"In an era of artistic grandeur, with towering artworks and massive exhibitions, there is a need for a healthy and decisive downsizing. Nanoart makes itself small, to the point of becoming invisible. To put it jokingly, I advocate for an art that doesn't catch the eye."
Alessandro Scali, Doppiozero
Experiment I | Nanoart
The concept
What remains of an artwork when it can no longer be seen?
Nanoart constitutes the opening axis of what is today defined as the Anthropoperiphery. It emerged from an intuitive challenge to the 'dictatorship of the eye': a discomfort first recorded in the Zibaldone Filosofico and only later verified through a systematic sequence of experiments.
In close collaboration with the Politecnico di Torino, Alessandro Scali created a series of physical artworks engraved on silicon at nano and micro scales, with dimensions as small as one billionth of a meter.
These works are invisible to the naked eye: their existence can only be witnessed through a scanning electron microscope.
The philosophical inquiry
This is not a provocation, but an experiment on biological contingency.
It demonstrates that the meaning and value of an artwork exist independently of the human sensory apparatus.
The research has been validated by leading scientific and cultural authorities, with publications in Nature and Advanced Materials, and exhibitions in contexts such as the Seville Biennial (curated by Peter Weibel).
Epilogue: cosmic contingency
The experiment reached its definitive confirmation in 2024 with the MoonArk (NASA) project.
Two nanometric works designed to last billions of years on the Moon - Man with Smartphone and C'moon, see below - were destroyed when the Peregrine spacecraft disintegrated during its unplanned reentry into Earth's atmosphere.
Even without a physical substrate and without any human eye to perceive them, those works continue to exist in archives, data, and thought, confirming that the human being is peripheral to the reality they believe they control.
SELECTED ARTWORKS
Beyond the Pillars of Hercules
2006
135 x 460 µm
Oxide layer thermically grown on the silicon surface - Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscope
54 human footprints engraved at a micrometric scale. A walk beyond the limits of Newtonian physics, documented through post-human technology.
Actual Size
2007
300 x 280 nm
silicon - Atomic Force Microscope
The African continent lithographed at 300 × 280 nanometers. Geopolitical invisibility made literal. (Validation: Published in Nature, Vol. 449).
Key to Paradise
2007
350 x 450 µm
needle, metallized photoresist (SUB)
A camel physically inserted into the eye of a needle at a nanometric scale. The biblical impossibility (Matthew 19:24) realized and dismantled by technological hubris.
Artwork
2008
50 x 750 µm
A nanolithography bearing the engraving "This is not an artwork". An empirical refutation of M. Ferraris' normative theory of art, presented and debated publicly with the philosopher himself at the Turin Astronomical Park. The physical demonstration that artistic intention survives the uselessness of the human eye, challenging the boundaries of material perception.
C'Moon
2014
863 x 1266 nm
The earliest form of human mark-making encoded at the nanoscale. An archetypal footprint translated into a physical data-set, designed to test the survival of the human trace outside its perceptive and planetary sphere.
Man with Smartphone
2014
745,8 x 1414 nm
A nanometric encoding of the contemporary hybrid human figure. The contradiction of the 'Homo Digitalis' - hyper-connected yet isolated - rendered into a physical artifact destined for geological timescales, before its unplanned annihilation.
I. Institutional exhibitions & Catalogs
10 Dec 2015 – 2 Jan 2016 | TECHNARTE.
LACDA (Los Angeles Center for Digital Art), Los Angeles, USA.
12 Apr – 1 May 2011 | PRINCIPIA: STANZE E SOSTANZE DELLE ARTI PROSSIME.
Piazza del Duomo, Milan, Italy.
Official catalog published by Silvana Editoriale. ISBN: 9788836620395
View Catalog Record on Silvana Editoriale website
2 Oct 2008 – 11 Jan 2009 | YOUNIVERSE — THIRD INTERNATIONAL BIENNIAL OF CONTEMPORARY ART OF SEVILLE (BIACS3).
Seville, Spain.
Artistic Director: Peter Weibel. Featuring "The Key to Paradise".
Official catalog ISBN: 9788461272853
View Summary on Marc Lee’s Archive
12 – 14 Sep 2008 | NANOART, SEEING THE INVISIBLE.
Circolo Parasio, Imperia, Italy.
23 May – 15 Jun 2008 | NANOART, SEEING THE INVISIBLE.
Infini.To (Turin Astronomy Park), Pino Torinese, Italy.
16 – 19 May 2008 | NANOART, SEEING THE INVISIBLE.
Art'co (Como Art Fair), Como, Italy.
16 – 19 Apr 2008 | NANOART, SEEING THE INVISIBLE.
Politecnico di Torino, Turin, Italy.
6 Oct 2007 – 6 Jan 2008 | ASTRONAVE TORINO.
MIAAO (Museo Internazionale delle Arti Applicate Oggi), Turin, Italy.
2 – 21 Oct 2007 | NANOART, SEEING THE INVISIBLE.
BergamoScienza, Palazzo Frizzoni, Bergamo, Italy.
Curator: Stefano Raimondi.
Official catalog published by Skira Editore. ISBN: 9788861303232.
.View Catalog Record on New York Public Library
11 oct 2006 | PREMIO ARTI VISIVE SAN FEDELE (Third prize winner).
Galleria San Fedele, Milan, Italy.
Curator: Andrea Dall'Asta.
