Synthesism

Background: “Nano-art” is an emerging field of inter-disciplinary practice which engages with the realm of molecular matter. Molecular Aesthetics (2013), by Peter Weibel and Ljiljana Fruk, is an overview which examines artists and designers working in this field, often in collaboration with scientists, but to date nobody has directly synthesized novel molecular forms that allow for a direct aesthetic experience. Contribution In 2018, I was awarded an ANAT SYNAPSE residency at the CSIRO Advanced Manufacturing materials precicnt. For a year I worked on site, collaborating with chemists researching Metal Organic Frameworks (MOFs), a novel class of programmable molecules which have unique and complex structures. I experimented with the nature of chemical synthesis, and how this could be materially manifested. Using the MOF chemicals directly, I developed experiments that synthesized audio-visual MOF phenomena. This was a very complex process, and I worked with over a dozen scientists and engineers, namely site director Deborah Lau, lab director Xavier Mulet, plus MOF specialists Michael Batten and Joseph Olorunyomi. The results were presented in-situ at the CSIRO, in a recently decommissioned laboratory complex, which also included expressively enhanced yet functional re-productions of the experiments involved. The exhibition was opened by Vicky Sowry, the Director of ANAT. Significance No artists have previously developed their own MOF chemicals, or have been allowed to set up laboratory installations at the CSIRO. The project was reviewed in both CSIRO and ANAT publications, and I have been asked by Springer to write a chapter on this work for the upcoming book “Nanomaterials as Art: Synergies of Science and Design”. This project has also led to further projects between RMIT and the CSIRO, including scientist lectures for the“Superstudio” and “Microplastics Global Design Studio”, and a student field trip to the CSIRO in February 2020.