SEM Experience

I crushed up some pills of different drugs into a single powder. I was curious if the difference between chemical compositions would be obvious when viewed at this scale. It is not.

I had an incredible time at the SEM. Donna is super sweet, she explained everything very carefully to me, and chatting with her about her background in microscopy-related subjects was almost as cool as my specimen itself. This experience opened up a whole new world of photography to me, and honestly just a whole new world. I understand my existence as a human differently now–suddenly space seems bigger, and I want to explore literally everything around me at a molecular level.

Postphotography Reading Response

A great example of non-human photography is the following paper on Computational Imaging on the Electric Grid (http://www.dgp.toronto.edu/ACam/). Using a high-speed camera, researchers were able to sync the frames with the changes in the electric grid. They discovered that instead of providing power to every house in a city, the electric grid instead switches between 3 different groups, providing power to one group at a time to not overload energy throughput. The switch between groups is so quick 1/1000 of a second, that we never notice that our lights are actually flickering.

 

New technology, as stated by Zylinska, indeed advances our ability to capture non-human photography. Every year, vision conferences are able to find new ways to detect objects invisible to the human eye because of new sensors that can sense past human ability. The saying that technology helps us see the world in a new way is true in that technology strengthens or gives us new senses. The world is full of data, and new technology helps us collect it.

SEM – Chia Seeds

For the SEM workshop, I scanned a few chia seeds.

even the “familiar” version looks foreign

To be perfectly honest, even after reading and hearing and even seeing how the machine works at a high level, it’s still hard for me to wrap my head around the way an electron microscope works, and how it produces a picture. It figures, since I can’t even reliably describe how a camera works, but that’s okay!

getting under one of those flaky lakers
What are these? Cells?

It was awesome to see how vastly different one seed could be from the next. Some seeds have a sort of flaky/bumpy coating, while others are perfectly smooth. Donna and I were trying to guess why this might be the case. Maybe the smooth ones were older, and had already “molted”? Maybe the smooth ones were younger and hadn’t dried out yet? It was great getting to experience the total perspective shift that comes with seeing something so small so clearly.

 

bumpy exterior on one seed
old vs. new?

Lastly, here is my first attempt to make an anaglyphic display.

First, the stereo pairs:

And now, the attempt:

Maybe it worked? the red on the outside right edges looks promising, but the blue on the left, I’m not sure.

SEM Images Olivia Cunnally

These images are from a small sample of stuff from underneath my fingernail. According to Donna it is mostly skin, however when looking much closer bacteria can be seen on the nail (which is normal for human skin).

I thought this experience was extremely interesting, especially in regards to expanding my mind on the definition of capture. Typically, I have avoided lots of science related things often because they intimidate me. However, analyzing images by using these systems provides a completely new perspective on seeing the world.  Moreover, it is inspiring to see the intersections between art and science and how art and science can benefit each other. Primarily, I have always been motivated by how art can help progress in efforts to stop climate change. This experience has motivated me further in these beliefs, specifically how artists can help put scientific discoveries into more tangible explanations for society. Also, science can help give a drive or a goal to certain mediums, approaches, and art projects. For a while I have doubted the ability for art and science to benefit each other, and often I think artists can feel an inferiority to STEM. Overall, this experience has inspired my capabilities as an artist to collaborate.

SEM

In the vial I combined a fragment of moss and chamomille – not the petals of the flower but the stigma, the head of the pistil.

The first image shows a familiar view from the chamomile filaments on the left side and moss on the right side of the image. I was mesmerized by the detail of the filaments. In some areas the moss looked like tree bark in others it was very porous, like a sea sponge.

The second and third image is a close up of the chamomile filaments and the fourth one is of the fragment moss where you can really see its sponge-like features. It was the first time I used a scanning electron microscope and though I expected to see this type of visuals, I could not help feeling marvelled with every image.

What interests me visually is the softness and tenderness of the images. I am drawn into its graphic quality, they seem very delicate graphite drawings.

Reading02 – Photography and Observation

The medium of capture can influence typology in terms of sample size. The capture system developed depends on the capture’s scope and limitations. The goal of typology is seemingly to collect all or find as many possibilities of a certain type and different modes of capture can restrict findings. For instance, a photographer taking photos inputs a personal perspective and arrangement while leaving an automated camera can limit data by having only one angle of view. Either way there is preference present in the systems set up, so it is rare that any data collection is completely impartial.

It’s also difficult to argue that contemporary captures are objective or scientifically reliable because it depends on the case in which the capture is made. However I do think captures can bring out patterns or enforce and detect predictabilities. No capture can be 100 percent reliable, but patterns captured in a larger sample size give a higher chance of reliability.

Photography & Observation Response

The reading discusses the use of photography for both measurement and information gathering, as well as representation and articulation. The text points to how photography was used in an effort to observe the transits of Venus – it uses this example to illustrate how difficult it was to use photography in astrological observation. In the case of the the transits of Venus the variations in the photographic plates made the comparison and controlled measurement of the data very difficult. This exemplifies the relationship between capture and the subject captured: in the process of capturing something the collection tool leave a signature on the stored images. Though technology has changed drastically since people were working to capture the transit of Venus, our device for capture still leaves an imprint on the images that we create. Technology has empowered us with greater control over the process of capture, yet the traces of our craft and of our tools are always left in the scenes we store.

With reference to a typology the reading implies that our typological machine leaves an imprint on the multiples that it captures. When it comes to contemporary photography we can achieve predictable and precise results, but it’s a stretch to say that the images we make are objective – because we make so many choices in the process of capture and curation of multiples.

SEM – burnt matchstick

My object was a burnt matchstick. The first image was the tip of the matchstick but unfortunately it broke off in the microscope which meant it was no longer grounded and was harder to focus at higher mags. The Second image was a result of the more receptive surface of the matchstick for the microscope. Having Donna guide me through the process of how the microscope worked was fascinating and very exciting to see that the image is a raster. This ultimately led me to do the fun trick you can do on a photocopier. By moving the source or the camera as the image begins to populate you can stretch and warp the image. By moving both the joystick and the angle of the sample plate I was able to come out with a very different image (Image 3). Image 4 is the anaglyph pair.

 

Photogrammetry

Claire’s workshop was incredible. I made a 3D scan of Connie and my plush Dinosaur, Wobble.

Then I got meshes of me and Tatyana to turn us into sweater people using KeyShot.