NanoForm

Well, I just need to put up another link. Christa Sommerer and Laurent Mignonneau are well known artists and in their nano-scape project they deal with very much the same questions we had at the last workshop. Haven’t experienced the installation myself, but those who have say it is not the big experience. It pretty much doesn’t say anything you didn’t know already. Anyway, here’s the link:

http://www.interface.ufg.ac.at/christa-laurent/WORKS/FRAMES/FrameSet.html

During one of the last discussions at Albanova on Saturday, Edith encouraged everyone to jot down a couple of bullets concerning our reactions/ observations from the workshop. For the sake of documentation and dissemination, the comments will be appended to this post. Arijana and I will start it off…

Arijana wrote:

The probe: an extension to the body and a tool for probing an unfamiliar material in an unfamiliar way. Paradoxically it can make the observer more sensitive to the material, because the mind is not familiar with the feedback from the probe in the same way as with the direct touch. Direct touch is directly connected with the interpretative system, and the interpretative system wants to take over with the familiar, recognisable as fast as it can. Observing the difference between touching and being touched.

Imagining a material through graph visualisation is very difficult. But on nano, atom level image is superfluous. Want to avoid the urge to make the material accessible by making it visible! Visual enlargement is too simple and banale?

Test with topology micrometer was very interesting because of the time/space aspect. Moving over extremely short spaces was very laborious and took a long time, as if traveling over a large landscape. This made the microlevel very physical. The passage of time enlarged the microlevel

The mystery of such smallness that is not visible to the eye. Compare with
microminiaturists and their more philosophical aspect of this. Not the same as immaterial, which I would connect more to electromagnetic waves or soundwaves, waves moving through space rather than particles. This is definitely still on particle level for me. But one can maybe use waves to transmit these particles (as with the magnetic probes)?

a link to some microminiature art

http://curiousexpeditions.org/2007/09/

Edith says: “Here goes the other reference i mentioned today: the perfumer who gave this cool talk on flagrances at the Harvard Graduate Schoolof Design
His name is christophe laudamiel. I found a few links”.

1. [cf. CL bio after poem]: http://memoryanddesire.typepad.com/blog/2008/03/laudamiel.html

2. interview: http://www.nsta.org/main/news/stories/science_teacher.php?news_story_ID=48898

3. laudamiel on youtube:) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K3Df_g7ZAvc

I promised to pass on the information from Edith. Here it is:

http://www.creativityandcognition09.org/keynotespeakers.htm

JOANN KUCHERA-MORIN
Director, Allosphere Research Laboratory,
California Nanosystems Institute, CA, USA.
Professor, Media Arts and Technology and Music.
Director, Center for Research in Electronic Art Technology,
University of California, Santa Barbara, CA, USA.

Dr. JoAnn Kuchera-Morin is a composer, Professor of Media Arts and Technology and Music, and a researcher in multi-modal media systems, content and facilities design. She created, built, and designed the Center for Research in Electronic Art Technology and is the Center Director since its inception in 1986. Her years of experience in digital media research led to the creation of a multi-million dollar sponsored research program for the University of California, the Digital Media Innovation Program. She was Chief Scientist of the Program from 1998 to 2003. In 2000 she began the creation, design, and development of a Digital Media Center within the California Nanosystems Institute. The culmination of her design is the Allosphere Research Laboratory, a three-story metal sphere inside an echo-free cube, designed for immersive, interactive scientific and artistic investigation of multi-dimensional data sets.

A composer of mixed media works, she received her Ph.D in 1984 from the Eastman School of Music, University of Rochester. Her current music research is focusing on a general purpose interface for control of digital information through natural performance gesture. A composer of primarily electro-acoustic works, her music has been performed throughout the United States, Europe and Asia.

This is a link to a Finnish design comapny that sales jewelery that contain nano technology that will store scent for a very long time. Leave you scent to your family members when you go for a long journey…
http://www.designforum.fi/Fennia_Prize_2009_HM_Kaipaus_en

Well, it’s almost time to get into the lab again.  Friday and Saturday next week mark the real start of the project in my opinion, in spite of all the preparations that Narendra, Cheryl, Arijana and everyone else have been attending to. On Friday, we will be at Konstfack from 9 to 21 and oon Saturday, it’s Albanova at KTH that is our base of activities (from 9.45 to 17).

Cheryl has also unveiled an official site for NanoForm. Take a look at

http://web.me.com/koler/NanoFormGiving/home.html

and get back to Cheryl with comments. You’ll have to log in to the site, but Cheryl sent that information out on the email list. See you on Friday!