Week 8: Nanotechnology and Art
Nanotechnology is the use of matter on an atomic scale with the goal of producing new structures, materials, and devices (CDC). Nanotechnology is a relatively new industry, and the lack of knowledge surrounding this field contributes to the messages communicated by nanotech-related artworks. Nanotech-in art explores the unseen and the invisible. It opens an audience’s perspective to a hidden world and invites them to explore how their humanness affects their perspectives (Ginzewski and Vesna). While it’s relatively unknown, many artists use nanotechnology to communicate the lived experiences of human beings.
For instance, artist Eili Levy explores a whimsical hidden world here within a single water droplet on hydrophobic surfaces, which serves as an allegory for the journeys that a human soul takes on (ILH Staff). Another artist, Filipe Rocha da Silva, makes artwork on a nanoscale, portraying people, buildings, and consumer goods that cannot be seen individually from far away (Spector). His artwork comments on the detriments of commercialism, as overproduction, causes objects to lose value, and consequently lose the emotional meanings attached to them.
Nanotechnology in art seeks to close the chasm between science and art (Loeve). Art is commonly known as a visual field (not to discount the use of all five senses in many artworks), which nanotechnology genuinely goes unnoticed by the human eye (Loeve). Art makes nanoscience visible and encourages people to reckon with their ignorance of complicated structures we can not observe on our own. Art brings power to nanomaterials with the intention of bringing greater awareness and showcasing them to the general public.
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Works Cited
Bobrow, Vardi. Stretching Boundaries. 2021.
CDC. “Nanotechnology.” CDC, 10 Dec. 2021, https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/topics/nanotech/default.html.
Gimzewski, Jim, and Victoria Vesna. “The Nanomeme Syndrome: Blurring of Fact & Fiction in the Construction of a New Science.” Arts UCLA, http://vv.arts.ucla.edu/publications/publications/02-03/JV_nano/JV_nano_artF5VG.htm. Accessed 20 May 2022.
Goldman, Ella. Here and There. 2021.
ILH Staff. “What Does Nanotechnology Have To Do With Art.” Israel Hayom, 2021, https://www.israelhayom.com/2021/07/05/what-does-nanotechnology-have-to-do-with-art/.
Loeve, Sacha. “Design and Aesthetics in Nanotechnology.” Philosophy of Engineering and Technology, Springer International Publishing, 2018, pp. 361–84, http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-89518-5_22.
Rocha da Silva, Filipe. Siamese Twins 1. 2015.
Spector, Tami I. "Nanotechnology, Nanoscale Science and Art." Leonardo, vol. 41 no. 4,
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