Aer()sculpture: A Free-Dimensional Space Art

Abstract

Functional materials such as aerogels often find utility in technological applications, and this is how scientists typically think about them. This chapter is, therefore, unusual for a scientific handbook, as it presents a series of silica aerogel-based aer()sculptures created by the author beginning in 2002. Dr. Ioannis Michaloudis is an academic, visual artist, and researcher internationally recognized as a leader in intersecting art and science and was the first person to investigate the application of silica aerogel in fine arts and design. From the creation of the first aer()sculpture in 2002 – a torso of Icarus and his wing – to the production of image-etched Skyprints first realized in 2018, the ethereal, exotic, and delicate nanomaterial that is silica aerogel is the focus of Michalou(di)s’ artworks, as he considers it to be the embodiment of our delicate sky; his artworks accordingly serve as a kind of spiritual SOS: a warning signal to save our sky. Among other notable achievements of Michaloudis is the selection of two of his silica aerogel artworks to be included in Carnegie Mellon University’s MoonArk project, a cultural time capsule to be rocketed to the moon in July 2021 where it will exist for potentially billions of years.