Week 8: NanoTech + Art

Week 8: NanoTech + Art

In this week’s lecture, we learned that Nanotechnology is influencing nearly every aspect of our lives. For instance, it can be applied in agriculture, food production, and medicine. Notably, in the reading of “The Nanomeme Syndrome: Blurring of fact & fiction in the construction of new science,” I learned that Nanotechnology is “ultimately about a shift in our perception of reality from purely visual culture to one based on sensing and connectivity” (Gimzewski and Vesna).

An example of nanotechnology shirting our perception is the invention of the Scanning Tunneling Microscope, a symbol of the shift from visual to tactile perception, as mentioned in the reading. The scanning tunneling microscope works by scanning a very sharp metal wire tip over a surface. We can image the surface at a microscopic scale, down to resolving individual atoms.

Quantum Corral created with STM
https://slideplayer.com/slide/3866674/

I also really like the idea that nanoscale science and media art are perfect examples of the new third culture we mentioned in the first week, embracing biologically inspired shifts, unique aesthetics, and definitions. So I explored the John Curtin Gallery to learn more about art in the age of nanotechnology.

In the gallery, I learned that there are more examples that illustrate a shift in our perception of reality from visual culture to one based on sensing. For instance, the project created by Christa Sommerer and Laurent Mignonneau, Nano-Scape, tries to make the nano-world accessible through touch. In the picture below, a wireless magnetic force-feedback interface allows users to touch nanoparticles, creating an ever-changing invisible sculpture (Sommerer and Mignonneau 2005).

Nanoscape 

http://www.interface.ufg.ac.at/christa-laurent/WORKS/FRAMES/TOPFRAMES/NanoScapeTop.html

An other example is a project created by our Professors Victoria Vesna and James Gimszewkski. Nanomandala consists of a 15-minute video projected onto a disk of sand, 8 feet in diameter. Visitors touch the sand as oscillating images of the molecular structure of a single grain of sand obtained via a scanning electron microscope. These images are projected to reveal the recognizable image of the entire mandala, and then back again.

Nanomandala
http://nano.arts.ucla.edu/mandala/mandala.php

Nanomandala by Professor Vesna

References:

“John Curtin Gallery.” Art.Base, art.base.co/event/2104-art-in-the-age-of-nanotechnology#11.

Mignonneau, Laurent, and Christa Sommerer. “Nano-Scape.” Proceedings of the 2005 ACM SIGCHI International Conference on Advances in Computer Entertainment Technology - ACE 05, 2005, doi:10.1145/1178477.1178507.

“Nanomandala.” NANO, nano.arts.ucla.edu/mandala/mandala.php.

“Scanning Tunneling Microscopy.” Nanoscience Instruments, www.nanoscience.com/techniques/scanning-tunneling-microscopy/

Vesna, Victoria, and Jim Gimzewski . “The Nanomeme Syndrome: Blurring of Fact & Fiction in the Construction of a New Science.” vv.arts.ucla.edu/publications/publications/02-03/JV_nano/JV_nano_artF5VG.htm.

Event 2: Exploratorium

Event 2: Exploratorium

For this event, I went to the Exploratorium in SF. It is one of the most fun museums that I have ever been to. Especially, it helped me get a better understanding of how art helps us to understand biology and neuroscience.

Map of Exploratorium

For instance, in the lecture of neuroscience, we learned about Franz Joseph Gall, and his introduction of phrenology, which is based on the idea that parts of the brain are associated with different traits and skills(Vesna). However, our brain can also get confused easily. For instance, in this picture, the hot-cold coils teach us that our brains can combine conflicting sensations to jump to a startling conclusion. When I grabbed the center coils with my palm, I felt the coils were painfully hot, but when I touch the center coils one at a time with my fingertip, I found that they actually alternate between warm and cold. This design illustrates an illusion, which is called the thermal grill illusion. Today, neurobiologist study it to understand the usually “phantom” pains experienced by amputees and stroke victims.

