Yes, this discussion could be is too broad. May be is difficult to surround
a topic which seems that is around everything. However, as Roger said,
"light is my business". In fact, light is our business, as art, science,
ecology, technology, ..., cover many aspects of light. Light plays an
importante role in my work. I work with semiconductor single quantum dots,
which offen are called artificial atoms. But i use light in order to
"extract" information from them (spectroscopy). In fact, the most exciting
topic that i cover is to analyzed this light in the "particle" picture. So,
photons. Aroun this topic, may be we can cover many aspects. For example:
1) History of light. There are many and different steps to understand light
as we understand nowadays. For example, light was considereded as traveling
with infinity velocity. Which is the same that is light is present in all
places. In midle ages there were very interesting researchs that shows for
the first time that light travel with a finite velocity. Light velocity
became possible to be measured. Afterwards, in one of the highest
scientific discoveries, light was understood as a propagating
electromagnetic wave (with the principal efforts from Faraday and Maxwell
in the XIX century). This was an interesting fundamental physics
unification (eletricity, magnetism and light). So, light was just an
special case of the electromagnetic radiation. Not to much later, new
technologies emerge, like radio communication (radio waves are longer
wavelenght light, which human eye can not detect). But, this is not the end
of the history, of course. At the begining of the XX century, Einstein make
another importante change for the idea of light. Light has a constant
velocity, independent of the observer. This was just an opposite conclusion
from the beggining (light has infinite velocity). So, light is deeply
correlated with the idea of space and time. But, far from the end, Einstein
put another important suggestion: light could be interpreted as kind of
"particles", photons. So, as matter was suggested to be quantized, the
electromagnetic field could be quantized as well. This idea opens the field
of quantum optics, which in my feelings is one of the most beautiful and
surprisings science fields.
2) All these fundamental research, for sure, was translated in many devices
and technologies. I mention radio communication, but today wireless or
bluetooth technologies, or GPS, are most of the same radio technologies.
But the industrial explosion is not only these. Early in the XX century it
was patented the Light Emitting Diode (LED), by a russian researcher. In
the 60´s it was invented LASER, which comes from a previous technology
called MASER. Fiber optics is a technology to manage light, and nowadays
many information technologies carrie the information through light by fiber
optics. Following the quantum optics recent advances, today we can dream
with quantum computers, quantum cryptography, or quantum teleportation,
which can be designed with special sources of light "entangled photons".
3) But these light technology, for sure is designed to be incorpored in our
society. Nowadays LED is a technology that becomes available and is used in
industries, arquitectures, ..., at the same time the twin brother of LED,
Solar Cells, gives us the opportunity to think about in a kind of green
energy (which must be defined if it is so green or not). Fiber optics are
designed to be sensors (chemical, tensions, temperature, humidity,
movement, ...), which use the propagation of light to sensing. At the same
time, fiber optics was proposed to create new ways of solar ilumination
inside houses, which only needs the energy from sun. Light is used to
develope new medical solutions, as light pointers for tumors (some examples
with my leved quantum dots, or metalic nanoparticles).
4) It is evident that light has an strog impact on art. Light becomes
visualization, represenation, color, images and imaging..., even all of
these culd be understand as a mental painting. So light is inside our
brains, as intense as outside or body. Light may be is imagination, and
metaphores. One of the most cited metaphores is the light of knowledge, or
the light from god. May be, as Roger pointed, when speak about light, in
fact we are speaking about darkness at the same time (absence of light). To
see, is to understand?, for sure, light is languaje at the same time, and
there are many controverse related to these metaphores of seeing,
knowledge, ilustration, ...
Let´s see if we van develope an interesting discussion.
All the best,
Guillermo.
2015-03-29 21:36 GMT+02:00 roger malina <rmalina@alum.mit.edu>:
> yasminers
>
> Guillermo Munoz and I thought we would do a different kind of YASMIN
> discussion impulsed
> by this year's "International Year of Light and Light-based Technologies
> that the 68th Session of the General Assembly of the United Nations (UN)
> adopted
> on December 20, 2013, proclaiming 2015 as "International Year of Light
> and Light-based Technologies" (IYL 2015).
>
> This theme is also the theme of The 2nd Art, Science, City
> International Conference 201 in Valencia this coming October
> which will bring the art, science and technology community together
> around problematics of the build urban environment.
>
> http://www.artsciencecity.com/?lang=en
>
> The deadline for abstracts is April 6 !!
>
> We will also be holding a YASMIN meeting during the conference
> organised by Guillermo Munoz
>
> We look forward to your contributions to the YASMIN discussion
> beginning next week on the
> YASMIN discussion list
>
> http://estia.media.uoa.gr/mailman/roster/yasmin_discussions
>
> Roger Malina and Guillermo Munoz
>
>
> The 2nd Art, Science, City International Conference 2015 aims to
> promote interdisciplinary research on techno-scientific culture in
> contemporary societies and its impact on the ways of life, paying
> special attention to the impact of imaging technologies in urban
> contexts.
>
> The conference is organized by the Master of Visual Arts and
> Multimedia of the Polytechnic University of Valencia (UPV) and the
> University of the Basque Country / Euskal Herriko Unibersitatea (EHU)
> to encourage and develop research projects that contribute to bridge
> the gap between academia, professional practice and citizens, and also
> between science and humanities.
>
> This second edition of the conference offers an interdisciplinary
> forum to discuss the most relevant experiences around the relationship
> of art + science + city, placing light as the transversal structure.
> Light understood from the complexity of its dual nature
> (wave-particle) both in technological applications and theoretical
> discourse; recognising light-based technologies and innovations that
> are transforming communications, energy resources, new methods of
> medical diagnosis and treatments, and their influence on our culture
> and ways of visualization. That is why we propose as a general topic:
>
> Light, more light ! = Visuality :: Energy :: Connectivity
>
> The choice of the conference theme comes from the resolution of the
> 68th Session of the General Assembly of the United Nations (UN)
> adopted on December 20, 2013, proclaiming 2015 as "International Year
> of Light and Light-based Technologies" (IYL 2015). Taking these themes
> as reference, the congress will be structured around four thematic
> panels, and the Creative Room, that will host the speakers'
> dissertations.
>
> Panel 1: Light [+] Visuality
> Panel 2: Light [+] Energy
> Panel 3: Light [+] Connectivity
> Panel 4: Light [+] Light/Light + Darkness
>
> Creative Room: Spectrum:: Light/Art [+] Science [+] City
> Light [+] Innovation :: Technology Demonstrations; Information Boards
>
> Light [+] Innovation aims at providing all ASC Conference participants
> with the opportunity to meet companies and research organizations
> which are actively developing light-based technologies. It will be a
> space for technology demonstrations and information boards which will
> encourage and facilitate the meeting of universities, business, local
> associations and institutions.
>
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HOW TO UNSUBSCRIBE: on the info page, scroll all the way down and enter your e-mail address in the last field. Enter password if asked. Click on the unsubscribe button on the page that will appear ("options page").
TO ENABLE / DISABLE DIGEST MODE: in the options page, find the "Set Digest Mode" option and set it to either on or off.
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