On “Aesthetic Publics”: The Case of VANTAblack®
Michael, M
Date: 7 May 2018
Article
Journal
Science, Technology, and Human Values
Publisher
SAGE Publications
Publisher DOI
Abstract
This exploratory paper investigates the enactment of a number of “publics” in relation to a recent, ostensibly technical, innovation, namely, the nanotechnology 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 ...
This exploratory paper investigates the enactment of a number of “publics” in relation to a recent, ostensibly technical, innovation, namely, the nanotechnology 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.
Social and Political Sciences, Philosophy, and Anthropology
Faculty of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences
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