Piece description from the artist
Sakura Pigma "micron" ultrafine line felt tip pen with pigment-based archival ink on "artboard" a rigid archival acid-free paper impregnated with polymer. 8 × 10 inch original.
A creative artist's rendition of polymer crystallization from the melt or concentrated solution. The triangles are crystal growth modifiers. Chemical recognition helps them "stick" selectively to certain sides (faces) of the growing chain folded polymer crystallites. This works best if the small molecule modifiers do not themselves for huge honkin' crystals (technical term!) via epitaxial growth.I tried to include some new chain folded polymer nuclei forming epitaxially on the original crystallites, hinting at the structure of polymer spherulites and other polycrystalline microstructures. I also included some waxy/oily plasticizers.
Since this is meant as Science-informed art and not as a technical diagram, scientific information considerations were balances against the aesthetics of a good drawing. For example, nature abhors a vacuum. Nature and her entropic henchmen (hench-functions?) also avoid any strong or sharp density fluctuations. In a really good technical diagram, a much more uniform density of line would help portray a low-moderate variation in density. However a page full of end to end equally spaced squiggly lines would make a pretty boring drawing.
Enjoy!
Dr. Regina Valluzzi has an extensive scientific background in nanotechnology and biophysics. She has been a scientist in the chemical industry, a green chemistry researcher, a research professor at the engineering school at Tufts, a start-up founder engaged in technology commercialization, and a start-up and commercialization consultant.
Even during periods of intense activity as a scientist, Dr. Valluzzi has always held a strong interest in the visual arts and in visual information. While she majored in Materials Science at MIT, she also obtained a second degree in music and a minor in visual studies. Visual arts have managed to permeate her technical work; during her Ph.D in Polymer Science and Engineering at UMass Amherst, she completed a thesis that required advanced electron microscopy, image analysis, and theoretical data modeling. These experiences provided the visual insight and information that now influences much of her artwork.
Dr. Valluzzi’s work has been included in private collections across the US, UK, Germany, Canada, Japan, Netherlands, Switzerland, Bulgaria, Dubai and Malta, and in the corporate collection of "Seyfarth Shaw" Boston law offices around Boston. She has a selection of pieces on loan to the MIT Materials Science and Engineering Department as indoor public art. Her accomplishments include having published thirty articles in peer-reviewed scientific journals, having made several scientific patents, having been a subject matter expert for an encyclopedia chapter, and having been invited to speak at science talks across the US, Europe, and Japan.
Her newsletter is a good source of ongoing information: http://eepurl.com/daiLQ
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