Spirited Skies project: Silica Aerogel in Art and Design Applications
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Spirited Skies project: Silica Aerogel in Art and Design Applications Michaloudis Ioannis1 and Matthew van Roden1 1 Charles Darwin University, Creative Arts and Humanities, Ellengowan Dr. Casuarina, NT 0810, Australia ,
ABSTRACT This comparative study on two interdisciplinary artistic practices aims to improve public perception of scientific research and to facilitate informed decision making regarding climate change and how it affects everyday life. It also hopes to break down (or bridge?) the isolated silos of Art and Science, by emphasizing the role of imagination as a tool of creation and innovation in the new economies of the 21st century. Notwithstanding the ephemeral appearance of the super-light nanomaterial silica aerogel used by Ioannis Michaloudis (Michalous) in his sculptures, the longevity of some of his art seems guaranteed: two works, Bottled Nymph and Noli Me Tangere have been selected to be rocketed to the moon as part of the MoonArk sculpture. The sculptures will be aboard a Space X Falcon 9 rocket launched in 2018 from Cape Kennedy in an Astrobotic Robotic Lunar Mission, and will remain on the moon, potentially, for billions of years. Spirited Skies is a project where we experience by touching other forms of longevity of the ephemeral silica aerogel. Filling double jacketed borosilicate glass vials with aerogel skies and clouds in a unique way, Michaloudis transforms every day’s life trivial objects into art. And whilst Michaloudis is seeding the heavens and landing his artwork onto the moon, a Masters student under his supervision, Matthew van Roden is waxing and waning back here on earth. Van Roden’s material of choice is wax, which he pushes through various artistic disciplines to extrapolate its flesh like qualities.
INTRODUCTION The primacy of materiality has always underpinned creative practice throughout history. The artist has always in some way sought to master the material, be it marble, clay, an almost endless array of bound pigments applied to differing surfaces; all producing singular effects. Innovation for creative practice is in finding new technologies for employing materials, discover new materials to use, and exploring the way in which presenting those materials creates new meanings. This fundamental connection of materiality and meaning reveals something of our nature as meaning machines and of the role of the artist in developing ‘technologies of meaning’. Materials speak to us. Their properties convey value; they give us information about our place in the world and draw out our desires. Silica aerogel is a nanomaterial considered by Michaloudis as the incarnation of meaning. Its immateriality drives the authors to measure it not as a tangible material. And it is not: it is not like other conventional foams, but is a special porous material. This exotic substance has many unusual properties, such as low thermal conductivity, refractive index- in addition to its exceptional ability to capture fast moving dust, cf. Stardust project. Silica aerogel is made by
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