Fluid Systems

FLUID SYSTEMS
Works of the Sci Art Nanolab Team
11-17-16

UCLA Sci|Art Nanolab instructors Rita Blaik, Amisha Gadani, Mick Lorusso, Olivia Osborne, David Prince and Dan Wilkinson present their collaborations integrating living systems, microfluidics, the watershed, climate change and ice.

Current advances in microfluidics, technologies that allow researchers to simulate and study the interactions of fluids, chemicals, and living cells, inspired the first workshops in the Sci|Art Nanolab that the show Fluid Systems is based on. In manipulating very small volumes of liquid, we can begin to understand complex phenomena from the bottom up.

Fluid Systems explores the myriad relationships between flows on the micro and macro level. David Prince introduces to the art of making Kombucha. Rita Blaik reveals how dissolved particles in water scatter light in unique colors and patterns, through a phenomenon known as the Tyndall effect. Capillaries of zebrafish in Olivia Osborne’s research on nanotoxicology connect with the flow of blood in our bodies, videos by Mick Lorusso of rivers and estuaries, and the melting of their collaborative ice sculptures in the gallery. Dan Wilkinson shares jostling non-Newtonian fluids with us, and Amisha Gadani shows us her experiments with the flow of fabrics and objects through water. A collective Water Canning stand, made by the Art|Sci Collective (including Mick Lorusso, Dawn Faelnar, Victoria Vesna and Judy Kim), allows participants to take a can of water home and participate in this flow of water on many levels, from the nano to the global.