In Particular

After some downtime, and an extended visit to India to discuss the work at the Indian Institute of Science, amongst other places (and get the project billed at Critics Choice in Time Out Bangalore!) I have hung the prints and fixed a private view date. So… here are the details, if anyone is in the Bedford/Milton Keynes area it would be nice to hook up!

In Particular – Private View

A drinks reception to launch In-Particular – an exhibition of works by Julie Freeman representing the culmination of an artist residency with Professor Jeremy Ramsden, at the Microsystems & Nanotechnology Centre, Cranfield University.
6 – 8pm Wednesday 6th May 2009

Vincent Building Atrium, Cranfield University, College Road, MK43 0AL

All guests will receive a limited edition copy of Nano Novels. But if you can't make it and would like a copy of the Nano Novels (limited edition of 1000) email me with your postal address and I can send one out.

Please RSVP to: [email protected]
Exhibition runs until September 2009. Free entry and fully accessible to all.

It's nearly over even though I've been eeeeking it out :( … although there's always the evaluation report to sweat over…

Website launched!

http://www.in-particular.net

It was actually launched a while back 17th November 2008, but I forgot to blog it here.

Nano Novels

I've been working up large scale images to support 'Nano Novels' I'm writing. V exciting. What I thought was going to be a set of cartoons about nanoparticles has transformed into a series of tiny stories that represent some form of process, reaction or material from the nanotechnology realm.

Why the switch? Because:

* conveying complex processes – such as how laser tweezers work – is hard enough in plain language let alone with hardly any words

* there is so much to say, and sketches of nanoparticles can't say it all

* I don't normally write, and I'm really into it so while it's happening I'm going with it

I also think I have to touch on a lot of issues and facts lightly. Delving deeply into a single aspect of this vast subject (and I mean vast – it will (and is) impact a huge percentage of the industrial world, and in turn our everyday lives), although tempting, will not satisfy my need to share what I am learning and wouldn't really be representative of the field-at-large. Later in the residency, some nanotech detail will be represented more abstractly by a physical piece of work.

So what I'm working on (with TP) is a set of Nano Novels, each accompanied by matching plain text:

OUT OF CONTROL – HOLD ME TIGHT
“In the mating season, the tiny female Slippranophus brightly bugs increase their velocity to more than ten times their usual pace, creating a challenge for any potential mate. Fortunately, due to a unique symbiotic relationship with a plant, the male bugs have evolved a technique to demobilise their chosen mate long enough for procreation to take place. The older males produce electroluminescent droppings that are placed near the female and these dazzling droppings temporarily stun her whilst impregnation occurs. It is believed that this faecal electroluminescence is created by the male Slippranophus brightly eating a diet of Gnipglowantha – a tiny weed that releases a curiously obscure chemical at dusk and grows in the Hartlepool region of the UK. As the faeces glow for less than a second, this fascinating natural phenomena has only recently been discovered.”

“Nanotechnology seeks to try to manipulate nanoparticles, something which is extremely hard to do. It is almost impossible to hold a single nanoparticle completely still – using optical tweezers is one method scientists use to capture and move individual particles. These 'tweezers' do not hold the nanoparticle in the traditional sense. Instead, the intense optical field separates electrical charges on the particle, causing it to acquire a pair of opposite electrical charges (poles—hence called a dipole). The interaction between the dipole and the optical field traps the particle at the point where the field is most intense. This intense field is created by focussing a high power laser, and the particle can be then moved by moving the laser.”

Art & Science Talks

I've finally got confirmations from speakers on 4 talks I'm organising at Cranfield. This part of the residency 'deal' was such an easy thing to write on an application form but it actually takes a lot of time and effort to find a good balance of interesting people to come and speak. Let alone the admin – book a room, get permission, talk to security, figure out who to ask to move a table, get a risk assessment on blu-tack, and so on…

My aim is to attract people from science, engineering and business to come and hear artists talking about their collaborative work in various disciplines, and maybe get inspired to work with artists themselves, or just to consider opening up research strands to include lateral subjects. I think I've got a great line-up:

1st October 2008 – Professor Paul Brown – artist

Subject: Can a robot evolve to demonstrate creative drawing behaviour?

15th October 2008 – Francesca Galeazzi – artist & architectural engineer

Subject: A recent expedition to the Arctic with Cape Farewell; preventing creativity freeze in the name of climate change awareness

29th October 2008 – Dr Emma Lawrence – experimental psychologist & Julie Freeman – me

Subject: Tricks of the Psych Trade: an artist/scientist collaborative event unraveled. How did a public understanding of science event get helped by art?

12 November 2008 – Anna Dimitriu – artist, founder of The Institute of Unnecessary Research

Subject: Talking to bacteria – our relationship to the everyday microbial world in which we co-exist, plus the importance of Unnecessary Research

The talks are free, and open to all, and are at 6pm, Building 52a Cranfield University. More info: http://www.in-particular.net/talk-series

I'm intrigued to see what kind of response I get – there are very few activities on campus that involve art (OK, well none) yet I speak to people here regularly who have a keen interest in art or who are artists 'on the side' as well as scientists.

Now to get the audience to come in the first place…