Picture I took from exploratorium: the hot-cold coils

I also found it fascinating about how arts such as paintings can be viewed differently through some biological effects such as binocular rivalry. In this picture, when I centered my nose on the pink stripe at the edge of the mirror and looked straight ahead with both eyes open, I saw the images were alternating. I learned that when our brains get strongly conflicting information from two eyes, it usually turns off the information from one eye.

Me and the binocular rivalry

I would recommend this event because it is exciting to experience the designs they have. It would benefit my classmate because it is a really interactive and creative place. We can learn science not by reading a textbook, but by doing the experiments following the instruction on the designs and experiencing the effect with senses such as touch, sound, and sight. Then, we can read the simple explanations of the designs to understand the effects. Here are more pictures of the interesting exhibit to experience and learn.

We can learn how color affect our emotion from this exhibit

For instance, in the picture above, a boy is talking to the computer. It remained me of the lecture we learned about Alan Turing and artificial intelligence with robotics. 

ticket I bought

Reference: 
Vesna, Victoria. “Neuroscience-pt1.Mov.”  YouTube, 17 May 2012, www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=267&v=TzXjNbKDkYI.

Week 7 Neuroscience +Art

Week 7 Neuroscience +Art

This week, we learned more about the interaction between art and science, specifically neuroscience. In the reading of “Neuroculture,” Giovanni Frazetto and Suzanne Anker summarized that neuroscience is not solely constrained within laboratories, but readily captures the attention of the public at large. Neuroscience portrayed in literature, film, works of art, the mass media and commercial product offers an opportunity to make the scientific community and the public aware of the social and ethical implications of the scientific advances in neuroscience (Frazzetto & Anker 2009).

                   

A great example of an artist combining art and science to contribute to the idea of consciousness in neuroscience is Ramón y Cajal, who was awarded the Nobel Prize for medicine and physiology. As the father of modern neuroscience, he described pyramidal cells, neurons that he discovered as these butterflied of the soul. Here is one of his painting of neuronal network.

Santiago Ramón y Cajal Drawings

https://www.janelia.org/archive/santiago-ram%C3%B3n-y-cajal-drawings

Another example of combining art and science is Brainbow, a visualization tool which is particularly useful in the study of dynamic biological systems. Brainbow is a genetic cell-labeling technique where hundreds of different hues can be generated by stochastic and combinatorial expression of a few spectrally distinct fluorescent proteins. From 3 to ∼100 colors can be generated by Brainbow (Weissman, Tamily & Pan 2015)

Imagine this: A team of 15 neuroscientists is to get R900-million in start-up funding for a project that could find a cure for diseases such as Alzheimer's, as well as a range of mental disorders. (Harvard University)https://bhekisisa.org/article/2013-06-28-00-theres-gold-at-the-end-of-the-brainbow

We also discuss the idea of consciousness and unconsciousness. So I read the Global Consciousness Project (GCP), which is an international effort involving researchers from several institutions and countries, designed to explore whether the construct of interconnected consciousness can be scientifically validated through objective measurement. The project demonstrated that human consciousness interacts with random event generators (REGs), apparently causing them to produce non-random patterns. Here is a YouTube video about the project.

The Global Consciousness Project - Ph.D. Roger Nelson

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQXoMI130KY

However, while I believed that scientific breakthrough is mostly beneficial to the humankind, it is also fascinating to learn the perspective of Carl Jung, who thought that the industrial revolution also played a significant role in the emergence of the spiritual problem. He believed that methods of science could be used to remodel society, which can result in an increase in uniformity and a drastic decrease in the importance of the individual (Jung 1928).

References: 

“Carl Jung and the Spiritual Problem of the Modern Individual.” Academy of Ideas, 1 Jan. 2019, academyofideas.com/2017/06/carl-jung-spiritual-problem-modern-individual/.

Frazzetto, Giovanni, and Suzanne Anker. “Neuroculture.” Nature News, Nature Publishing Group, 1 Nov. 2009, www.nature.com/articles/nrn2736.

