MyLam
The Art of Innovation
Jan 12, 2016
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When it comes to innovation, art and science have a lot in common – especially the need for inspiration. That’s why art inspired by Lam’s own technology now decorates prominent areas of our Corporate Innovation Lab. In fact, creative thinking is essential to driving growth throughout the semiconductor industry, which involves complex business and technology challenges. Creativity at Lam is being cultivated through a company-wide initiative on innovation, and the Corporate Innovation Lab’s new look is the work of two California College of the Arts (CCA) alumni who were tasked with creating pieces that would inspire employees.

Development of the art was a collaborative effort between Lam and the artists, who were given scrap tool parts and wafers to inspire their work. Even as they took time to learn about our technology so they could create something meaningful and motivating for our engineers, they were themselves inspired. One expressed his admiration of the engineering, saying, “The functional purpose of those parts impressed us as both full of engineering ingenuity and wonder… they were absolutely concrete and practical, and at the same time they spoke of marvelous possibilities.” The artists also identified the wafer as being core to the technologies Lam Research develops, such as the deposition and etch processes used to create patterns and features for integrated circuits.

Based on what they had learned about our technologies, the CCA alumni were inspired to create four pieces: a full-sized sculpture constructed from tool parts, two wall pieces that incorporate light to reflect and amplify colors from different films deposited on silicon wafers, and a series of black-and-white photographs assembled in a modular design. By showcasing creative uses of the proverbial (and in some cases, literal) nuts and bolts of Lam products, these art pieces aim to motivate us to think creatively and keep innovation at the forefront of everything we do.

You can learn more about the artists and this project on the CCA website: Lam Research Turns to CCA Alums to Meld Innovation and Art.

Lam_Innovation_Lab_Artworks

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