Advanced Nanotechnology for Beginners

2016 - 2017

Commissioned by The University of Texas at Austin. Presented in Omnibus Filing, an exhibition at the Visual Arts Center, UT Austin. Curated by James Sham and Brian Korgel.

The Institute for Higher Listening is a moving platform for the exchange of ideas. It takes a different form every time it changes location. It uses methods of propaganda, advertising and scientific research to magnify the crossing points of biological evolution, human history, and entropy.

For Institute: Location Five, I built a loft and lived in the ‘unused’ top six feet of space of Dr Brian Korgel’s office on the top floor of the Norman Hackerman Building, which also houses the Korgel Group Nanomaterials Lab.

For the duration of the project, Dr Korgel and I conducted a number of 30-minute sessions at which he explained to me different advanced nanotechnology concepts, such as entropy or quantum particles.

I listened carefully, tried to understand to the best of my abilities, then rested, and later responded at the level of my understanding by interacting with different objects and spaces inside the building.

Special thanks to Julia Cassel, a performance art student who helped me create the movements and interactions captured in the video.

Materials & Actions: Loft construction with bed and worktable, nanotechnology lessons, drawings, interactions with objects in the building, single channel video 12 minutes

Location: Norman Hackerman Building, The University of Texas at Austin