According to the National Nanotechnology Initiative, "Nanotechnology is the study and application of extremely small things and can be used across all other science fields.." (Nano.gov). What some people may not be aware of, is that nanotechnology can not only be used in other fields of science, but it can be used in combination with art as well. By studying the way different forms of elements have different structures, artists and scientists can engineer new ways of seeing, sensing, and connecting with matter that is minuscule and abstract.
One invention that interested me was Boo Chapple's bone speakers. This invention clearly combines nanotechnology and art in the form of sound. Chapple discovered that by applying an electric charge to a piezoelectric material, you can change its shape. Rather than bone's piezoelectric properties coming from its primary material, it appears to derive from the collagen that holds the bone together. As described in the article titled "Bone-Rattling Sound: New speakers that are made from bone" on Fast Company, "Chapple realized that applying a current to bone at just the right frequency should make it vibrate like the diaphragm in an audio speaker." The bone responds and vibrates at the nanoscale.
Even more interestingly, Chapple is an artist, not a scientist. The goal of her project was to accomplish what all good art can, "make strange" otherwise familiar objects. In other words, music being produced through an audio speaker is something that is known, but process of creating an audio speaker with a bone takes something familiar, combines it with nanotechnology, and makes it something unfamiliar and innovative. Although this is a compelling argument, I also believe that this invention is somewhat of a paradox, because in order to utilize the bone for this new nanotechnological invention, it must be removed from its living context and used for something non-living.
Sources:
"What Is Nanotechnology?" What Is Nanotechnology? N.p., n.d. Web. 19 May 2015.
"Bone-Rattling Sound: New Speakers That Are Made From Bone." Fast Company. N.p., 02 Aug. 2012. Web. 19 May 2015.
"Art in the Age of Nanotechnology." Art.base. N.p., 11 Mar. 2010. Web. 19 May 2015.
Gimzewski, James K. "Nanotechnology and Art, Lecture 1." Web. 19 May 2015. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7jM6-iqzzE>.
Chapple, Boo. "Boo Chapple: The Post Modern Approach." BOO CHAPPLE (n.d.): 130-39. Web. 19 May 2015. <http://corpuseclectica.net/booimages/chapple.pdf>.
Nanotechnology. Digital image. Dartmouth Undergraduate Journal of Science. DUJS Online, Jan. 2009. Web. 19 May 2015.
John Curtin. Transjuicer, detail. Digital image. Real Time Arts. N.p., 2009. Web. 19 May 2015.
John Curtin. Transjuicer, installation view. Digital image. Real Time Arts. N.p., 2009. Web. 19 May 2015.
Hi Jordyn -
ReplyDeleteFirst off, I really appreciated your clear and concise explanation of nanotechnology, which I found to be a bit difficult of a topic to wrap my mind around. The bone speakers caught my attention as well and I was really intrigued by the way they used the collagen in bones. It's truly amazing the ways that these scientific concepts can be extended and applied to art and utilized by artists.