Nanos (2006). 6’h.
Stainless steel. Location: Private Collection, Lake Oswego
(Ore.)
the four protein sculptures. I visited a second
time to help install the pieces. For the four
sculptures, we used frames of a computer
simulation of a folding protein. There is a
really interesting research group in Illinois,
Klaus Schulten’s at the Beckman Institute, who
provided us with the structural data necessary
to make the sculptures. They have been using
supercomputers for the last decade to simulate
more and more complex systems. One problem
they are particularly interested in is how
proteins go from unstructured chains of amino
acids to the very specific three-dimensional
conformation we see when we do X-ray
crystallography and the data we used shows
frame-by-frame how this happens.
Q: You have a few lines of work, the two main
SciArt in America August 2013
lines being your more conceptual physicsinspired figures and then your model-type
protein sculptures — what would you say is the
overall goal of your work, or separate goals with
each?
A: Both bodies of work fee l similar to me. They
are about looking at the world in wonder, the
process of achieving a kind of understanding
that goes beyond the intellectual, and sharing
that experience. I feel it is all-important that
we expand our often only intellectual and
fragmented understanding of the world to a
sensual, more holistic one. A few people know
a lot of details and those details lead to all the
new drugs and technologies that critically shape
our world for better or for worse. Our sensual
grasp is lagging behind and my work aims at
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