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Prior to this week's lectures, I had no idea what nanotech was or what the field encompassed. After watching Dr. Gimzewski's lectures, I was surprised and intrigued to learn about things such as nanoparticles which are in a surprisingly large amount of products on the market. I was also uninformed about nanomedicine like Abraxane but I think this field of medicine could certainly be the future. I was still unsure of how nanotechnology could relate to art after watching the lectures but the provided reading and some outside sources helped me realize the correlation.  In the reading by Professor Vesna and Dr. Gimzewski, they assert that nanotechnology operates on a scale that is past the point of comprehension for the human mind; therefore, humans turn to imagination when dealing with nanotechnology. And imagination is the essence of art. The two are connected by the human imagination and it can be argued that nanotechnology is an art form because it requires the utilizatio...

For this week's lecture, we turn our attention inward to the human mind and its connection to art. This intersection prompts the question of what it means to be conscious and unconscious as well as other topics. According to Professor Vesna's lecture, consciousness is "a sense of one's personal or collective identity, including the attitudes, beliefs, and sensitivities held by or considered characteristic of an individual or group" (Vesna).  Professor Vesna also defines unconsciousness which is "all the processes of the mind which are not available to consciousness" (Vesna). Some of these processes include perceptions, thoughts, hidden phobias, repressed feelings, and dreams. Like many artists, I find it so interesting that 95% of our dreams are forgotten and possibly stored in our subconscious. The concept of unconsciousness and the unconscious mind was developed by Freud and Jung. I was also really interested in the use of Franz Joseph Gall...

For my second event, I attended the Noise Aquarium curated by Professor Vesna and I am so glad I did. The Noise Aquarium was an eye-opening experience for me and shed light on a pressing ecological issue that is unknown to most people. The issue is the effect that human-made noise such as boats, sonar, fracking, etc. has on microscopic planktonic creatures. There has been scientific research to investigate the effect that these noises have on larger organisms but very little on the aforementioned issue. 3-D scan of a Cyanobacter Sp.  At the Noise Aquarium, 3-D scans of various plankton are blown up to the size of whales and projected onto a screen. Participants of the Noise Aquarium step onto a platform and trigger "destructive visual and audio noises" via their movement on the surface (Vesna). The goal is to find a balanced equilibrium on the platform to "save" the plankton. During my time on the platform, I was matched with a Paramecium.  Thankfully, after wa...

In recent history, the intersection of biotechnology and art has become increasingly intertwined. As noted by Professor Vesna, artists have always been interested in nature and the human body so it was only a matter of time until they entered the laboratory. Biotechnology as a whole and its relation to art is considered highly controversial and provokes the question of what is ethical and unethical. The concept of mixing biotechnology and art, according to Professor Vesna, was pioneered by Joe Davis. Joe Davis created a number of fascinating bio-artworks such as the Microvenus. With the help of geneticist Dan Boyd, Davis encoded the external female genitalia into E. coli bacterium's code to symbolize femininity (Cell Press). Joe Davis' Microvenus. Genetics and Culture. Biotechnology and art is not limited to bacterium; experiments and artworks have been crafted using animals as well. For example, Eduardo Kac inserted genes from a fluorescent jellyfish into an albino bunny ...