Week 8: Nanotechnology and Art

I really enjoyed the article by Professors Gimzewski and Vesna this week, as I feel that it highlights a fascinating subject in art and science: the distortion of our visual reality. We have gotten to the point in science that we are not directly observing many things; we use instruments to assist our eyes. Nanotechnology and astronomy are the polar extremes of this phenomenon. We are probably at a plateau in terms of macro observation in science. This directly influences how we perceive things and how we choose to portray those things (Gimzewski and Vesna).

An electron microscope image of HIV, which we cannot hope to see without modern technology

One of the most artistic elements of using powerful visualization tools comes in how we present the findings. The image above is true color. That is, the image a computer produces is entirely in greyscale, as electrons do not produce color wavelengths (viruses are actually smaller than color wavelengths) (Pivarski). Instead, artists choose to falsely color these images to produce beautiful contrasts (Wolfe).

A beautiful falsely-colored image of quasicrystals, which are microscopic structures

Another powerful direction that art can take with nanotech will eventually be experiments dealing with the human body, much like we discussed earlier this quarter with medicine and art. Scientists hope to one day use nanobots to monitor people's internal statistics, like blood pressure, Sodium levels, and oxygen saturation ("Google Nanobots"). Recently, a cockroach was injected with DNA nanobots, which respond to specific chemical signals in order to correct or augment a biochemical process (Amir et al.). This could lead to nanobots that can change our skin tone, hair color, or even eye color in response to different environments. A talented artist would be able to use their entire body as a canvas for such reactions.

Google X Nanoparticles, which may be used to monitor our health one day

All in all, the important thing about this marriage of nanotech and art is the visual barrier that it is breaking. Art will always have more of an emphasis on what we can see, so I look forward to the creative ways artists will display that which we cannot really visualize.


References:

Amir, Yaniv, Eldad Ben-Ishay, Daniel Levner, Shmulik Ittah, Almogit Abu-Horowitz, and Ido Bachelet. "Universal Computing by DNA Origami Robots in a Living Animal." Nature Nanotechnology 9 (2014). Print.
 
Gimzewski, Jim, and Victoria Vesna. "The Nanomeme Syndrome: Blurring of Fact & Fiction in the Construction of a New Science." UCLA Arts (2004). Online.

"Google Nanobots: Early Warning System for Cancer, Heart Disease inside the Body." RT USA. 28 Oct. 2014. Web. 21 May 2015.
 
Pivarski, Jim. "Viruses Have No Color." Coffeeshop Physics. Web. 21 May 2015.

Wolfe, Alexandra. "NanoArt's Tiny Masterpieces." The Wall Street Journal 12 Sept. 2014, Exhibit sec. The Wall Street Journal. Web. .  



HIV Electron Microscopy <http://histology.leeds.ac.uk/what-is-histology/assets/HIV_EM.gif>

Quasicrystal Wonderland <http://si.wsj.net/public/resources/images/BN-EL720_0909ex_J_20140909152303.jpg>

Google X Nanoparticles <http://www.extremetech.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/78587819_google_nanoparticles_rounded_624_v2-e1414591522214.gif>