Matthew Shlian TELEMETRY

MATTHEW SHLIAN:

TELEMETRY

Sponsored by Gene and Lee Seidler; Alice and Dean Fjelstul; Thomas Riley Studio; The Beaches of Fort Myers and Sanibel; and the State of Florida, Department of State, Division of Cultural Affairs and the Florida Council on Arts and Culture.

Cover image: Detail of Ara 117 Apo, 2013, Paper, 36 x 72 x 2 in.

Matthew Shlian TELEMETRY January 26 - March 2, 2017 Crossroads of Art and Science Florida Gulf Coast University Art Galleries

Matthew Shlian, We Are Building This Ship As We Sail It, 2010, Paper, 8 x 6 x 9 in.

MATTHEW SHLIAN:

TELEMETRY

Matthew Shlian, Bloom, 2010, Paper, 4 x 4 x 4 in.

Introduction

John Loscuito, Gallery Director

Florida Gulf Coast University Art Galleries Matthew Shlian: Telemetry represents FGCU Art Galleries’ third year of Crossroads: Art and Science Residency and Exhibition. Each year an artist is invited to FGCU to explore a different connection between the Arts and Sciences while working with FGCU faculty and students. Matthew Shlian was a natural fit for Crossroads as he has been collaborating with scientists throughout his career. The essay in this catalogue provides an introduction into the variety of ways he has influenced scientists and they have influenced him.

For this exhibition Matthew Shlian has created new works of art including a collaborative piece with students in the Fall 2016 class, Alternative Printmaking. Shlian agreed to spend a week with the students, generating monotype prints that were transformed into one of his folded paper constructions that the students also helped assemble and install.

This exhibition could not have been possible without the help and support of the donors to the exhibition as well as FGCU faculty, staff and students, especially Andy Owen who taught Alternative Printmaking, and Matthew Shlian who so generously gave his time in the planning and execution of the exhibition.

Matthew Shlian is an artist/designer and founder of the Initiative Artist Studio in Ann Arbor, Michigan. His work extends from drawings to large-scale installations to collaborations with leading scientists at the University of Michigan. His work for the National Science Foundation explores paper folding structures on the macro level translated to the nano-scale. His client list includes Ghostly International, Apple, P&G, Facebook, Levi’s, Sesame Street and the Queen of Jordan. Matthew Shlian holds a BFA from Alfred University (2002) and an MFA from Cranbrook (2006).

His work can be seen at www.mattshlian.com and eightemperors.com

Photograph by Joseph Xu, University of Michigan College of Engineering, 2015.

Kirigami and Technology Cut a Fine Figure, Together Graham P. Collins, Science Writer

When pursuing a degree in fine arts fifteen years ago, Matthew Shlian never dreamed that he would one day be the coauthor of scientific research papers on nanoengineering and solar power (1, 2). But, the Ann Arbor-based artist and designer was exactly that earlier this year. A collaboration between Shlian and engineering colleagues at the University of Michigan is now coming to fruition in the form of technology inspired by the paper-cutting art known as kirigami. The Michigan work exemplifies how some cutting edge technology research has been shaped by the ancient craft.

In essence, kirigami is a variant of origami, the art of paper folding. The words derive from the Japanese for cutting (kiru), folding (oru), and paper (kami). Folding and cutting of paper to create ceremonial or decorative objects dates back centuries in Asia and Europe. The modern notion of origami as an art and recreational craft (and eschewing all cuts in its purest form) took shape last century.

Standard origami starts with a pristine sheet of paper, most often square, and proceeds solely by adding folds: no cutting or gluing is allowed. In contrast, kirigami, relies on both cutting and folding. Designs range from flat symmetrical cut-out decorations like schoolroom snowflakes to elaborate patterns that form 3D models similar to book popups. (Early in his paper-sculpting career, Shlian worked on pop-up books, among other pursuits.)

Making the Cut Why has this low-tech art form found a home in science and technology pursuits? One attraction is the ability to turn 2D materials into 3D structures solely by introducing cuts and folds. For example, John A. Rogers of the University of Illinois at Urbana–

Champaign and collaborators have shown how membranes can be designed to form predictable 3D structures ranging from the nanoscale to the mesoscale (3). The group used lithographic techniques to build membranes of silicon, metal, and polymer (in various combinations), with specific geometries and patterns of cuts. Each flat unit is anchored at a number of points to a stretched elastomer substrate. When the tension is relaxed, the substrate contracts, dragging these anchor points closer together, like a person pushing together corners of a paper sheet; the precut membranes buckle out of the plane. The kirigami cuts help determine the final 3D shapes and alleviate stresses that could otherwise cause the material to fracture. Researchers are interested in such 3D structures for uses such as optoelectronics and nanostructured biomedical devices.

Kirigami structures also confer elasticity. For example, Hanqing Jiang of Arizona State University and his coworkers developed lithiumion batteries that are cut and folded into a flexible chain, which can be worn as an elastic armband to power wearable technology (4). Kirigami can make a sheet of paper stretchable, like a spring, just by adding parallel cuts, dividing it into an array of thin strips with short cross connections.

