Beautiful Film from Optical Arts Honours Klaus Kemp's Legacy
‘Diatoms’ is an homage to Klaus Kemp, one of the most prominent diatom arrangement practitioners, and to the beauty and delicate process of diatom slide design. This short film is an intimate look into his microscopic world and a part of nature’s beauty that few of us get to see.
Klaus Kemp was a self-taught microbiological artist and light microscopist known for his intricate diatom slides, inspired by a Victorian example he saw as a young man. Dedicated to perfecting the craft, he developed his own tools and spent eight years formulating a glue, a recipe he guarded until his death. This art form of diatom arrangement originated in the Victorian era, arranging microscopic diatoms - phytoplankton with detailed silica shells - into precise patterns on slides, often smaller than 1mm. Few practitioners create these complex arrangements today, and Kemp’s were among the most intricate, highly valued by collectors worldwide.
Originally, Optical Arts hoped to film Klaus creating a diatom arrangement. After his passing, the team pivoted to a CG approach, crafting a short film to honour his legacy. Optical Arts goal was to recreate details of his workspace - from his round wooden table to his slide storage boxes - culminating in a transition through the microscope that reveals his workspace.
Capturing the beauty of diatoms was challenging, with their detailed characteristics. Optical Arts constructed detailed models to interact with light similar to real diatoms, balancing accuracy with creative shading to enhance the aesthetic. Throughout the project, the team referenced an authentic diatom arrangement slide, observing its reactions to different lighting conditions. This helped the team understand how silica refracts light, allowing for more accurate and varied visual effects. For showcasing the custom 3D models, the teams used Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) imaging as inspiration, often used for viewing Diatoms in 3D. Optical Arts produced a series of grayscale images capturing the models’ form and structure in the SEM style.
