Week 8: Nanotech + Art – Seeing the Unsee-able

In exploring the history of a technology that literally allowed man to see and further manipulate what was previously unsee-able, this week’s topic of nanotechnology and art branched off of our continuing interweaving themes of art and science being build on self-reinforcing foundations. This was nowhere more apparent that in the discussion of the “buckey-ball” (Buckminsterfullerene) – a new form of carbon composed of sixty atoms discovered by scientists using ideas from renowned architect Buckminster Fuller’s designs. Using concepts of design, scientists were able to generate a stable carbon structure that had only previously existed as an inference of extraterrestrial observation, firmly upholding the influence of art on scientists working to innovate within the rapidly expanding field of nanotechnology. Interestingly enough, Bucky-balls are actually related to the concept of Fibanacci's golden ration (see here:http://www.goldennumber.net/bucky-balls/), further integrating this fantastic discovery into our coursework. 

This Buckminsterfullerene crystal structure model details the ornate complexity of the Bucky ball, while the below is the inspiration (Buckminster's geodesic domes)

Further observing this concept of interaction between nanotechnology and art, one can observe the plethora of collaborations in which nanotechnology turns unsee-able structures into interactive visual, temporal, and tactile parts of exhibits providing valuable social commentary on our constructs of the material world and highlighting prominent themes in literature, physics, and psycho-social interaction. At the forefront of this work is our own professor, Dr. Victoria Vesna, who has worked on exhibits that integrate cultural understandings of purity through artistic representation with nanotechnology that highlights the beauty (and purity of the sacred) in the very composition of these substances (an excerpt on her exhibit can be found in our reading here: https://art.base.co/event/2104-art-in-the-age-of-nanotechnology)

Victoria Vesna's exhibit Nanomandala. Integrating concepts of purity and the sacred with nanotech applications, this exhibit has made it on to my art bucket-list. 

These magnets from the Nanoscape exhibit by Christa Sommerer and Laurent Mignonneau, integrating nano-textures with magnetic forces to create an exhibit that changes as you interact with it.

Through taking us from the conceptual to visualizing the previously unsee-able, and by integrating tenets of art and design into the scientific process of developing new molecular structures, this week’s unit set the stage for a revitalized look at the two cultures – one in which reciprocity ultimate dictates the relationship and fluidity between art and science. Supplemented by the abundance of creative projects using and taking inspiration from nanotechnology, I cannot wait to further explore this concept and await nanotech’s further breakthroughs in my lifetime. 

Works Cited

"Art in the Age of Nanotechnology." Art.base. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 May 2015.

"Bucky Balls and Phi." Phi 1618 The Golden Number. N.p., 13 May 2012. Web. 23 May 2015.

"The John Curtin Gallery." Curtin University of Technology. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 May 2015.

"Nanotechnology Now." Nanotechnology Art Gallery. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 May 2015.

"Nifty 50: BUCKY BALLS." Nifty 50: BUCKY BALLS. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 May 2015.