Science art practices are often framed as science communication in a manner that overlooks the capacity of the arts to provide engagement opportunities beyond discourse. The authors perform a thematic analysis of audience interviews from scientific media art installations that depict complex, intangible, invisible, and ephemeral scientific phenomena, specifically focusing on medical nanotechnology. The analysis reveals that visitors recognize sensorial experiences beyond traditional science communication, while scientists’ experiences expanded their definition of engagement. The authors argue that scientific media art practices act as sites of meaning-making and nondiscursive engagement that create reflective and embodied contexts for encounters with emerging technologies.

Artists engaging with the nanoscale have a particular problem of representation: Humans are unable to directly perceive nanoscale phenomena. Even without sensory or temporal experience of these phenomena, nanoartists are exploring technological, interactive and audiovisual mediation techniques. The author discusses this “problematic perception,” describes a key piece of nanoscientific instrumentation and finds diverse nanoart practices that exhibit a common concern for multisensoriality and embodied experience. This reflects our human desire to use our bodies to explore the world. Finally the author explores the question: How might nanoscientific and cinematic imaging systems work together with the perceiving body to further facilitate this multisensoriality?