Consisting of 99% air, aerogel is the world’s lightest stable. This distinctive materials has discovered objective in a number of kinds — from NASA missions to excessive vogue.
Pushed by the will to create a 3D cloud, Greek artist, Ioannis Michaloudis, discovered to make use of aerogel as a creative medium. His journey spanning greater than 25 years took him to the Massachusetts Institute of Know-how (MIT) in Cambridge; Shivaji College in Maharashtra, India, and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California.
A researcher at MIT launched Michaloudis to aerogel after listening to of his cloud-making ambition, and he was instantly intrigued. Aerogel is made by combining a polymer with a solvent to create a gel and flash-drying it below stress, leaving a stable stuffed with microscopic pores.
Scientists at JPL selected aerogel within the mid-Nineties to allow the Stardust mission, with the concept that a porous floor might seize particles whereas flying on a probe behind a comet. Aerogel labored in lab assessments, however it was tough to fabricate persistently and wanted to be made space-worthy. NASA JPL employed supplies scientist Steve Jones to develop a flight-ready aerogel, and he ultimately received funding for an aerogel lab.
The Stardust mission succeeded, and when Michaloudis heard of it, he reached out to JPL, the place Jones invited him to the lab. Now retired, Jones recalled, “I went by way of the primer on aerogel with him, the totally different sorts you possibly can make and their totally different properties.” The scale of Jones’ reactor, enabling it to make massive objects, impressed Michaloudis. With recommendations on easy methods to safely function a big reactor, he outfitted his personal lab with one.
In India, Michaloudis discovered recipes for aerogels that may be molded into massive objects and don’t crack or shrink throughout drying. His continued work with aerogels has created an in depth artwork portfolio.
Michaloudis has had greater than a dozen solo exhibitions. All his paintings includes aerogel, drawing consideration with its uncommon qualities. An ethereal, translucent blue, it casts an orange shadow and may face up to molten metals.
In 2020, Michaloudis created a quartz-encapsulated aerogel pendant for the centerpiece of that 12 months’s assortment from French jewellery home Boucheron. Michaloudis additionally captured the style and design world’s consideration with a purse product of aerogel, unveiled at Coperni’s 2024 fall assortment debut.
NASA was a vital step alongside the best way. “I’m what I’m, and we made what we made because of the Stardust mission,” mentioned Michaloudis.