5 Wondrous Ways People Used Science To Make Art
Science appeals to the mind and art appeals to the heart, but when you get right down to it, they aren't so different. The beauty of our natural world is often described as a work of art, and there is science behind our perception of beauty. but using accidence as an art medium is special, as it can appeal to those who think science is beyond their understanding. Like the time Via Muniz etched a castle on a grain of sand.
It wasn't at all simple.
If you’re thinking they did it with a laser, you’re wrong. The laser beam was too big, so they used a focused ion beam scanning electron microscope, the thing used to see some of the smallest things in existence. The sandcastles were created by MIT Media Lab designer Marcelo Coelho and artist Vik Muniz, who spent four years crafting four incredibly minuscule sandcastles on sand grains less than a tenth of an inch across.
Preparing and selecting the suitable grains was just as tricky as the highfalutin’ beam technology used to etch it. The grains were first cleaned in methanol to remove oily imperfections, then acetone to clean off the methanol, and then sieved to separate those of the right size: under half a millimeter, or less than 0.04 inches.
But that was just the beginning of this painstaking project. Read the rest, plus the stories of four other projects that harnessed science to produce art at Cracked.