Week 8: Nanotech + Art

At first I was a bit confused about the topic of “nantechonology”. This could be because I’m the not

the brightest kid in the room when talking about science. Literally, if I do not have a pen and paper down to write notes and I’m only suppose to receive information by ear…then you just wasted a few minutes of your life trying to explain something to me. Sorry.

I believe it was when the professor mentioned how Drexler wished to rearrange to molecules of dirt to make a hamburger out of dirt (Youtube), that I began to understand what technology is and how it is associated with art.  It’s, “…new ways of seeing, sensing, and connecting with matter that’s miniscule and abstract, (Anonymous).”

Take for instance the automotive industry. Jeff Dobbs (Global Sector Chairman, Industrial Manufacturing KPMG) comments that these days you do not need to a mine a material to make a product, you can make it yourself. In the automotive industry, nanocomposites are already being used and they have aided in achieving a 10-15 percent weight and strength improvement with a promise of 20-25 percent. (KPMG).

(In case you want more info on nanotech from the perspectives of major company owners who incorporate nanotechnology into their products to come out in the market on top of all the competitors!>>>>>)

Nanotechnology instills the idea of simplicity out of complexity. Like now, we don’t need a certain material to make a certain thing. We don’t need to follow steps to make an end. Instead, we can literally think outside the box and introduce a totally alien or “un-though-of” possibility to an impossibility. I think that it where the relationship to art comes in; the end product of where innovation is born from the once impossible.

This is clip of Malcolm Douglas Chaplin,  winner in the World Guinness Book of Records for creating the world’s smallest book using nanotechonology!

Works Cited

Anonymous. "Art in the Age of Nanotechnology." Art.base. Anonymous, 11 Mar. 2010. Web. 08 

                June 2015.

"Canadian Artist Uses Nanotechnology, Enters Guinness Book of World Records." YouTube. 

                YouTube, 3 Nov. 2012. Web. 7 June 2015.

Gimzewski, Jim. "Nanotech for Artists Part 1 Dr. Gimzewski." YouTube. YouTube, 21 May 2012. 

                Web. 8 June 2015.

Gimzewski, Jim. "Nanotech Jim Pt2." YouTube. YouTube, 21 May 2012. Web. 08 June 2015.

 KPMG Channel. "Art Of The Possible: Nanotechnology." YouTube. YouTube, 8 Dec. 2014. Web. 

                )8 June 2015.

Event #3: Singular Spaces: From the Eccentric to the Extraordinary in Spanish Art Environments

 One the same day that I found myself at the GagaWaka exhibit at the Fowler Museum at UCLA, I also found myself trailing along the wall of the museum, gazing at the works of various Spanish artists and the photographs of Spanish art environments (photographed and documented by Jo Farb Hernandez).

Of all the unit topics thus far I believe this exhibit to be associated with the overall class of the relationship of the two cultures and “neuroscience and art”. This could seen with the fusing of sculptures or paintings with buildings, the photographer’s use of identifying a space with her lens, and the reasons for creating such art in regards to the Spanish artists.

The works of the artist-builders are typically considered “outside art”. This is because their works deal with their use of space which characteristically involves personal spaces like the home, farms, or gardens.  These artists fuse art with life making their works become, “…a visual cradle-to-grave accounting of how their creators have spent their lives and what was important to them.” (Hernandez). It is because of the fuse of the lives of the artists and their works that I see the relationship of neuroscience and art with their pieces.

For instance, one of the artist had a few tragic experiences in his life; one involving the death of his and then the death of his son. He tends to believe that demons exist on the earth, around living beings; thus, his works are of various demons that he envisions (he places the sculptures around his house). It is almost a message to the public that demons live among us by bringing a real life (although inanimate) demon into the realities of everyday people. 

Works Cited

"“Art Environments: Curatorial Roles and Responsibilities” by Jo Farb Hernandez." YouTube. 

                YouTube, 28 Apr. 2015. Web. 07 June 2015. 

Hernanzez, Jo Farb. Singular Spaces. 12 Apr. 2015. From the Eccentric to the Extraordinary in 

            Spanish Art Environments. Fowler Museum at UCLA, Los Angeles, California.

Vesna, Victoria. "Neuroscience Pt3." YouTube. YouTube, 16 May 2012. Web. 18 May 2015.

Vesna, Victoria. "Neuroscience Pt3." YouTube. YouTube, 16 May 2012. Web. 18 May 2015.

Vesna, Victoria. "Neuroscience-pt1.mov." YouTube. YouTube, 17 May 2012. Web. 18 May 2015.