Paul has been working in the area of electronic arts since 1981 when he co-founded the group Media-Space. Media-Space was part of the first global link up with artists connected to ARTEX. From 1981-1986 the group was involved in a number of collaborative exhibitions and was instrumental in the establishment a substantial body of research. Paul’s research project ‘Nanoessence’ explored the space between life and death at a nano level. The project was part of an ongoing collaboration with the Nanochemistry Research Institute, Curtin University of Technology and SymbioticA at the University of Western Australia. The previous project ‘Midas’ was researching at a nano level the transition phase between skin and gold. In 2009 he established Collaborative Research in Art Science and Humanity (CRASH) at Curtin http://crash.curtin.edu.au

Invited to curate Australian artists for the International Symposium of Electronic Art  in Istanbul 2011. ‘The world is everything that is the case’.

Project was the success project leader of a ALTC grant to create a national online database of the Media/electronic art Scoping Study to create an overview of the current and pioneering educators, artists and scientists who have brought about the dissolution of boundaries that have traditionally existed between the artistic and technological disciplines.

Co Chair The first International Conference on Transdisciplinary Imaging at the Intersections between Art, Science and Culture.2010

http://blogs.unsw.edu.au/tiic/welcome/

Co-Chair of the Third international Media Art History conference Re:live Melbourne 2009

http://www.mediaarthistory.org/?page_id=38

Nano Arts Lab

Dr Paul Thomas and Kevin Raxworthy

NANOESSENCE at the John Curtin Gallery from Paul Thomas on Vimeo.

The artwork Nanoessence by Paul Thomas and Kevin Raxworthy was part of the art in the age of nanotechnology exhibition.

With the assistance of the SymbioticA Lab, University of Western Australia, and the Nanochemistry Research Institute (NRI), at Curtin University of Technology, the Nanoessence project uses data gained from analysis by an atomic force microscope (AFM) of a single HaCaT1 human skin cell to explore comparisons between life and death at a ‘nano’ level. This quantitative scientific data is being used as the basis for design of an installation designed to stimulate ‘qualitative’ sensorial responses on the part of visitors.

The proposal for nanotechnology to reshape nature atom by atom stimulates interesting debates as to what may be thought to constitute human life, since at an atomic level, the space of the body can be seen as having no boundaries. The Nanoessence project aimed to construct a physical experience for visitors to the installation as a means of provoking thought about this new scientific paradigm and its implications for metaphysical understandings of our world and its life forms. In the Nanoessence installation being developed, the viewer interfaces with a visual and sonic presentation by means of his or her own breath (with breath itself being strongly associated with Biblical conceptions of life). The use of ‘authentic’ quantitative scientific data is an important feature of the project in contrasting with the ‘qualitative’ aspects of the individual sensory experience sought.

According to Boukamp and Petrussevska, ‘[The] HaCaT is the first permanent epithelial cell line from adult human skin that exhibits normal differentiation and provides a promising tool for studying regulation of keratinization in human cells’. In being immortal, human HaCaT skin cells demonstrate the potential for endless cloning of a single cell. For theNanoessence project, HaCaT cells cultured with the assistance of SymbioticA were scanned by an atomic force microscope (in tapping and force spectroscopy mode) to determine their comparative topographies and atomic vibration. The atomic force microscope uses a small cantilever with a pyramidal tip, measuring approximately 10nm. In tapping mode, the cantilever makes intermittent contact as it is lowered to almost touch the surface of the skin cell. The cantilever, oscillating in response to a resonance frequency, scans a miniscule area of the skin specimen. The images obtained are recorded via a laser beam deflected from the cantilever tip onto a photodiode. The AFM thus constructs a ‘machinic’ understanding of material nano particles using touch – in contrast to traditional microscopes, which privilege sight. Indeed, the gathering of scientific data through touch suggests a fundamental challenge to dominant ocular centric understandings of the world.

The comparative data resulting from the AFM scans can be seen as representing the ‘essence of life’. This data was used in constructing a hybrid metaphorical landscape based on an algorithm developed by Kevin Raxworthy. Within the Nanoessence installation environment, the algorithm generating the landscape is affected and stimulated in response to data gained from sensors stimulated by the breath of visitors. This is presented via a central data projection screen, flanked on either by side projections of skin cells at a nano level. The left projection is of a living cell and the right a dead cell.

The auditory component of the Nanoessence installation results from data recorded by the AFM in ‘force spectroscopy’ mode. Vibrations from the HaCaT cell atoms are scanned, initially in vitro and then following injection of ether into the serum. The resulting data is then converted into sound files to create sonic vibrations occurring at a nano level and presented to audiences as a ‘haptic topographic sensation’. Sound thus correlates with the changing topography of the landscape as it evolves in response to visitors’ breathing.

Nanoessence aims to stimulate senses other than sight in creating a total sensory experience for viewers. It uses human breathing as a key mechanism and metaphor within a complex and sophisticated artistic environment aimed stimulating critical debate about the implications of nanotechnology for our understandings of life.

