Thin Sections in WonderlandWonderland

About the project

Thin Sections in Wonderland

A journey into the hidden world of rocks: geological thin sections photographed under the petrographic microscope, arranged in 3D by how they look.

What you are looking at

A thin section is a slice of rock ground down to about 30 µm — thin enough for light to pass through it. Under polarized light, each mineral reveals its own colours, shapes and textures. Many of these photomicrographs also hide a little story: a face, a landscape, a familiar object waiting to be noticed.

How the gallery is arranged

Every photo was analysed by an artificial-intelligence image model that measures visual similarity. Photos that look alike end up close to each other.

1D · 2D · 3D

all photos ordered by similarity along a line, on a map or in a cloud

Tree

families of similar images, linked like branches

Color

arranged by average colour: hue around, brightness up and down

Texture

a spiral from smooth to highly detailed textures

Rainbow

from calm, single-coloured images in the centre to vivid interference colours outside

How to explore

• Drag to rotate, scroll or pinch to zoom; click or tap a photo to open it with its story.
• In Tree, the first click opens the photo's family, the second opens the photo.
• Random picks a surprise; Tour plays a slideshow of similar photos.
• Choose a volume, search by word, or open Grid to see every photo as a list.
• Keyboard: ← → previous / next, Space random, I this window, Esc close.

Credits

Photographs, texts and development by Andrei Ionuț Apopei, Department of Geology, “Alexandru Ioan Cuza” University of Iași, Romania.

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