Week 8: Nanotechnology and Art

Unlike any art we have studies so far, nanotechnology is not able to be seen with the naked eye. This is because nanotechnology works with atoms, therefore needing microscopes and other instruments for it to be seen. Nanotechnology also works at a molecular level, meaning old techniques are too old to use. As professor Vesna explains, nanotechnology works together like artists, and science ways must change and adapt because of the paradigm shift. (Vesna).

In Dr. Gimzewski’s lecture, he explained the creation of the talk about nanotechnology in 1959, Mr. Feynman. The talk was called “There’s plenty of room at the bottom”, where he explained the substantial amount of room at the atomic level to enhance new technology. Feynman’s interest was manipulating things at an atomic scale with the goal to prove there was an unlimited amount of room for growth. A challenge of his was for someone to write 25,000 pages of the Encyclopedia on a pinhead, which he later found out someone was capable of writing 260 million pages on the pinhead. He also established that on a “nanoscale”, the laws of physics change as gravity is taken over by thermal jittering and surface tension, and quantum mechanics takes over Newton’s classical mechanics. 

In art, nanotechnology has created possibilities that we before never imaginable. Artist Boo Chapel was able to learn the makeup of bones, and turn them into audio speakers. With certain voltage, the piezoelectric material (the bones) will fluctuate, which makes an audible sound. This is just one of many examples that shows nanotechnology opening the gates to a new world of the combination of technology, art, and science.

Sources

Egyptian Pharmacists Awareness Committee (EPAC) Follow. "Medical Applications of Nanotech. in Cancer Therapy." LinkedIn SlideShare. N.p., 01 July 2011. Web. 28 May 2017.

Gimzewski, Jim, and Victoria Vesna. “The Nanomeme Syndrome: Blurring of Fact & Fiction in the Construction of a New Science”. N.p., n.d. Web.27 May 2017.

Harichandraprasath Follow. "Nanotechnology (1)." LinkedIn SlideShare. N.p., 09 Mar. 2015. Web. 27 May 2017.

"Nanotechnology." Memorial Sloan Kettering. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 May 2017.

"Richard Feynman Introduces the World to Nanotechnology with Two Seminal Lectures (1959 & 1984)." Open Culture. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 May 2017.

“Visceral: Interview with Boo Chapel.” Sciencegallery.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 May 2017