24.11.2008, at 6 p.m.

 

 

 

American media artist, Victoria Vesna, and scientist, distinguished professor of chemistry and biochemistry at the University of California, James K. Gimzewski, during the first time ever visit in Poland will present the audience in Gdansk their unique artistic world created with the use of nanotechnology.

Their works can de described as an experimental multidisciplinary research at the cross roads of art, science and new technologies. The team researches what impact the new communication technologies exert on our collective behaviour and how our self-consciousness is being modified by the technological innovations. All their installations like, for instance, Blue Morph, Mood Swings and Water Bowls, are aiming at increasing our consciousness of natural systems.

The newest, “Blue Morph”, is raising our awareness how nanotechnology explorations are changing our perceptions of life in the world around us. This is symbolized by the newfound reality of the Blue Morpho butterfly. Blue Morpho has intrigued scientists for generations because of its subtle optical engineering that manipulates photons in amazing ways. With the use of advanced optics it is recognized that the beautiful blue colour of this butterfly is not pigment at all but rather patterns formed by nano. The optics are no doubt fascinating but the real surprise is in the discovery of the way cellular change takes place in a butterfly. The amplified sounds reveal the process both to be halting and violent contradicting our imagination of a gradual peaceful metamorphosis. In reality the cellular transformation happens in sudden surges of activity interspersed with stillness and silence. There are eight pumps or "hearts" that maintain a constant beat throughout the metamorphosis creating a pumping rhythm in the background.

Nano is not only making the invisible visible but also changing our way of relating to “silence” or making the in-audible audible. With all the noise of chattering technologies and minds, Vesna and Gimzewski propose the interactivity to be stillness. In this empty space of nano we can get in touch with the magic of continuous change.

 

  

 

www.nanotec.org.uk/evidence/53aJGSub.htm

http://www.artslant.com/la/events/show/13610-blue-morph

 

Projekt dofinansowany ze środków Ministra Kultury i Dziedzictwa Narodowego w ramach programu Edukacja kulturalna i upowszechnianie kultury.