CFN News: The Era of Molecular Aesthetics
CFN Junior Research Group Fruk Supports »Molecular Aesthetics« Symposium at the ZKM with her Expertise.
We are on the threshold of a materials revolution, which penetrates the molecular levels of matter under the name of ‘Nanotechnology’. Thanks to these advancements new developments are to be expected which will change aesthetic practice.
Molecular aesthetics today is equivalent to what was known as materials science in the Bauhaus era of the 20s. New industrial materials such as metals, wood, plexiglas and aluminum were used as raw materials at that time. These materials were characterized by their macroqualities.
Today, driven by developments in nanotechnology, material science advances onto the molecular length scale and is thereby enabled to influence and determine the properties of materials in completely new ways.
The methods of modern computer science allows for perceptions of these material in ways legal different form traditional concepts by visualizing atoms, molecules and even subatomic particles.
Speech and Exhibits
Thanks to the collaboration with the DFG Center for Functional Nanostructures (CFN), which focuses on researching nanostructures with specific functionalities, the ZKM | Centre for Art and Media Technology wants to open up new paths for art and science. The goal is to initiate an interdisciplinary exchange of opinions and ideas, which could lead to a new definition of aesthetic experience. Dr. Ljiljana Fruk, head of the Nanobiology junior research group at the CFN, is helping to organize this symposium and will give a speech on Sunday, 17/7/2011 entitled “Double Life of the Double Helix – DNA, More Than a Building Block of Life". Additionally, there will be exhibits from her group on show at the ZKM centred on the topic "Molecules which Change the World".
The symposium »Molecular Aesthetics « is part of a project focusing on creativity and innovation launched in 2007 by the State Ministry of Baden-Württemberg executed jointly by the ZKM and Schloss Solitude Academy in Stuttgart. It also takes place as part of the International Year of Chemistry.
"Molecular Aesthetics” symposium, Fri-Sun 15-17/07/11,
ZKM Medientheater and ZKM Kubus in Karlsruhe
For more information please contact the ZKM directly.