When the paper is pulled perpendicular to the cuts, they open up and allow the sheet to stretch, while the strips buckle into a tilted wavy arrangement. At longer extensions, the result looks more like a fishnet than a sheet of paper. Paul McEuen, Melina Blees, and colleagues at Cornell University built a version of this springy structure out of graphene, the single-atom-thick sheets of carbon that nanotechnologists are studying for a plethora of applications (5). McEuen’s group also measured the bending stiffness of micrometer- sized graphene sheets and obtained values that show graphene is as suitable for kirigami as standard paper.

Creative Collaboration Shlian first began interacting with scientists and engineers at Michigan in 2006, after finishing up his master of fine arts at the Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield, Michigan. “My work was leaning more toward design,” he says, “and people were seeing scientific principles and architecture in the work.” Hoping for collaborations,

he sent a letter and DVD of his work to about fifty University of Michigan faculty. One response led to a meeting with Max Shtein, an associate professor of Materials Science and Engineering, and before long they were coteaching an undergraduate course on problem-solving and visualization of science to a mixture of art, engineering, and architecture students. Shlian became the artist- in-residence in the materials science department and a lecturer in the School of Art and Design.

Five years later they saw another collaboration opportunity when the National Science Foundation solicited proposals on origami design for engineering, part of the agency’s Emerging Frontiers in Research and Innovation program. Shtein is principal investigator on the four-year grant; coprincipal investigators include University of Michigan materials scientists Sharon Glotzer and Nicholas Kotov, whose focus has included kirigami elastic nanocomposites (1). The collaboration has led to work on an innovative mechanism for helping solar cells track the sun (2), using a macroscopic version of the same pattern of cuts as in McEuen’s tiny stretchable graphene. Shtein first envisaged the tracking application when he saw Shlian demonstrate twisting turning paper strips in this kirigami pattern.

To construct the kirigami tracking system, Shtein’s team bonded photovoltaic cells made of thin, flexible gallium arsenide crystals to a polymer sheet and then cut the kirigami pattern. The resulting strips can be adjusted to an optimum angle to maximize sun exposure by stretching the overall sheet while keeping it within a relatively flat glass enclosure, avoiding the need to tilt the entire panel. However, the system is far from ready for commercialization. The current design, assuming daily cycles of movement, has only been demonstrated to last for about a year. Moreover, the demonstrated models are small; the mechanical performance of larger sheets requires further study.

The art hasn’t only influenced the science; the science has influenced Shlian’s artwork as well. One of his projects entailed working with University of Michigan life sciences professor Daniel Klionsky to make paper models that help illustrate processes related to double-layer membranes in cellular structures called autophagosomes. With a series of cuts and folds to a sheet of paper, Shlian created a 3D form from the 2D surface. “That’s

something I’ve worked with for years,” Shlian says, “but looking at it from a scientific standpoint changes some of the parameters. Certain things have to fold only to certain points, or maybe they have to rotate a certain way, and those are interesting limitations to push against artistically.”

Shlian’s interdisciplinary forays have helped him appreciate scientists’ activities and motivations. In school, he thought science was rote and by the book. “You find it’s not really like that with this cutting edge work,” he says. “Scientists are just as curious as artists are; they’re just as excitable as we are about new things.”

References 1. Shyu TC, et al. (2015) A kirigami approach to engineering elasticity in nanocomposites through patterned defects. Nat Mater 14(8):785–789.CrossRefMedlineGoogle Scholar 2. Lamoureux A, Lee K, Shlian M, Forrest SR, Shtein M (2015) Dynamic kirigami structures for integrated solar tracking. Nat Commun 6:8092. CrossRefMedlineGoogle Scholar 3. Zhang Y, et al. (2015) A mechanically driven form of Kirigami as a route to 3D mesostructures in micro/nanomembranes.

Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 112(38):11757–11764.

Abstract/FREE Full Text 4. Song Z, et al. (2015) Kirigami-based stretchable lithium-ion batteries. Sci Rep 5:10988. CrossRefMedlineGoogle Scholar

Stretch Studies - Tyvek, 2011, Size varies

5. Blees MK, et al. (2015) Graphene kirigami.

Nature 524(7564):204–207. CrossRefMedlineGoogle Scholar (Reprinted with permission from Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, Vol. 13 No. 2).

Matthew Shlian SELECT WORKS

Artist’s Statement Matthew Shlian

As a paper engineer my work is rooted in print media, book arts and commercial design. Beginning with an initial fold, a single action causes a transfer of energy to subsequent folds, which ultimately manifest in drawings and three dimensional forms. I use my engineering skills to create kinetic sculptures which have lead to collaborations with scientists at the University of Michigan. Researchers see paper engineering as a metaphor for scientific principals; I see their inquiry as basis for artistic inspiration. In my studio I am a collaborator, explorer and inventor. I begin with a system of folding and at a particular moment the material takes over. Guided by wonder, my work is made because I cannot visualize its final realization; in this way I come to understanding through curiosity.

