The Unseen Water: The Transmigration of Scientific Photography into the Domain of Art through Experimentation with the Scanning Electron Microscope

Abstract

This exegesis outlines the procedures, processes and methodologies used in developing a body of studio work that investigates the artistic potential of scientific photomicrography made by the Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) with a view to its possible social and cultural impact of this practice. The outcomes of this research are of two kinds: theoretical findings and the work developed and exhibited during the candidature and at the final exhibition, H2O+. Reflecting the chemical composition of water and interpreting photomicrographic images of it, my practice seeks to provide insights and awareness about water quality, that might be later used to encourage behavioural change to water management, and demonstrate productive transdisciplinary relationships and innovation between the arts and sciences. Artistic manipulation of a scientific process through experimenting with the SEM fuses science and technology with art and proposes a new meaning for what such images can say about water to a viewer. Transforming the microworld to a macro level causes a dilemma for viewers, mainly because enlarged photomicrographs placed in the gallery space are seen differently from those viewed for their scientific information within the laboratory. An aesthetic engagement with photomicrography gives viewers the possibility to see in the particular configurations of inherent features of water opening a horizon of meaning that was previously unseen as well as referring to the creative ability to observe natural phenomena over and beyond the directly visible. Building on the fact that scientific tools have brought new ways of seeing the world, the primary purpose of this research is to show that the artistic use of SEM-made photomicrography can shift the visual outcomes of scientific photomicrography to function within the context of art.