(Note: first public exhibition of the micro-artwork Oltre le Colonne d'Ercole).
II. Academic literature & Peer-review
2021 | VLADOVA, T. "De la distinction entre images scientifiques et images artistiques".
In: images Re-vues, No. 19. Centre d’Histoire et Théorie des Arts (Paris, France).
2021 | SCIPRO PROCEEDINGS. "Forming on principles of Nano Art".
Moscow/International.
2021 | DE RIDDER-VIGNONE, K. "Art and Artists in the Wrong Kind of Science Education".
In: Routledge Handbook of Art, Science, and Technology Studies. Routledge, London/New York. ISBN: 9780429437069
2020 | ROSSI, E. G. Mind the Gap: La vita tra bioarte, arte ecologica e post internet.
Postmedia Books, Milan, Italy
ISBN: 9788874902897
Read an excerpt on Academia.edu
2017 | CASTRO SMIRNOV, F. A. Nanotecnología: la expansión del Universo de lo diminuto. Editorial Científico-Técnica / Otras Voces en Educación, Cuba
2016 | TORNERO, P. "Epistemología artístico-científica contemporánea: Una paradoja aún sin resolver".
Revista KEPES, Año 13, No. 13.
ISSN: 1794-7111.
2015 | MILBURN, C. Mondo Nano: Fun and Games in the World of Digital Matter.
Duke University Press, Durham/London. ISBN: 978-0822357292.
December 2015 | YETISEN, A. K., YUN, S. H., et al. "Art on the Nanoscale and Beyond".
In: Advanced Materials, Vol. 28, Issue 9. Wiley-VCH, Germany/USA.
2012 | SAUVAGEOT, A., BOUJU, X., MARIE, X. (Eds). Images & mirages @ nanosciences. Regards croisés.
Éditions Hermann, Paris, France.
ISBN: 9782705682149.
2011 | MIRABILE, V. Il design della Tecno-Natura.
Ph.D. Thesis, University of Palermo, Italy.
2009 | Re:live Media Art Histories 2009 conference proceedings
(Stefano Raimondi, paper "Nanoart: First Steps Beyond the Columns of Hercules", eds. Sean Cubitt and Paul Thomas), The University of Melbourne & Victorian College of the Arts and Music, Melbourne, Australia (Conference Proceedings, ISBN: 978-0-9807186-3-8).
2009 | DRIOLI, A. "Arte & Nanotecnologie".
In: VIII Convegno Nazionale sulla Comunicazione della Scienza. Fondazione Idis-Città della Scienza / ICS Sissa, Naples, Italy.
Download PDF
2008 | BUXÓ I REY, M. J. "Nanoestética: transfigurar la materia cultural".
In: Arte y Arquitectura Digital, Net.Art y Universos Virtuales. Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain.
ISBN: 9788469142370
2007 | FERESIN, E. "The invisible continent".
In: Nature, Vol. 449. Nature Publishing Group, London, UK.
Read on Nature.
III. Conferences & Speaking engagements
10–11 Dec 2015 | "The Art of the Invisible".
Technarte Los Angeles, Santa Monica, USA. [Invited Speaker].
Official Record.
2009, 2010, 2013 | TECHNARTE BILBAO.
Bilbao, Spain. [Invited Speaker].
7 Apr 2010 | "Nanoarte: Hacia una remodelación del arte contemporáneo".
Universitat de Barcelona, Spain. [Keynote Masterclass].
23 May 2008 | "Nan°art: Vedere l'invisibile".
Infini.To Astronomy Park, Pino Torinese, Italy. [Public Symposium with Maurizio Ferraris].
28 Feb 2008 | "Future of mind or Mind of the future?".
Accademia delle Scienze di Torino, Turin, Italy. [Academic Symposium].
IV. Special projects & Platforms
2014 - 2024 | THE MOONARTS PROJECT / MOONARK. NASA / Carnegie Mellon University / Astrobotic / IIT Turin.
Role: Featured Artist (Silicon Nanolithography).
V. Media coverage & Press
2024 | "Due nano-opere dell’artista torinese Scali sbarcano sulla luna".
ANSA.
2024 | "Due nano-opere dell’artista Alessandro Scali sbarcano sulla luna".
Exibart.
2016 | "Per un'arte che non dia troppo nell'occhio".
Doppiozero. Author: Paola Donatiello
A talk with nanoart pioneer, Alessandro Scali.
L'Italo-Americano.
2007 | "Scali & Goode: Nan°art".
Digicult (Digimag Issue 028). Author: Silvia Scaravaggi.
VI. Collections & legal registrations
2024 | PERMANENT PRESERVATION (Space Archive).
The nanotechnological silicon engravings "C'Moon" and "Man with Smartphone" are housed within the MoonArk, permanently sent to deep space via the NASA/Astrobotic Peregrine Lander.
2024 | EPILOGUE: COSMIC CONTINGENCY.
Involuntary validation of human and technological fragility: following the failure of the Peregrine lander, the artworks existed in space for 7 days before disintegration during atmospheric re-entry.
NANORT | MONOGRAPH I
In 2006, Alessandro Scali began creating artworks physically invisible to the naked eye, accessible only through electron microscopy. This first experiment in Anthropoperiphery addressed a verifiable question: what remains of art when its biological receiver is removed from the equation? The results -validated by Nature, the Seville Biennial, and Carnegie Mellon University - proved that conceptual and cultural significance exist independently of human perception.