Matthew Shlian, Ara 226, 2016, Ink wash on paper, 48 x 48 x 2 in.

Matthew Shlian, Ara 205, 2016, Paper, 48 x 48 x 5 in. Photograph by Caitlin Rosolen

Matthew Shlian, Ara 212 (in black), 2016, Paper, 48 x 48 x 2 in.

Matthew Shlian, Ara 117 (in silver), 2016, Paper, 60 x 83 x 5 in.

Matthew Shlian, Ara 211, 2016, Paper, 48 x 83 x 6 in.

Matthew Shlian, Ara 242 (set of 4), each 2016, Ink wash on paper, 48 x 18 x 2 in. each

Matthew Shlian, Ara 111, 2014, Ink wash on paper, 43 x 70 x 3 in.

Matthew Shlian, Process Series 2 (ORBIT), 2013, Paper, 11 x 8 x 1/2 in.

Matthew Shlian, Process Series 2 (WAVE), 2013, Paper, 11 x 8 x 1/2 in.

Students pulling monotype prints for the collaborative piece

Having the chance to work with a professional artist was an exciting experience. The techniques Matt Shlian uses in creating his pieces were completely new to me. The opportunity to collaborate with Matt Shlian on a piece for a gallery show, especially one for the FGCU permanent collection, is a truly unique experience and I’m very excited to see the finished work. ~ Arianna Myers

Student Collaboration Project Andy Owen, Associate Professor of Art

Bower School of Music and the Arts • Florida Gulf Coast University As part of The Crossroads: Art and Science Residency and Exhibition, the visiting artist is invited to work with FGCU faculty and students. Matthew Shlian’s use of paper as his material of choice naturally connected to the course, Alternative Printmaking.

Printmaking is well suited for quickly creating multiple versions of works of art on paper and is inherently a team effort. Of the variety of processes taught in the course, monotypes were chosen for the project.

Monotypes offer a wonderful bridge between drawing and painting. The versatility of the process is excellent for experimentation. Using a clear acrylic sheet as a plate, the artist applies ink to the surface creating the desired image. Ink may be applied with brushes and brayers, working on a transparent plate offers a number of advantages.

Texture and line can be created with a limitless assortment of tools such as paper towels, sponges, sticks and cheesecloth. When the image is complete, a piece of paper is placed on the plate and it is run through an intaglio press. The pressure from the press results in the image being transferred from the plate to paper, creating a one of a kind print. Rich and unique qualities may be developed through printing multiple times layering line, texture and color.

In preparation for this project, students printed a number of color studies, which were used to determine the palette for the collaborative project. Once the palette was decided, students teamed up and created a series of sixty-four 18” X 24” monotypes, providing a wide range of values of the chosen hue. Inspired and guided by visiting artist Matt Shlian, the prints were then transformed through a process of cutting, folding and composing into the final piece.

Artist Matthew Shlian and students selecting work for the collaborative piece

Students of ART3463 Alternative Printmaking Victoria L. Ahrenholz Adrianna E. Arago Jadon A. Axe Derek F. DePontbriand Courtney Diekelmann Kelsey Hallbeck Summer M. Jordan Rosemarie O. Kirk Karri T. Leamon Shoshana M. LeVine Sebastian N. Melendez Ariana J. Myers Brandie Pawlowski Kaitlyn A. Roge Donald L. Smith Teshey L. Thompson

Folding one of the monotype die-cuts

“I had no idea the value in the art of paper design work until after we spent the evening with Matt Shlian. I am in a graphic design class and we had an assignment to repackage a product. With the new found ability to cut and fold paper, I was able to create a package design.� ~ Rosemarie Kirk

Assembly of monotype die-cuts

It is a rewarding experience to be able to work with such an accomplished artist as Matt Shlian. From being a part of the beginning process and idea creation to the grand assemblage of the final piece. This opportunity has shown me a different view of paper as artwork, rather than just using it as the platform for other mediums. ~ Courtney Diekelmann

Matthew Shlian and Andy Owen discuss print selection for the project

Editors: John Loscuito and Joanna Hoch Graphic Designer: Anica Sturdivant Contributing Authors: Graham P. Collins, John Loscuito, Matthew Shlian, and Andy Owen Photographic Contributions: John Loscuito, Caitlin Rosolen, Matthew Shlian, and Anica Sturdivant Bower School of Music & the Arts Staff: John Loscuito, Director Anica Sturdivant, Gallery Coordinator Joanna Hoch, Events Coordinator Mary Cooper, Executive Secretary Gallery Assistants: Caitlin Rosolen Tai Goggins Spencer Gillespie Jacqueline Sanabria Amanda Wellstood

Florida Gulf Coast University Art Galleries 10501 FGCU Blvd S Fort Myers FL 33965 T239.590.7199 artgallery.fgcu.edu