On “Aesthetic Publics”

Abstract

This exploratory paper investigates the enactment of a number of “publics” in relation to a recent, ostensibly “technical”, innovation, namely, the nanotechnology Vertically Aligned Nano tube Array-black (VANTAblack®). In particular, we show how various representations of VANTAblack—as technical artifact, as an exclusive artist’s material, as an exciting coating for a mass-produced commercial product, and as an object of science communication—implicate different “aesthetic experiences”. We discuss these aesthetic experiences in terms of the enactment of four distinct “aesthetic publics.” We then consider the possible analytic value of the concept of aesthetic publics, not least in relation to the “opening up” and “closing down” of the potential debates that might attach to emerging technologies.

The Active Form of Security: Technology and the Material-aesthetic Script

“…First, engaging in such an ethopoetic problematization of the material-aesthetic scripting of security demands greater attention be placed on a specifically aesthetic analysis of the quotidian—dainty and dumpy—processes through which social dynamics are recursively rescripted into our lives. As Michael (2018, 1117) has written, the generation of new (political) “publics” is fundamentally linked to aesthetics, in ways that either “open up” or “close down” our relationships-to, understandings-of, and political connection-to “emerging technologies.” In this regard, aesthetics must be taken more seriously as an analytical lens within both STS and CSS, as well as political engagement more broadly. Secondly, it is important to stress that ethopoetic engagements with politics can sit uncomfortably with many forms of radical activism.…”

“…Unpacking these points, we expand the explanatory place of aesthetics within Science and Technology Studies (STS) and Critical Security Studies (CSS) alike. Across STS, "it is difficult to derive a coherent focus on aesthetics" (Michael 2018(Michael , 1101. Previous studies have explored how aesthetics is involved in scientific representation; how different publics consume scientific objects because of their performative qualities or are formed by such performativities; how the public is engaged in scientific practice; or the aesthetics of STS itself as a disciplinary field.…”

Toward the abstractors: modes of care and lineages of becoming

“…Even though VANTAblack has been promoted by its manufacturer Surrey NanoSystems primarily as technology for use in optics and imaging, it has, as my initial encounter with it implies, nevertheless been eventuated in a number of ways (see Michael, 2018, for more details). For present purposes I focus on three.…”

“…However, as she further insists, we also need to attend to specific ways in which others do care in relation to the particular object. Here, we have cared for VANTAblack as an object of academic interest that is intriguing because of the way in which it has been promoted as an innovation as much in terms of its aesthetic and perceptual qualities as in terms of its technical applications (see Michael, 2018). By comparison, others have cared for it in very different ways.…”

Lithography-free synthesis of periodic, vertically-aligned, multi-walled carbon nanotube arrays

“…They are an important material class applied across a range of disciplines and industries owing to their unique intrinsic material properties. These include excellent electronic properties [1], mechanical and thermal stability [2,3], extremely large surface area [4], high light absorption [5], and biocompatibility [6], which have led to their utilization in supercapacitors [7,8], batteries [9,10], field emission devices [11,12], composite materials [13][14][15], cell culture scaffolds [16], and near-perfect light absorbers for technology and even art [5,17].…”