Week 8: Nanotechnology and Art

This week's lecture gave a powerful deep-dive into the timeline of nanotechnological developments and their various applications ranging from materials science to medical technologies, and food/agriculture. The lectures were hosted by Dr. Gimzewski who pioneered research on mechanical and electrical contacts with single atoms and molecules using scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) and was one of the first persons to image molecules with STM (Gimzewski 1998).

The first nanotechnology artwork that truly fascinated me originates from the fourth century AD. Throughout my undergraduate physics and chemistry lectures, my understanding was that nanotechnology is an emerging field and not much was known until the paradigm shifts provided by scientists such as Richard Feynman. The Lycurgus cup from the British Museum collection shows that despite scientific advancements, nanoparticles and structures were in usage and this represents an example of a Dichroic glass (Daw). The dichroic glass changes color once light passes through it and the phenomenon of dichroism was explained in 1990 upon using a STM (Bayda et al.). 

The Lycurgus cup: The glass appears green in reflected light and red-purple in transmitted light. (Source: Daw)

Another fascinating demonstration of how nanotechnology has enabled scientific development is demonstrated by the short stop-motion movie created by IBM in 2013. It is titled "A Boy and his Atom" and is considered the world's smallest film. The film was made by moving carbon monoxide molecules with a STM which magnifies them a 100 million times (Healey). The relevance of this film is not only to demonstrate through art the power of modern tools such as the STM, but also to show the world’s smallest magnetic memory bit, made of just 12 atoms (generally requires millions of atoms). As computing power has expanded since then, we are now capable of living in a world with artificial intelligence and other tools which are making strides in the art industry.

A Boy and His Atom (Source: IBM)

The final art piece that I found particularly captivating was "The Nano Mandala" created by Professor Victoria Vesna and Dr. Gimzewski. The installation consists of a video projected onto a disk of sand, 8 feet in diameter. Visitors can touch the sand as images are projected in evolving scale from the molecular structure of a single grain of sand - achieved my means of a scanning electron microscope (SEM) - to the recognizable image of the complete mandala, and then back again. I found this quote by the artists very insightful: "Inspired by watching the nanoscientist at work, purposefully arranging atoms just as the monk laboriously creates sand images grain by grain, this work brings together the Eastern and Western minds through their shared process centered on patience" (Nanomandala). 

The Nanomandala by Professor Vesna

These works of art all serve to demonstrate the intersection of arts, science, and technology which has been a recurring theme throughout all of the blogs. What sets nanotechnology apart, however, is that it serves to manipulate art at its most fundamental level: atoms and molecules.

References:

Bayda, Samer, et al. "The history of nanoscience and nanotechnology: from chemical–physical applications to nanomedicine." Molecules 25.1 (2019): 112.

Daw, Rosamund. “Nanotechnology Is Ancient History.” The Guardian, 24 Apr. 2012, www.theguardian.com/nanotechnology-world/nanotechnology-is-ancient-history.

Gimzewski, James. "Molecules, nanophysics and nanoelectronics." Physics World 11.6 (1998): 29.

Healey, Nic. “A Boy and His Atom: A Film Made with Individual Atoms.” CNET, 1 May 2013, www.cnet.com/culture/a-boy-and-his-atom-a-film-made-with-individual-atoms/.

“Nanomandala.” NANO, nano.arts.ucla.edu/mandala/mandala.php. Accessed 24 May 2023.

Media References:

1. Daw, Rosamund. “Nanotechnology Is Ancient History.” The Guardian, 24 Apr. 2012, www.theguardian.com/nanotechnology-world/nanotechnology-is-ancient-history.

2. “A Boy and His Atom: The World’s Smallest Movie.” YouTube, 30 Apr. 2013, www.youtube.com/watch?v=oSCX78-8-q0.

3. “Nanomandala.” NANO, nano.arts.ucla.edu/mandala/mandala.php. Accessed 24 May 2023.