Written by Cris Orfescu on 06 April 2012
Sameer Walavalkar, "Birth of Venus and an eyelash", Nano Art etching
“Nano Art: Reloaded” is the name of a project started by Sameer Walavalkar, a post-doctoral scholar at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in Pasadena , California, working in the field of Nanotechnology. He is planning to use Silicon, Gold, and Platinum as media. With a Focused Ion Beam and using the Silicon as his “canvas” he is etching classical paintings, portraits, and text. After etching, Sameer is visualizing the artworks with a Scanning Electron Microscope and captures their images for printing. In his virtual gallery on Flickr you will be able to view works like “Nano Art on the head of a pin”, “President Obama on a grain of salt”, “George Washington and an eyelash”, “Birth of Venus and an eyelash”, and more. He can also etch custom designed nano-compositions. You can send him a picture with your subject or your text and he can etch it for you.
Walavalkar started a Kickstarter project and the sponsors who decide to support the project at the level of $100 or greater will get a framed glossy print of their customized etching with the chip mounted on the print. “I’m not an artist by profession, and I’m not focused on exhibiting Nano Art. Instead, I want to make personalized art for you to keep, display, or give as a gift. Kickstarter gives me the opportunity to offer you these made-to-order pieces basically at cost, (i.e. without any markups,) with your support acting as a seed to launch this idea! … So not only do you get art to hang on your wall, you also get your very own sample of nanotechnology!”, Sameer says. The above image is what a template for the framing would look like.
Tags: Caltech, etching, Focused Ion Beam, Nano Art, Nanotechnology, scanning electron microscope
Posted in NanoArt, Nanoscience | 1 Comment »
Written by Carol Flaitz on 30 March 2012
Carol Flaitz, "Stuck on the Right Side of the Brain"
We are all users of technology. We trip through Internet pages and Facebook posts with abandon, spending a moment on a friend’s profile, a few more on a blog post, perhaps we wander onto YouTube or pause on the homepage of The New York Times. But what we often fail to do is stop: consider the forces at work that facilitate these meanderings online and wonder about the technology that makes it all possible.
For a few, the technological foundation of the age of the Internet, computers, and iPods is not just an intellectual consideration, but an inspiration. The nanotechnology that makes a 21st century lifestyle possible, and the microscopic biology that makes life possible at all, furnishes more than casual illustrations in a science textbook. It inspires art. It is art. After all, if one really thinks about it, art is created based on the things that make us tick, even when what makes us tick is invisible to the human eye.
From February 3-March 2, 2012 the artwork of six artists inspired by the world of nanotechnology was on display at the George Waters Gallery at Elmira College in Elmira, NY.
“One Billionth of a Meter,” an exhibition of artwork by Carol Flaitz and five other artists working with microscopic images, was on display at the George Waters Gallery at ElmiraCollegein Elmira, NY, from February 3-March 2, 2012. The exhibit uses mixed media paintings of microscopic technology to explore the “social contract” human society has made with today’s digital infrastructure. Accompanying her work are digital prints by artists Jean Constant (France), Bjoern Daempfling (Germany), Robert Fairfax (USA), Frances Geesin (UK), Maria Matheus (Brazil), Chris Robinson (USA), Anna Ursyn (USA), and Cris Orfescu (USA). Orfescu’s annual NanoArt 21 competition has brought international artists together in a conversation about how electron microscopy images are worth exploring not just for their scientific purposes, but also as fine art. When asked about her work, Carol Flaitz explains that she fell in love with the idea that powerful landscapes could be found at a scale so small, invisible to the human eye. “It is a metaphor for the infinite power of digital technology in the 21st Century,” she explains. “Within my lifetime, humanity has become beholden to a man-made world we cannot see, touch, or feel.”
Dr. Phil Flaitz, a senior engineer who works in material science and patent research with IBM, took the original images. Carol Flaitz abstracted the nano-photography into two-dimensional pencil designs on wood, and then submerged it beneath layers of color, texture and glazes until a compelling landscape was born. Originally a ceramic artist, Carol Flaitz combines the organic feel of ceramic glazing with two-dimensional painting techniques to distort the original, utilitarian nature of the photography into something beautiful and inspiring.
“I find it curious that microscopic images can be so beautiful, reminiscent of the finest landscapes, and indicative of the fine line that separates nature and technology,” Carol explains.
Carol’s artistic career began at the age of thirteen under the instruction of Katherine Nelson, a student of Hans Hoffman. She received her Bachelors of Fine Arts from the prestigious College of Ceramics at Alfred University in Alfred, NY, and then went on to receiver her Masters in Fine Art from the University of Wales in Cardiff, Great Britain. Carol has shown her artwork at galleries across the Hudson Valley Region, in New York City, and internationally. Most recently, she took part in an exhibition in Cologne, Germany, titled, Planet Earth: Planet Art.
Tags: art, NanoArt 21, Nanotechnology
Posted in NanoArt | 2 Comments »
Written by Cris Orfescu on 26 March 2012
Cris Orfescu, "Quantum Tunneling", nanosculpture, image print on canvas
NanoIsrael 2012 is hosting an exhibition of invited works of art based on nanotechnology. 24 international artists will exhibit at this event their NanoArt works. The exhibition was curated by Cris Orfescu and co-sponsored by NanoArt 21 and Epson.
The exhibition was acknowledged by major publications like Haaretz, which is similar to the Wall Street Journal for Israel, a newspaper read by the local elite and by decision makers. The show is hosted at David InterContinental Hotel in Tel Aviv, during the conference period, March 26-27.
After the exhibition, the artworks will be donated to different Universities to spread the knowledge about NanoArt as a new art discipline and movement reflecting the progress of the technology and science.
Tags: art, exhibition, NanoArt 21, NanoIsrael 2012, science, technology
Posted in NanoArt, Nanotechnology | No Comments »
