Week 5 - Nanotechnology + Art

To me, one of the coolest applications of nanotechnology is the idea of making the invisible visible. The fact that we can blow up something that was previously inconspicuous to the human eye, and even apply our own abstractions to it, is something that I think is pretty rad.

One of Chris Orfescu's pieces.

Cris Orfescu’s work was among the first to pioneer the idea of abstract nanoart. He considered the nano-images as jumping off points for his work rather than having the images be the art itself. What I enjoy about Orfescu’s point of view is that he readily admits that his art loses its grasp on fundamental scientific laws, and that he is okay with that as long as his work spurs further discussion and interest in nanotechnology. To me, that’s a wonderful compromise towards advancing the field forward, much like how “sandbox” videogames may not necessarily depict proper physics or engineering, but they allow the audience to dive further into the field and explore. That’s the value that I see in abstract nanoart, and I think that’s the direction that the medium should take moving forward. Otherwise, we’ll probably get bored with standard microscope images.

Origami nanobatteries!

I then stumbled upon research being conducted by Arizona State University. In short, they’re combining nanotech with origami in order to produce better batteries. By folding twenty-five layers of microscopic paper into a dense and tiny package via origami techniques, the researchers were able to store a high amount of energy in an extremely tiny space. This was actually the total reverse of what I was expecting to see happen, which was have nanotechnology and old art forms combine to advance other kinds of tech, in this case electrical. I then also found that researchers in Germany were using carpet-weaving techniques in order to bond boron molecules together in an especially stable fashion. Some chemical engineering applications require immensely strong bonds, and so the combination of art and nanotechnology here has allowed that field to be further advanced. I think it’s sometimes rare to see art used in such direct and practical applications, so it was especially interesting for me to read up on this.

Daniela Caceta's depiction of growth and morphology on the nano-level.

Works Cited

Feder, Barnaby J. "The Art of Nanotech." Bits The Art of Nanotech Comments. The New York Times Company, 25 Jan. 2008. Web. 27 July 2014.

Kullman, Joe. "Art Form, Nanotechnology Combine to Advance Batteries." ASU News. Arizona State University, 18 July 2014. Web. 25 July 2014.

Lovgren, Stefan. "Can Art Make Nanotechnology Easier to Understand?" National Geographic. National Geographic Society, 23 Dec. 2003. Web. 27 July 2014.

"Nanotechnology: The Art of Molecular Carpet-weaving." ScienceDaily. Technische Universitaet Muenchen, 4 Jan. 2012. Web. 28 July 2014.

Tranquilin, Ricardo. "Extraordinary Beauty of the NanoArt World: Photos : DNews." DNews. Discovery Communications LLC, 12 Dec. 2012. Web. 25 July 2014.