The inaugural ArtNano works, NanoWorld, www.artnanoinnovations.com, sponsored by Ronald Feldman Fine Arts New York, www.feldmangallery.com, is being held at The Armory Show, Pier 94, New York, on March 6-9th, 2014, www.thearmoryshow.com.
The Trillion Dollar Nano Solution to Artificial Photosynthesis. Image copyright 2014 Todd Siler, ArtNanoInnovations.
I have experienced, more or less every day for the past two years, working with renowned artist Todd Siler, www.toddsilerart.com, the emergence of his vision of the Nano World. This happened literally from the bottom-up, where I had the pleasure of observing first-hand the transformation of the beauty of my NanoScience World, www.nanowizardry.info, sketch-by-sketch, color-by-color, mold-by-mold, into the aesthetics of his ArtScience world, through the medium of his paintings and sculptures, www.artnanoinnovations.com.
My scientific career began deep down in the nanometer-scale world of materials more than four decades ago. It is a truism that much of my inspiration working in this field has derived from the aesthetics of the shapes and colors that pervade this small world, and their orchestration into purposeful technologies.
Today I am enthralled to see how Todd Siler, in a glorious burst of brilliant hues, daring images and organic forms, has captured the essence of this tiny world in a myriad of stirring, inspiring and thought-provoking ArtNano works. Within each of Todd Siler’s abstract impressions of the Nano World, I see the heart, I touch the pulse and I feel the excitement of Nanotechnology. This is a field I helped mold from the atom up and Todd Siler now challenges us through his art work to visualize the Nano World from the top down.
Nano Scale – Think Billionths of a Meter. Image copyright 2014 Todd Siler, ArtNanoInnovations.
Often, without even knowing, the Nano World is touching the lives of all of humankind, through its global impact as a cornucopia of advanced materials and biomedical technologies. These are used in numerous practical things many of us take for granted in large part because we neither see them without the aid of sophisticated microscopy nor are aware of how they work; consequently, we may not appreciate how they evolved from the bottom to have the transformative effects they have on our day-to-day existence.
Todd Siler’s passion to engage our imagination, to spark curiosity and inspire wonder by illuminating the hidden Nano World in new ways through his metaphorical art work marks an extraordinary contribution to both art and science.
At the core of the Nano World is a periodic table of about a hundred elements. They have been combined in innumerable ways through chemistry and made into countless nano systems, built from individual components with nano meter scale dimensions. These versatile nano components can be fashioned in a spectrum of shapes resembling spheres, wires, rods, sheets and tubes. And these shapes, in turn, can be assembled into hierarchical architectures intentionally designed to have form and function frequently akin to those found in the natural world.
In a profusion of colors and forms, Todd Siler’s Nano World ingeniously captures the ‘Nano Advantage’, the distinctive feature of nano scale materials that differentiates them from all other materials at larger scales whereby their behavior changes with size. Amazingly, even the addition or subtraction of a single atom can influence the chemical, physical and biological properties of nano scale materials. From this infinity of choices emerges the ‘Nano Advantage’ with its promise of infinite opportunities for the discovery of new nano science and a springboard for the development of a wealth of new nano technologies.
Nature Invents – Humanature Innovates Image copyright 2014 Todd Siler, ArtNanoInnovations.
Todd Siler has ‘metaphormed’ (connected and transformed) the panoscopic vision of the world of integrated nano systems into his symbolization of the Nano World. Moreover, these works of art help us creatively see, think, discover, and learn about how the human mind and nature connect diverse information and ideas, transforming them into new meanings that can spark innovative thinking in all of us.
Todd Siler’s passion to engage our imagination, to spark curiosity, and inspire wonder by illuminating the hidden Nano World in new ways through his metaphorical art work marks an extraordinary contribution to both art and science. It is a joy for me to have facilitated and experienced the creative way he has portrayed my Nano World of Science in his Nano World of Art.
