Hetero-Types: Electron Microscope Tour

I'm late with this, it happened over a week ago, but... the tour with the Hetero-Types show to the Engineering Research Center's scanning electron microscope went really well! It was David Rosenthal, Laura Fisher, a couple other photographers from DAAP, and me. Dr. Rosales and his graduate assistant Manna were very accommodating with us, they didn't even mind us yelling "TAKE THAT PICTURE" every few seconds.

The best part for me, though, was helping Dr. Rosales prepare the samples. In order to be properly viewed by a scanning electron microscope, samples must be conductive--in this case, coated with a gold-palladium alloy. Samples were cut down, affixed to carbon tape, and placed in a vacuum chamber. Electricity was run through the gold-palladium, which caused it to vaporize and settle on the samples (it also glowed purple, which was cool to see).When I was smaller I had a kid's microscope, complete with slides, and I got rather good at putting together various organic and inorganic slides. So I really enjoyed putting on gloves and cutting little finicky bits of things and using tweezers to settle them just so on the dime-sized sample holders.

Actually viewing them in the microscope was something else, though. One of the samples was a fresh leaf from my creeping charlie houseplant. The leaf was fresh enough to still retain water--which made it more vulnerable to disintegration.The higher the magnification, the more focused the beam of electrons becomes. If the sample is improperly coated, or if it retains too much water, it will start to disintegrate. Which is what happened here.

The other samples were: a housefly, a lacewing fly, the inside of a seed pod, a gingko leaf and a butterfly wing.

This is (presumably) pollen, caught on a fly's back.

Flies are hairy, hairy bugs.

Closeup of a gingko leaf.

Scales of a butterfly wing.

Broken scale on a butterfly wing.

The spongy inside of a seed pod.

All the magnifications are specified on the images. These are not all the images, just the ones I liked best. All 26 can be viewed on my Photobucket account if you want to see more.

Hetero-Types Opening!

Oh my goodness gracious. Prairie Gallery's show Hetero-Types: Science in Contermporary Art-Making is opening on Saturday! Yes, this is the show I co-curated with David Rosenthal. It's been a fun time. I'm actually heading out right now to do last-minute things like labels and price lists. Anyone in the Cinci area should come. The show is sponsored by Yelp, so you can probably find it here.

presented by:       Three artists explore the use of scientific imaging techniques in producing photography, painting and video.   Opening Reception Saturday November 12, 7-9 pm     Northside Second Saturday features special events and exhibitions at: Comet, Nvision, Thundersky, Chicken Lays an Egg, Helltown Workshop, Sidewinder, Cryptogram, Mayday, Northside Surplus, Fabricate, Prairie, CANCO, Take the Cake, Sweat Peace Bakery, Painted Fish, 3 Legged Dog, Shop Therapy, Northside Tavern (5-9 happy hour), Ruttle and Neltner Florist   Prairie is pleased to present work by Cincinnati artist Kimberly Burleigh, San Francisco artist Caren Alpert and Arizona artist David Tinapple. Kimberly Burleigh employs a unique blend of methods from both fields of art and science in producing her oil paintings and watercolors. She explores her interest in the behavior of light across the surface of and through liquids by creating computer simulated models of liquid surfaces lit by artificial light sources. She then transfers these "still lives" onto canvas using the traditional methods and tools of oil painting. Her final works are, in one sense, straight recordings of computer generated shapes, and in another, highly stylized abstractions of the real world rendered with limited color palettes which evoke the experiments of mid-20th century color field painters. Caren Alpert, "Cake Sprinkles" San Francisco artist Caren Alpert produces microscopic images of food in addition to her work as a commercial photographer. In producing images of food for the advertising industry, Alpert recognized an increasing disparity between the unnatural eating behaviors promoted through advertisements and a more balanced relationship between people and their food supply based on a comprehensive understanding of the origin and nature of food. For her, placing a "camera" close enough to edible objects to see their microscopic structures became a way to better understand food. The natural fibers and visual patterns present in the structure of certain vegetables shown in Alpert's images are not only beautiful, but transform objects of consumption into objects which invite admiration and contemplation. In a similar fashion, her images of cake sprinkles and other manufactured foods provide reason to reconsider the casual consumption of substances whose appearance evokes food science and genetic engineering laboratories. David Tinapple sheds light on how human perception has been dramatically altered by the type and quantity of media which pervades our lives. Part engineer, he employs manipulated image capturing devices to produce video and still images which are visually stunning and which also question our reliance on imagery as a substitute for observation and experience of the real world. His "slit scan" images, for example, were produced by turning his car into a giant scanner. Equipped with this oversized imaging device, Tinapple drove his car down typical house-lined streets, capturing every detail of these bucolic scenes over the course of several minutes per image. On their own, these pictures appear to be simple panoramic photographs capturing a single moment in time. When the nature of their origin is understood, however, the idea of the photograph as a representation of the real world feels like a grand deception. Tinapple's perfectly still images showing people interacting with each other and the environment are actually the product of a narrative fabricated by his inventive imaging techniques.    Scanning Electron Microscope Image by Hyo-Jick Choi     Learn about and use UC's Scanning Electron Microscope on November 18.   In conjunction with Heterotypes: Science in Contemporary Art Making, Prairie will offer an interactive tour of the Scanning Electron Microscope Facility at UC's College of Engineering. Participants will learn about the capabilities of the microscope and will be allowed to choose from a variety of samples on hand at the lab to examine with the microscope. Participants will be able to download and save images from the visit for their own use. The tour will begin at 12:00 at Room 316 of the Engineering Research Center on UC's Main Campus and will conclude at 1:00 pm. Registration is limited to 10! A reservation fee of $20 must be received in order to hold your spot!       Register for Materials Science Lab Tour    Hope to see you there! (Text copied from Prairie press release.)