the bluish colors in the background of the shots, but the electrical "tree" structures, technically called Lichtenberg figures, are created when the electricity vaporizes the silver halides embedded in the film.
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He adds to the image by pouring liquids—bleach, vinegar, hydrogen peroxide, rubbing alcohol—onto the film and arcing electricity through them which which adds chemical coloration.
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For instance, electrified bleach reacts with the dyes in the film and brings yellow and magenta hues to the composition.
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"The process is incredibly unpredictable and I'm still trying to find methods to better isolate cause and effect relationships between different variables," he says. "There's always going to be a bit of a surprise involved."
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Inspiration came to Stearns from unlikely sources. Hiroshi Sugimoto's images of electricity strikes captured on black and white photo paper were the most direct antecedent.
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A cache of instant color film discovered during a dumpster dive that provided the opportunity to experiment.
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"What makes a glitch 'glitchy' has more to do with social and cultural constructs than with corrupted files, error or malfunction," he says. "Errors are simply the world working according to its own rules, rather than those of some externally imposed system, no matter how well designed."
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"Rather than thinking about things in terms of analog or digital glitches, I was more interested in going out of bounds and exploring the expressive capacity of the medium of instant color film beyond its typical context in the discipline of photography," says Stearns.
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Stearns has made art with software glitches, chemistry, and electricity so the next obvious step is to combine them.
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"Plasma. Robots and plasma. And why not lasers while I'm at it," says Stearns. "I have a few sketches for pieces involving large electromagnets, high voltage DC power, and evacuated glass forms that I plan on prototyping soon. Wish me luck."
