Week 8: Nanotech + Art

Nanotechnology has historically been accessible to only a select few group of people, especially scientists and people working with these micro-technologies. Prior to reading about nanotechnology and art, I had only associated nanotechnology with neuroscience disciplines and projects, not considering that nanotechnology could be more visible and normalized with art.

Jim Gimzewski and Victoria Vesna describe the abstract nature of nanotechnology in their shared article, noting that the complexity of nanotechnology leads to a glazed understanding of nanoscale objects (Gimzewski and Vesna, “The Nanomeme Syndrome: Blurring of fact & fiction in the construction of a new science”). In order to understand things on a nanoscale, artists and scientists have to collaborate. By magnifying nanoscale objects, people are able to better understand these abstract ideas that they have previously relied on scientists and technologists to research and understand.

Paul Rothemund elaborates on this idea through his TED Talk on DNA folding (Paul W.K. Rothemund, Caltech). He explains the power of DNA folding, describing that everyone and everything is created and influenced by small changes and mutations in DNA (Paul Rothemund, “DNA folding, in detail”). Minute changes at this micro level can cause big changes, and scientists and artists have used this to their advantage in their pieces.

One such example of a project related to nanostructures is Boo Chapple’s “Transjuicer,” which explores the use of macro bone matrix structures to make audible speakers (“Art in the Age of Nanotechnology). The waveforms that vibrate throughout the structure transduce into nano-sonic vibrations, which are audible through headphones (Science Gallery). The intentions behind this are to explore the expression of living and the dead through an audible project that allows its audience members to listen to dead bones, and the project explores the relationship between the nanoscale level of the cow bones and its living counterparts.

The intersection of nanotechnology, science, and art has been something that I haven’t considered in the past. But when thinking critically about it, it is clear for me to see the practicality of art in describing things at a nanoscale. Without this visual and sensory representation of things at a nanoscale, nanoscience and nanotechnology will be limited to the understanding of scientists and specialists in this field.

Sources:

Gimzewski, Jim, and Victoria Vesna. “The Nanomeme Syndrome: Blurring of Fact & Fiction in the Construction of a New Science.” The Nanomeme Syndrome: Blurring of Fact & Fiction in the Construction of a New Science, Mar. 2003, vv.arts.ucla.edu/publications/publications/02-03/JV_nano/JV_nano_artF5VG.htm.

“John Curtin Gallery.” Art.Base, 11 Mar. 2010, art.base.co/event/2104-art-in-the-age-of-nanotechnology#11.

“Paul Rothemund.” RSS, www.macfound.org/fellows/835/.

Paul W.K. Rothemund - Home Page, www.dna.caltech.edu/~pwkr/.

Pittcon. “Nanotechnology at Pittcon 2018.” AZoNano.com, 22 Jan. 2018, www.azonano.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=4761.

Robertson, Adi. “'Transjuicer' Art Installation Uses Bones as Speakers.” The Verge, The Verge, 29 Dec. 2011, www.theverge.com/2011/12/29/2668345/transjuicer-art-installation-cow-bone-speakers.

Rothemund, Paul, director. DNA Folding, in Detail. TED, 2008, www.ted.com/talks/paul_rothemund_details_dna_folding/up-next.

“Science Gallery - Page Title (for Print Only).” TRANSJUICER | Science Gallery, dublin.sciencegallery.com/visceral/transjuicer/index.html.