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An exhibition of cfaed’s 'Scientific Image Contests'

Heat-shimmering lava flows, an exotic blossom in an ultra-strong macro shot, gilded autumn leaves, sunny beach landscapes, or abstract mountains in a 3D rendering look: the initial associations with these images are highly diverse, often draw on familiar subjects - and are usually miles off the mark regarding the interpretation of what is depicted.

This effect is welcome and intentional. The scientific images from the many research areas of the Center for Advancing Electronics Dresden (cfaed) open up unfamiliar visual worlds that people outside the science community rarely get to see. The origins of the images are also extremely diverse - we see images from the scanning electron microscope, artistic visualizations, rendered illustrations of data sets, and much more. Some of the images are purely scientific results, others are more or less "waste", actually very apt testimonies of classical scientific work: Trial and error. Some of the graphics were intentionally created from a purely aesthetic point of view, for example to show scientific correlations, or as an illustrative image of a research result, for example for the cover of a scientific journal.

In order to capture this visually rich and diverse power of images and make them visible (also) outside the scientific community, cfaed launched the 'Scientific Image Contests' in 2016. Open to all members and associated members of the cluster, the contest has since served annually as a competition and marketplace of the most beautiful visual (by-)products of our research.

This year we are already celebrating the fifth edition of the contest. There are now well over 300 submissions in the database. A large number of the earlier entries adorn the corridors of our new building in the Barkhausen Building and the DCN laboratory building in the form of large-format prints. A selection can also be found on cfaed's Instagram channel. However, there has not yet been a proper exhibition - this is now a special highlight in the history of the Image Contests.

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