Midas

Books (Authored, Research)

• Thomas, P. 2009. Reconfiguring Space. Saarbrücken: VDM Verlag.

Book Chapters (Authored, Research Quality)

• Thomas, P. 2011. La philosophie du nanoart. In Images & Mirages @ nanoscience. Regards Croisés, eds Anne Sauvageot, Xavier Boujeu and Xavier Marie, 119-130. Paris: Hermann.
• Thomas, P. 2008. Nano Vibrational Interfaces. In Interface Cultures - Artistic Aspects on Interaction, eds C. Sommerer, D. Gestrich, L. Mognnoneau, 81-91. Bielefeld, Germany: Transcript Verlag.
• Thomas, P. 2008. Midas. In SK-INTERFACES: Exploding BOrders in Art, Science and Technology, 144-147. Liverpool, UK: Liverpool University Press.
• Thomas, P. 2004. Network Building in the Digital Age. In Innovation in Australian Arts, Media and Design: Fresh Challenges For, eds Rod Wissler, Brad Haseman, Sue-Anne Wallace, Michael Keane, 123-134. Queensland: Post Pressed Flaxton.

Refereed Articles (Scholarly Journals)

• Thomas, P. 2009. A Nanotechnological Exploration of Touch. Leonardo 42(3): 186-192.
• Thomas, P. 2008. Nanoessence: God, the first nano assembler. Technoetic Arts: A Journal of Speculative Research 6(3): 217-231.

Fully written papers (Refereed Conference proceedings)

• Thomas, P. 2008. Audionano - Vibrating Matter.. Sound Scripts: Proceedings of the Totally Huge New Music Festival Conference, 01/11/2009. Sydney: Australian Music Centre.
• Raxworthy, K, and Thomas, P. 2008. Nanoessence: Life and Death at a Nano Level. ACUADS 2008 Annual Conference: Sites of activity / On the edge, 01/10/2008. University of South Australia, Adelaide, Australia: South Australia School of Art, University of South Australia.
• Thomas, P. 2007. Materiality and Immateriality. CADE 2007 Computers in Art and Design Education, 12/09/2007. Perth: Curtin Print and Design.
• Thomas, P. 2005. The Mirror as the Primal Space for new media. Altered States: Transformations of Perception, Place and Performance, 22/07/2005. Plymouth: University of Plymouth.
• Thomas, P. 2004. Art Network Discussion. Creative Connections Symposium @ BEAP2004, 01/09/2004. Western Australia: Arts Research Network: Creativity Knowledge Innovation.
• Thomas, P. 2004. the convergent Space-back to a Wearable Perception. thespacebetween textile_art_design_fashion, 01/04/2004. Western Australia: thespacebetween, Faculty of BEAD, Curtin U of T.

Major Creative Works

• Thomas, P, and Raxworthy, K. 2010. Art in the Age of Nanotechnology. Perth: Curtin University.

Minor Creative Works

• Thomas, P. 2007. Stillness: Arts, Science and Technology. Perth WA: Biennale of Electronic Arts Perth.
• Thomas, P. 2002. Director's Statement. Perth: John Curtin Gallery.

Group Exhibition of Creative Works

• Thomas, P, and stadon, J. 2011. Weather Inflections. China: National Art Museum of China.
• Raxworthy, K, and Thomas, P. 2010. Nanoessence Breath. Toulouse: La Fabrique Culturelle (CIAM).
• Raxworthy, K, and Thomas, P. 2009. MiIdas. Adelaide: Australian Network for Art and Technology.
• Thomas, P, and Raxworthy, K. 2009. Nanoessence. Adelaide: Paul Thomas.
• Thomas, P. 2008. Midas - Documentary DVD Video. Kaliningrad, Russia: National Centre for Contemporary Arts, Kaliningrad.
• Thomas, P. 2008. Midas Project. Liverpool, UK: Liverpool University Press.
• Thomas, P, and Raxworthy, K. 2007. Midas. Prague: Stone Bell House.
• Thomas, P. 2004. Cyberdeco: a screening adventure. Western Australia: Cyberdeco.
• Thomas, P. 2004. thespacebetween textile_art_design_fashion. Western Australia: thespacebetween.
• Thomas, P. 2003. Ambient Space. Western Australia: John Curtin Gallery.

Curating an Exhibition

• Cubitt, S, Dziekan, V, and Thomas, P. 2011. The World is Everything That is the Case. Australia: Ellikon.
• Thomas, P. 2006. BEAPworks Exhibition 2006. Perth: Biennale of Electronic Arts Perth.
• Thomas, P. 2005. BEAPworks Exhibition 2005. Western Australia: Biennale of Electronic Arts Perth.
• Thomas, P. 2004. Biennale of Electronic Arts Perth. Perth: John Curtin Gallery.
• Thomas, P. 2002. Biennale of Electronic Arts Perth BEAP. Perth: John Curtin Gallery.