MONOCHROME CAUSTIC · THE LISTENER

A Painting Made of Light

Follow the pale blue curl of The Listener as it moves from pigment to concentrated light. A clear plate with one shaped face bends the rays into the painting’s broad hook.

Explore the optical bench

Monochrome ray-traced receiver with a luminous curl and a darker interior — FIG. 01 Mitsuba particle trace · optimized plate

01 / THE OPTICAL BENCH

One change. Two surfaces.

Switch the exit face between flat and shaped. The emitter, entrance face and screen stay fixed while the sampled rays and receiver image update together.

FIG. 02 49 paths through the same glass interfaces. The diagram tilts the planes and outlines the receiver crop.

Receiver with optimized plate — FIG. 03 Receiver · optimized plate

Emitter: Uniform directional white
Plate: 2 × 2 units · IOR 1.50
Plate to screen: 7 scene units
Receiver film: 96 × 96 · 1,024 spp

02 / THE MATCH

From outline to irradiance.

The target follows the painting’s blue curl and leaves its orange interior dark. The three panels share one exposure. The target’s mean matches the flat baseline for display.

Simplified target with a bright sweeping curl and a dark inner opening — A Hand-traced target

Flat-plate simulation showing an approximately uniform field — B Flat plate

Optimized plate concentrates light along the target curl — C Optimized plate

Pixel correlation: 0.193 → 0.990
Mean-normalized RMSE: 0.971 → 0.142
Bright-area overlap: 0% → 95.8% IoU
Receiver mean: 70.2% of flat plate

Fit is measured on linear, independently traced 96 × 96 frames. Bright-area overlap uses intersection over union. The optimized curl has higher contrast while the receiver crop collects less light on average.

03 / THE PLATE

A clear face, shaped by light.

The solver moved vertices along the optical axis while holding the perimeter fixed. This mesh and heightmap come from the same surface that produced the caustic.

FIG. 04 65 × 65 solved vertices

Relief scale 6×

Heightmap showing the depth variation in the optimized plate — FIG. 05 Exit displacement · −0.0494 to +0.0341 units

Optimized PLY Flat PLY Entrance and sides OBJ Run data Reproduce this run

04 / THE PAINTING AND THE ROOM

The Listener in another medium.

The simulation uses collimated light, ideal clear glass and a fixed diffuse screen. The study leaves real illumination, surface finish, alignment and fabrication for a physical test.

Iana Kochu’s The Listener, with a pale blue curling form on a navy and yellow ground — ORIGINAL *The Listener* · Iana Kochu

Imagined gallery installation with a clear square optic beside a sweeping curl of light — CONCEPT Generated installation impression