Dear all
 
 
 I am glad to have been asked to participate and feel a slight trepidation
in putting my foot into the water here. There is a need for clarification
the area of defining terms but this is probably always going to be hard in a
list topic where things can be easily misinterpreted.
 
I have been working as an artist in the area of nanotechnology using the
atomic force microscope (AFM) to gather data from a skin cell. Initially I
was interested in what happens when we touch. What gets transferred at
molecular level. What is of interest here is the AFM uses a probe to touch a
sample, reverting to a scanning process where an image of the surface is
obtained by mechanically moving the probe in a raster scan of the specimen,
line by line, and recording the probe­surface interaction via a laser being
reflected on a photodiode.
The cantilever tip in this case is recording bio feedback information at a
nano level. The AFM in force spectroscopy mode (where the cantilever rests
of the sample surface and picks up the atoms vibrations) can be seen as
metaphorically sensing a pulse.
 
http://www.visiblespace.com/midas
 
The current Nanoessence project aims to develop an installation that
examines life at a sub-cellular level, re-examining space and scale within
the human context. A single HaCat skin cell was analysed with an AFM to
explore comparisons between, life and death at a nano level.
 
http://www.visiblespace.com/nanoessence/index.htm
 
 
The research has led me to an interest in Jesper Hoffmeyers writing on
biosemiotics where he makes the point that Œthe swarm in which intelligence
manifests itself is exactly that entity we call the body¹ (Hoffmeyer 1994).
If we are to think of the body as a swarm of atoms, there where does the
mind body divide begin and end?
http://www.jhoffmeyer.dk/


All the best

Paul




Dr Paul Thomas
Senior Lecturer
Area co-ordinator Electronic Arts
Department of Art Curtin University of Technology
Founding Director Biennale of Electronic Arts Perth
Co-chair re:live Media Art History conference 2009

GPO Box U1987 Perth,
Western Australia 6845

http://www.visiblespace.com
http://www.beap.org
http://www.studioelectronicart.net
http://www.Media-Space.org.au 
http://www.i-500.org
Mobile +61(0)409825654
Phone +61 8 9266 3561
Skype: visiblespace
[log in to unmask] 





On 5/12/08 8:44 PM, "Mark Palmer" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

>>> The mind/body debate is premised on the assumption that we are
>>individual
>>> organisms and beings.

>No its not - it is based on the notion that thought
>>> and extension are different substances. Within this debate the notion of the
>>> assurity of thought over and above physical experience has taken precedence
>>> (Descartes' Cogito ergo sum - and the concept of the evil genius)
 
Just to
>>> round off the distinction I might add the assumption of the 'individual' is
>>> based upon the isolation that follows on from the mind/body divide because
>>> thought is the only thing we can be certain of given such a divide ...

>>>
best
 
Mark




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