Point and Line to Plane: The Ontography of Carbon Nanomaterials

The carbons known today as fullerenes, nanotubes, and graphene were all observed or theorized well before becoming emblematic nanomaterials. However, by the 1990s, their mode of existence was shifted from bench or brand objects to technoscientific objects. After focusing on the separate life-stories of these carbons, this chapter recounts how, by eventually interweaving their trajectories and mutually referring to each other, these objects have reborn as a family of low-dimensional nanocarbons unfurling a space of indefinite technological possibilities saturated by promises of radical novelty: the “nanoworld”. The co-shaping of nanoworld and nanocarbons is reminiscent of that of the three basic figures composing the world of painting according to Kandinsky: point, line, and plane.