[ISEA2015] Paper: Maryse de La Giroday & Raewyn Turner — Steep (I): a digital poetry of gold nanoparticles

Abstract (Long paper)

Keywords: nanotechnology, gold, nanoparticles, myth, metaphor, nanoscale, macroscale, environment, art/science, poetry

Gold exists simultaneously as reality and myth in a kind of superposition (a term from quantum mechanics referring to the ability to simultaneously occupy two positions such as yes/no or one/zero). In ancient times, Kings Croesus and Midas were real life, historical figures that exist in contemporary life primarily as myths/metaphors referencing gold. More recent stories such as those of the Klondike and other gold rushes reinforce gold’s position in the imagination as an object of desire promising untold wealth and/or misery. There is another level where gold exists: as a material at the nanoscale, a nanoparticle. At this level, gold inhabits another superposition of sorts where it is inference (we can’t see at the nanoscale) but equipment which can sense nanoparticles renders the information visually to us as an object. Steep, a gold nanoparticle collaboration between Raewyn Turner, Brian Harris, Mark Wiesner, and Maryse de la Giroday along with a rotating list of collaborators is a multi-year, multidisciplinary, and multi-installation project exploring the superposition (mythic and real) posed by gold nanoparticles. Steep (I): digital poetry of gold nanoparticles, the first of the collaborations, is an artistic/poetic exploration of how these mythic/real particles may be affecting, changing, and disrupting the understandings we have of ourselves and our environments.

  • Maryse de la Giroday Science Writer/Blogger, Independent Scholar, Emerging Poet, Vancouver, Canada. I publish the largest, independent, science blog in Canada. FrogHeart (the blog) started as a research repository and outlet in 2008 for my MA project (the Nanotech Mysteries wiki) in Creative Writing and New Media (De Montfort University, UK). As an independent scholar, I have presented on the topic of nanotechnology at various conferences, most recently, the 2012 Society for the Study of Nanoscience and Emerging Technologies, and have taught both a nanotechnology and bioelectronics course for Simon Fraser University’s Continuing Studies programme. frogheart.ca
  • Raewyn Turner, Visual Artist (video, painting, sculpture, interactive installations) and Concept and Design Theatre Artist and Lighting Designer, Auckland, New Zealand. Raewyn Turner’s interdisciplinary work is concerned with cross-sensory perception and the uncharted territories of the senses. Her work has involved large scale international performance in stadiums, creating videos, films and interactive installations and performances, working solo as well as in collaboration with artists, musicians, architects, dancers, performers and academics on installations, theatre performances, exhibitions and screenings. She has worked with olfaction since 1999 and in collaboration with Dr Richard Newcomb, molecular biologist, NZ,;in 2011 she was recipient of a Fulbright Travel Grant for an artists residency at Monell Chemical Senses Center, Philadelphia. My works have been shown in numerous national and international exhibitions and performances, including Wallace Awards 2015, 5th Congress Synesthesia Science and Art 2015 Spain, ISEA2013, Museum of Contemporary Art, LA, Parque de las Ciencias, Granada, Spain, 11th Prague Quadrennial of Scenography and Theatre Architecture 2007, Prumyslovy Palace, Prague, Argentina, Georges Pompidou Center, Te Papa Museum, and Academy of Fine Arts New Zealand. raewynturner.com

Full Text (PDF)  p. 190-196