CAS Award 2018

VIDEO DESCRIPTION:

Play, download and edit the video CAS Award 2018.

2018 CAS Awards
Created by Aaron Kramer : Artist

This year is the 150th anniversary of the periodic table. Mendeleev’s table was a ground breaking insight. He saw relationships between elements in part due to their atomic weights but also because of their related chemical properties. His insight has paved the way for many discoveries in Chemistry and sub atomic Physics. Physics has it’s Einstein. Biology its Darwin. Astronomy its Copernicus. Art its Picasso. Chemistry has Mendeleev. Science and Art builds upon visionaries that have come before. We all stand upon the shoulders of giants. I chose to wrap the bases of these sculpture in a vintage 1978 CAS Journal because I wanted to reference the history of CAS as a giant, a repository of knowledge that all other chemists can rely on and build upon. Innovation comes with deep knowledge and creativity of thought. The “what if?” moment when a scientist posits a question, based on deep insight with a slight hint of what may be just over the horizon. This kind of innovation led me to work with a scientist at CAS to choose these 13 chemical compounds that have changed history on some level. Some were truly revolutionary when they were discovered only to become notorious. DDT was thought to be a miracle pesticide only later to be banned in the United States as a result of it’s harm to the food chain. Warfarin had an ominous start in chemical warfare and pest control, but in small doses its medical benefits are legendary. I love that there are unintended consequences to creation. I will let the viewer decide where they stand on the choices I have made. In the end I chose some for their historical consequence and others for their pure elegance and beauty. Visually I wanted to express that the periodic table was the basis from which this font of chemical innovation flowed. The compounds almost spring forth from the cylindrical periodic table. Turn the light on and they seethe and roil. For me I also like that there were lasers involved in my process this year. The crystal has three dimensional forms floating within its space. These are achieved with an industrial laser that focuses a precise point of light that vaporizes with an intense resolution. A tiny bubble is formed at this precise place in space. These follow the prescribed 3D path as dictated by a digital file I provided. While this technology has been around for 20 years, for me it is miraculous. The bases for the trophies were generated with a laser too. In a vector based program I drew the four sides of my boxes. These were passed to a machine that uses an intense CO2 laser to easily cut through 5mm plywood. Like a laser cookie cutter. The boxes were then constructed. Their surfaces coated with paint washed vintage CAS journals, then lights were installed. Enjoy your award. You deserve it. And remember that innovation occurs when we stand upon the shoulder of giants and peer just over the horizon. Reach, innovate and crush the curve.

For those of you who want to know the 13 compounds here they are in alphabetical order.:
Aspirin C9H8O4
Buckminsterfullerene C60
Chlorophyll C55H70MgN4O6
Cisplatin Cl2Pt
DDT C14H9Cl5
Methyl Methacrylate C5H8O2
Nicotine C10H14N2
Nitroglycerin C3H5N3O9
Penicillin C16H17N2NaO4S
Perfluorooctanesulfonic Acid C8HF17O3S
Potassium bromate BrKO3
Viagra C28H38N6O11S
Warfarin C19H16O4

Free download, play and edit video and audio from CAS Award 2018 using RedcoolMedia.net web apps