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.