Nanotechnology and art in the new edition of 10alamenos9 Festival
The synergy between two different disciplines such as science and art is this yearʼs option for the Scientific and Technological Centers of the University of Barcelona (CCiTUB) in the third edition of the 10alamenos9 Nanoscience and Nanotechnology Festival. This event will take place in nine cities in Spain from April 10 to April 13 2018 with activities aimed at the general public and schools, and it will have around 15,000 participants.
The synergy between two different disciplines such as science and art is this yearʼs option for the Scientific and Technological Centers of the University of Barcelona (CCiTUB) in the third edition of the 10alamenos9 Nanoscience and Nanotechnology Festival. This event will take place in nine cities in Spain from April 10 to April 13 2018 with activities aimed at the general public and schools, and it will have around 15,000 participants.
The new edition of the festival, coordinated by the Scientific and Technological Centers of the University of Barcelona within the NanoDivulga project, has more than a hundred activities, half of which are in Barcelona, and it brings new scenarios to the biggest festival on nanotechnology dissemination held in Spain. There are thirty entities taking part in the organization of the activities -universities and research institutes-, and many are model entities in Spain and Europe within the field of nanotechnology.
Nanoart
In particular, the session on art, science and nanotechnology organized by CCiTUB, will take place on April 11 in CosmoCaixa (Isaac Newton, 26, Barcelona). The conferences are divided into two blocs. The first one, on science and heritage, with the participation of researchers of the University of Barcelona (UB), the Picasso Museum Barcelona and the Museu Nacional dʼArt de Catalunya (National Art Museum of Catalonia, MNAC), and a second bloc, focused on the interdisciplinary interaction between science and art with actions such as theatre, dance, comic or illustration. This second area will begin with a workshop -linked to the Joan Miró Foundationʼs beehave project- by the artists Xavier Manzanares and Àlex Muñoz.
More than 15,000 participants in nine cities
The meeting, sponsored by BASF (main sponsor) and the Institute of Nanoscince and Nanotechnology (IN2UB), REPSOL and VLC Photonics, has several and new headquarters. In Catalonia, the following will offer the festivalʼs activities: University of Barcelona, CosmoCaixa and Biblioteques de Barcelona (Libraries of Barcelona), Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), and the Catalan Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (ICN2) and the Institute of Materials Science of Barcelona (ICMAB), in Bellaterra. There will be other activities in Zaragoza (Institute of Nanoscience of Aragon and the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC)), in Bergara (Basque Country), through NanoGUNE and in Madrid, organized by CSIC and IMDEA Nanociencia. Also, this year, there are new cities such Sant Cugat, Sabadell, Valencia and Murcia. It is estimated that more than 15,000 people will take part in this event, and 4,000 out of those in Barcelona, taking the general public, students and professionals into account.
According to Jordi Díaz, expert from CCiTUB and state coordinator of the festival, “the aim is to bring nanoscience and nanotechnology closer to people in a dynamic, fun and rigorous way and show people that nanotechnology is a reality, which is not seen but it is all over”.
NanoEduca and Nanoinventum, aimed at schools
In Barcelona, the activities will take place in CosmoCaixa, There will be activities aimed at primary and secondary education schools -through the Nanoinventum project- apart from exhibitions, some with nanotechnology products and augmented reality, and seminars carried out by distinguished researchers, as well as workshops that are related to the several fields of nanoscience.
Within the framework of the festival, on May 9, the Paranimph of the Historical Building of Barcelona will hold the third edition of the Nanofesta, as the closing event for the last edition of the NanoEduca project, the first project on nanotechnology training at secondary education schools which has trained 5,000 students from more than two hundred students in Catalonia over the first editions, and which is also present in the Basque Country, Madrid and Salzburg (Austria).
This festival will make the participating high schools to submit videos and posters from their nanotechnology projects in the same way a science conference does.
The NanoEduca program, carried out in CCiTUB, the Institute of Education Sciences of the UB and NanoDivulga UB, together with the Catalan Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (ICN2), Center for Specific Pedagogical Support Resources for Innovation and Educational Research (CESIRE) and UAB, was created to get high school teachers more familiar with the nanoscience and nanotechnology tools, language and processes, and to create learning workshops which can be used in the classroom.
What is NanoDivulga UB?
NanoDivulga project was launched in 2015 aiming to bring the world of nanotechnology and nanoscience closer to citizens and to highlight the unique properties of nanomaterials and nanotechnologies. This activity results from the framework of the University of Barcelona, driven by the CCiTUB, the Scientific Culture and Innovation Unit (UCC+i) and the Institute of Education Sciences (ICE), with the collaboration of the Institute of Nanoscince and Nanotechnology (IN2UB).
The program for the activities that are organized by CCiTUB in Barcelona is available here.