Scarab beetles as natural optical elements
A scarab beetle’s metallic sheen is not a color like paint. It comes from microscopic structures on its surface that selectively reflect particular components of light.
The beetle’s body is therefore more than a reflective surface. It can be understood as a natural optical element that receives, selects, transforms, and returns light.
What insects and computers have in common
Tsukuda sees a connection between insects and computers. A computer processes incoming information through its circuitry and produces images, sound, or movement. Insects also receive information from their environment—light, odors, vibration, and temperature—and transform it through their bodily structures and behavior.
This work treats scarab beetles as small devices that process environmental light, rather than simply as biological specimens. In this sense, an insect’s body is another kind of computer made by nature.
Seeing the forest through the beetle’s body
The scarab beetle’s sheen emerged in the forest. Reflections from leaves, light filtering through trees, humid air, and light that changes with the viewing angle: its surface can be understood as having evolved in response to these conditions.
Viewing this work is an attempt to see the forest’s light through the beetle’s body. It does not reconstruct what the beetle’s eyes saw. Instead, it explores the light that its surface has received, selected, and reflected.
Experiencing the work
A projector directs light onto the beetles’ surfaces. Unlike an ordinary projection on a wall, the image emerges specifically on the beetles’ bodies. As viewers move, the colors and brightness change. The image forms through the relationship between the light, the insects’ surfaces, and the viewer’s position.
Optical principles
The beetles’ colors arise from structural coloration rather than pigment. Nanoscale layers and helical arrangements selectively reflect particular wavelengths and polarization states. Some scarab beetles respond selectively to circularly polarized light, exhibiting optical behavior related to the helical structures of cholesteric liquid crystals. The beetle’s surface acts as a naturally formed optical element or modulator.
The work uses a projector, polarizing filters, and quarter-wave plates to control polarization and the conditions of illumination. The beetles’ surfaces then select and reflect particular components of that light. Rather than serving only as a projection screen, their bodily structures function as an optical information-processing device.