Week 8- NanoTech + Art

This week's topic is nanotech and art, closely related to robotics and art. When first going through this week's lectures, before hearing anything per se, I thought to myself, what does nano mean? In my head, nano meant extremely small. The closest thing I could think of to Nano is Ant-Man, the Marvel character. Upon further understanding the lecture, I learned that nanotech is essentially all the small particles that make up our environment. For example, all of the elements on the periodic table would be considered nano elements because we are unable to see them with the natural eye, but they exist all around us.

Ant-man: AKA nano-man

In the lecture, James K. Gimzewski talked about how the reason we can see color in glass is not because the glass is colored but because of the nanoparticles within the glass that show this color. Nanotech is combined with art in the sense that it shows color. Without nanotech and light, color would not be apparent, which is interesting to think about because it is not something that I have ever thought about. Now, looking around the room and seeing all these colors, I am trying to understand how nanotech is the reason for this.

Color in Nanoparticles

Lastly, in the TED talk by Ray Kurzweil, he talked about how things will get smaller and smaller as technology advances. This is crazy to think about because all those movies we used to watch when we were younger are real and possible. Maybe one-day people will be able to be shrunk too through nanotechnology, of course. This week's topic is nanotech and art which is closely related to robotics and art. 

                 Kurzweil, Ray. Ray Kurzweil: A University for the Coming Singularity | TED Talk. 

Sources 

Kurzweil, Ray. Ray Kurzweil: A University for the Coming Singularity | TED Talk. https://www.ted.com/talks/ray_kurzweil_a_university_for_the_coming_singularity. Accessed 24 May 2024.

Vesna, V. (n.d.). Nanotech for Artists Part 1 - Dr. Gimzewski. Lecture. UCLA DESMA 9 Week 8 2024.

Vesna, V. (n.d.). Nanotech for Artists Part 2 - Dr. Gimzewski. Lecture. UCLA DESMA 9      Week 8 2024.

Vesna, V. (n.d.). Nanotech for Artists Part 4- Dr. Gimzewski. Lecture. UCLA DESMA 9 Week 8 2024.

Vesna, V. (n.d.). Nanotech for Artists Part 5 - Dr. Gimzewski. Lecture. UCLA DESMA 9      Week 8 2024.