Skip to main content

Posts

Event #3

           For my third event, I decided to attend Jeanine Oleson’s art exhibition called Conduct Matters at the Hammer Museum.   I found that this exhibit was a premier example of the usage of contemporary art inspiration with the field of science.   From my perspective, it seemed that the inspiration for this piece was in the production and economic aspects of the formation of copper, as well as how these processes affect people as consumers in our society.   I feel that she was juxtaposing our need for commodities such as copper with our extreme lack of knowledge regarding where these commodities come from and the effort and resources it takes to produce them.   This parallels with the lack of connection that we, as a society, feel with our bodies and with art in general.   All of these factors created an extraordinarily unique art exhibition, that left me partially confused and mostly intrigued on how Oleson...

Week 8: Nanotech + Art

Lotus flower. I came into this week having little to no knowledge about nanotechnology, and while I still found myself getting a little lost during the lecture videos, I feel like I learned important information about a topic that is extremely relevant in the scientific world today.   In the lecture video part 3, one topic that really caught my attention was when Professor Gimzewski introduced the compound called titanium dioxide.   This nanoparticle has self-cleaning properties that are also found in the Asian Lotus plant.   When looking at the lotus plant with a reflection electron microscope, you can see that the leaves are not smooth, but instead have small waxy bumps.    This design has been adopted in the nanotechnology field to create surfaces that are water resistant and self-cleaning.   I think this technology can and will be extremely useful in several instances in our society.   Being able to manufacture materials th...