I’ve always been impressed by professionals who can transform light into art. Think of photographers turning car tail lights into long, beautiful streaks, or laser shows that make simple lines look captivating. These always seemed like expert skills, far from my everyday life. But recently, I stumbled upon a way to experience something similar, using nothing but my eyes during a car ride at night.
Last night, as I settled into the passenger seat for a brief nap, I found myself witnessing a magical light show. The headlights and taillights on the highway, which usually pass by unnoticed, began to transform before my eyes. It was like a scene from Fantasia or a planetarium’s laser show. The lights danced and morphed into stunning shapes against the dark backdrop of the night. They resembled beautiful, ever-changing sine curves, weaving an intricate dance on an invisible stage.
I was trying to capture exactly what it looked like but I couldn’t find anything, nor a description of anyone else experiencing what I did. People talk about how squinting changes the way you see, but that’s not really the point. The closest parallel I found lies in long-exposure photography of car headlights – those images where lights stretch into continuous, glowing lines.
From Light Trails: Photographing Car Lights at Night
But while that’s the right feeling, it’s not what I saw. The light from the headlights and taillights on the highway started dancing, being transformed into dancing abstract sine waves, like in Fantasia or a laser show in a planetarium. They looked like beautiful, ever changing sine curves that danced around on a dark background. I tried creating something that showed what a taillight looked like in DALL-E. After a while, I was able to create this:
A bit like what I was seeing yesterday.
To try this yourself, try this:
- Seating. Sit in the front seat of a passenger car at night.
- Start with a light squint: Begin by gently squinting your eyes. You’re not trying to shut out the light completely, but rather filter it through your eyelashes.
- Just use one eye: Close one eye completely and leave the other slightly open. The patterns are different for each eye so just use one eye at a time. Experiment with each eye to see which works best.
- Adjust the Squint: Play around with the degree of squinting. Tiny changes can create different patterns, so try narrowing or widening the slit of your eyelids slightly.
- Patience is Key: Allow your eyes time to adjust and the patterns to emerge. The effect might not be immediate, so give yourself a moment to let the experience unfold.
So why does this happen? When you squint, your eyelashes create a series of tiny slits through which light enters your eyes. This effect is similar to the basic principle of a camera aperture. Just like how narrowing the aperture in photography creates a sharper image with greater depth, squinting alters the way light enters your eyes, bending (or diffracting) it in unique patterns.
The headlights and taillights began to stretch and bend, not just because of my squinted eyelids, but because of how the light waves interacted with each other when passing through such a small opening. This interaction, known as wave interference, resulted in the beautiful, ever-changing sine curves that seemed to dance across the dark canvas of the night.
This experience opened my eyes to the beautiful and unique moments the world has to offer if I just pause and look for them. This one stood out as especially peculiar since I had never even heard about it before. In my efforts to capture and share it, I encountered the challenging task of translating the vivid images in my mind into a shareable form. It highlighted the fact that some experiences defy capture through words or images; they demand to be felt and witnessed firsthand. I am curious to hear if others have encountered similar experiences and am keen to delve deeper into understanding this intriguing phenomenon with insights from others.
Writing this one took exactly an hour. It’s not perfect but I was able to get an amazing thought on paper to start my day. Here’s the chat.
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