Nelson, Roger. “Global Consciousness Project: Introduction.” Princeton University, The Trustees of Princeton University, noosphere.princeton.edu/gcpintro.html.

Vesna, Victoria. “Neuroscience (Part 1).” Lecture. 19 May 2019

Weissman, Tamily A, and Y Albert Pan. “Brainbow: New Resources and Emerging Biological Applications for Multicolor Genetic Labeling and Analysis.” Genetics, Genetics Society of America, Feb. 2015, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4317644/.

Week 6 BioTech+Art

Week 6 BioTech+Art

Life itself is a valid expressive medium for me because life expresses the diversity among and within different species. The meaning inherent in the use of transgenics, mutilation, mutation, recombinance or selective breeding as an artistic technique is based on this belief. As Professor Vensa mentioned in the lecture, Eduardo Katz considered these modifications of life as an expansion of the present practical and conceptual boundaries of artmaking to incorporate life invention (Kac 2000).

GFP Bunny
http://www.artnexus.com/Notice_View.aspx?DocumentID=19376

Although artistic media and technologies have created some controversies, the value they have brought are enormous. As Ellen K. Levy mentioned in the reading of “Defining Life: Artists Challenge Conventional Classifications,” art can challenge the status quo in a longer-lasting way through provoking consideration of the limitations and legal ramifications(Levy 2011). For instance, artists have explored some of the conditions that define life and its implications for legal rights and property. In 1980 U.S. Supreme Court decision that determined that genetically engineered microorganisms are patentable. The case of Chakrabarty v. Diamond allowed Chakrabarty to manufacture his oil-eating bacterium and extended the definition of what is considered patentable to living organisms that have been genetically altered (Levy 2011).

A new group of oil-eating bacteria have been discovered in the Mariana Trench
https://newatlas.com/oil-eating-bacteria-mariana-trench/59279/

As a student major in biochemistry, I am fascinated by the role artists had played in the journey of scientific revolutions. In the reading of “meanings of participation: Outlaw Biology?” Chris Kelty mentioned the creativity of Outlaws, Hackers, Victorian Gentlemen breeds creativity (Kelty 2010). Artists working in biomedia and artificial life really led to more innovations. For instance, the "GFP Bunny" created by Eduardo Kac, had lead to development of “transgenic art,” which can contribute to the field of aesthetics by “opening up the new symbolic and pragmatic dimension of art as the literal creation of and responsibility for life” (Kac 2000).

The blood-brain barrier in a live zebrafish embryo
https://www.nikonsmallworld.com/galleries/2012-photomicrography-competition/the-blood-brain-barrier-in-a-live-zebrafish-embryo

The controversies that have been raised by biotechnology are pieces of evidence that biotech is inherently different from how other technologies are evaluated. As it is mentioned by Levy, “Biotechnology is a place where political, economic, legal, and scientific interests meet, and artists can promote discussion about these issues.”

As to the question, “should the restrictions be more or less stringent for artists using biotechnology than for scientists in industry/academia?’ I believe that there should be equally stringent with sufficient training and peer oversight, adequate regulation, and professional controls. Ultimately, I believe that human creativity should be restricted by ethics and risks.

References:

Diamond v. Chakrabarty, digital-law-online.info/cases/206PQ193.htm.

Levy, Ellen. “Defining Life: Artists Challenge Conventional Classifications.”Context Providers: Conditions of Meaning in Media Arts. Eds. Margot Lovejoy, Christiane Paul, and Victoria Vesna. University of Chicago Press: 2011.

C.M. Kelty, Outlaw, hackers, victorian amateurs: diagnosing public participation in the life sciences today, Jcom 09(01) (2010) C03

Kac, Eduardo. GFP BUNNY, www.ekac.org/gfpbunny.html#gfpbunnyanchor. 2000

Vesna, Victoria, narr. “BioTech Art Lectures I-V.” N.p., . web. 12 May 2019.