Harvestworks

Blue Morph

Blue Morph

with

Jim Gimzewski

Blue Morph by Victoria Vesna and nanoscientist Jim Gimzewski, is an interactive installation that uses nanoscale images and sounds derived from the metamorphosis of the Blue Morpho butterfly presented in historic St. Cornelius Chapel

Blue Morph by Victoria Vesna and nanoscientist Jim Gimzewski, is an interactive installation that uses nanoscale images and sounds derived from the metamorphosis of the Blue Morpho butterfly presented in historic St. Cornelius Chapel.

Nanotechnology is changing our perception of life and this is symbolic in the Blue Morpho butterfly with the optics involved — that beautiful blue color is not pigment at all but nano-photonic patterns and structure. The optics are fascinating but the real surprise is in the discovery of the way cellular change takes place in a butterfly. Sounds of metamorphosis are not gradual but rather the cellular transformation happens in sudden surges that are broken up with stillness and silence. 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, we propose the interactivity to be stillness for in this empty space of nano we can get in touch with the magic of continuous change. The piece fully emerges in sound and pattern only when the participant is STILL and SILENT.

Credits:

  • Surround sound: Paul Geluso
  • Sound processing: Gil Kuno
  • Interactivity: Paul Geluso, Tyler Adams, Miu Ling,
  • Danaus plexippus chrysalis recording: Andrew Pelling and Paul Wilkinson
  • Interactive seat construction: Romie Littrell
  • Knitted morph hat: Silvia Rigon
  • Installation Designa and Coordination: Aliki Potiris, Interns: Caitlin Morris, Nick Engel, Aliza Simons
  • Butterfly wing imaging: Marc Castagna, Senior Application Engineer, SEM operator. Thanks to Don Kenia, CEO of FEI Corp. for permission to use the Scanning Electron Microscope.
  • Morpho peleides and Danaus plexippus wings and pupa provided by Dr. Richard Stringer Department of Math, Science and Allied Health, Harrisburg Area Community College.

Victoria Vesna

VICTORIA VESNA, Ph.D., is an artist and professor in the UCLA Department of Design Media Arts and the founder/director of the Art|Sci Center at the School of the Arts and California NanoSystems Institute (CNSI). Trained as a painter at the University of Belgrade, her work now resides at the intersection of disciplines and technologies, focusing on experimental creative research. Her installations explore how communication technologies affect collective behavior and perceptions of identity in relation to scientific innovation. (Ph.D., CAiiA-STAR, University of Wales, 2000).

In collaboration with:

Jim Gimzewski

Dr. Gimzewski is a professor of Chemistry at the University of California, Los Angeles and member of the California NanoSystems Institute. Prior to joining the UCLA faculty, he was a group leader at IBM Zurich Research Laboratory, where he research in nanoscale science and technology for more than 18 years. Dr. Gimzewski pioneered research on mechanical and electrical contacts with single atoms and molecules using scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) and was one of the first persons to image molecules with STM. His accomplishments include the first STM-based fabrication of molecular superstructures at room temperature using mechanical forces to push molecules across surfaces, the discovery of single molecule rotors and the development of new micromechanical sensors based on nanotechnology, which explore ultimate limits of sensitivity and measurement. This approach was recently used to convert biochemical recognition into Nanomechanics. His current interests are in the nanomechanics and elasticity of cells and bacteria where he collaborates with the UCLA Medical and Dental Schools. He is involved in projects that range from the operation of X-rays, ions and nuclear fusion using pyroelectric crystals and single molecule DNA profiling. Dr. Gimzewski is involved in numerous art-science collaborative projects that have been exhibited in museums throughout the world. Amongst many honors and awards he is a Fellow of the Royal Society, FRS, has honorus causus doctorates in France and the UK and was voted a Wired 20. A Harvestworks Sponsored Project partially funded by the David Berman Foundation and the California Nanosystems Institute.