Event #3

Event #3 : Casuality is Broken

I went to the Casuality Is Broken: Can We Fix It with Art & Design where Dr. Pinar Yoldas presented many different concepts and interesting facts. Her key concept that she continuosly mentions was this idea of "anthropocene" introduced by Dr. Paul J Crutzen that proposed a new era when human actions have a drastic effect on the Earth. She further went on to talk about sense and perception. She compared both. a human and then a tic. She asked, "How many senses does it take for a tic to use it senses and then the same for a human." It takes a tic 1 to detect heat / temperature, 1 for smell, & 1 for motion.  On the other hand humans have more senses to satisfy.. temperature, pressure, sight , hear, taste, & the list goes on. All this to say humans have a much richer life compared to a tic.

Yoldas then goes to say things fall beyond our umwelt, how one senses the world around. themselves, such as climate change, gravitational waves, infrared light, pesticides, etc and it all becomes imperceptible. She now finally ties everything to casuality. She explains how imperceptibility breaks causality with this idea: Plastic bottle —> mass consumption —> waste accumulation. Overtime —> pelagic plastics —>dead albatross chick. What she means when she says that is as humans we're living in this bubble where we don't make. a connection to how our actions affect the world using the phrase "out of sight out of mind". Now you may ask.. so. how can we. bring the imperceptible back to our umwlet? Well we would have to design of a new culture that is : non violent, biopholic, and inclusive. After this she goes into a couple projects of hers that deomonstrate this. 




Her first introduced idea was Hot Yoga. She began thinking of this idea due to the Polar Bear ad campaign showing how it once. went from happy healthy Polar Bears to sick about to die Polar Bears.So she decided to design a yoga stage that says global warming and produces heat, one would participate for 25 mins - 1 hour. The instuctor would have a prewritten script and this would be a collective sweating experience. This ties into our class on the topic of Neuroscience and Art coexisiting. Neuroscience is displayed by increasing the learning by involve art and the body in a form of yoga.

Another project she had was her Silent Spring Dining Event. Here she introduced the "dirty dozen" , which were the top produce with the most pesticides: including strawberries, spinach, nectarines, apples, peaches, pears, cherries, grapes, celery, tomatoes, sweet bell peppers, and potatoes. Yoldas invited local organic farmers, a restauranteur,scholars, environmentalist, senators, and. the governor for a performative dinner table discussion, at the U-M Museum of Natural Histor. The whole event the meals were cooked with only the dirty dozen so she can prove her point.

Finally the last project she discussed was her idea of an ecosystem of excess where she created the Plastoceptor and Stomaximus. This site that displays plastic waste on a global scale.  She really became interested in the waste and was intrested by a. statement made by an environmental activist and discoverer of the Trash Vortex Captain, Charles Moore, who stated, ‘the ocean has turned into a plastic soup.’This project introduces pelagic insects, marine reptilia, fish and birds endowed with organs to sense and metabolize plastics as a new Linnean order of post-human life forms. This was inspired by many things including the groundbreaking findings of new bacteria that burrow into pelagic plastics. She specificaly mentioned in her presentation her creation of the Plastoceptor which is an organ to sense plastics and the Stomaximus which is a digestive organ for the plastivore.

1. Sources :
2. 1. “Ecosystem of Excess, 2014.” Pinar Yoldas, pinaryoldas.info/Ecosystem-of-Excess-2014.
3. 2. “Global Warming Hot Yoga Studio, 2016.” Pinar Yoldas, pinaryoldas.info/Global-Warming-Hot-Yoga-Studio-2016.
4. 3. “Pinar Yoldas.” Pinar Yoldas, pinaryoldas.info/PINAR-YOLDAS.
5. 4. “Throwaway Living.” Inspiring Business, 6 Feb. 2015, businessintegrity.wordpress.com/2015/01/11/throwaway-living/.
6. 5.  “Visualizing Science: Pinar Yoldas' Silent Spring | Stories | Creative Work.” Visualizing Science: Pinar Yoldas' Silent Spring | Stories | Creative Work | Penny W. Stamps School of Art & Design at the University of Michigan, stamps.umich.edu/creative-work/stories/silent-spring.

“Global Warming Hot Yoga Studio, 2016.” Pinar Yoldas, pinaryoldas.info/Global-Warming-Hot-Yoga-Studio-2016. 

“Pinar Yoldas.” Pinar Yoldas, pinaryoldas.info/PINAR-YOLDAS. 

“Throwaway Living.” Inspiring Business, 6 Feb. 2015, businessintegrity.wordpress.com/2015/01/11/throwaway-living/. 

“Visualizing Science: Pinar Yoldas' Silent Spring | Stories | Creative Work.” Visualizing Science: Pinar Yoldas' Silent Spring | Stories | Creative Work | Penny W. Stamps School of Art & Design at the University of Michigan, stamps.umich.edu/creative-work/stories/silent-spring.

“Ecosystem of Excess, 2014.” Pinar Yoldas, pinaryoldas.info/Ecosystem-of-Excess-2014. 

“Global Warming Hot Yoga Studio, 2016.” Pinar Yoldas, pinaryoldas.info/Global-Warming-Hot-Yoga-Studio-2016. 

“Pinar Yoldas.” Pinar Yoldas, pinaryoldas.info/PINAR-YOLDAS. 

“Throwaway Living.” Inspiring Business, 6 Feb. 2015, businessintegrity.wordpress.com/2015/01/11/throwaway-living/. 

“Visualizing Science: Pinar Yoldas' Silent Spring | Stories | Creative Work.” Visualizing Science: Pinar Yoldas' Silent Spring | Stories | Creative Work | Penny W. Stamps School of Art & Design at the University of Michigan, stamps.umich.edu/creative-work/stories/silent-spring.

Event #2

Event #2: UCLA Meteorite Collection

On May 20th , I went to UCLA Meteorite gallery which is located in the UCLA Geology building in southern campus. Although the space of the gallery was kind of small, they fit a lot of information into single space and I was able to learn a lot of new things. The UCLA collection is the largest in the West Coast containing almost three thousand samples. Also, it is the 5th largest collection of meteorites in the U.S. and the 2nd largest housed at a university. This collection includes the main masses of about 40 meteorites. Before. taking thing course and being informed about this collection I did not even know UCLA had this on campus, since I'm not too familiar with South campus since my major is Sociology. The collection contained a variety of meteorites, which included the second largest meteorite in the United States, that was named “Old Woman”. This meteorites mass is 2753 kg. Another one was a piece that came from the Seymchan meteorite that landed in Russia in 1967. The piece is very unique due to it being composed of both silicate mineral and metallic iron-nickel.  After attending this collection, I was able to take away visual representations of how nature in science can be connected with art just by ones perspective. and I would recommend a student outside this class and even South campus to come explore as well.

I think this collection falls into the first topic we discussed in Desma 9 , which was "Two Cultures". Like I mentioned before, prior to enrolling into this class and being introduced to this collection I never stepped foot in the Meteorite collection. This collection has been on this campus for years and is easily accessible, but barely recognized and in a sense ignored by majority of UCLA students. I think this was the biggest thing I was able to take after this trip to the Meteroite collection. Broadining your horizons here at UCLA seems to be more inaccessible than we really think. We're limited to our "sides" of campus that. we never take chances to see things outside of our major that we miss out on such beauty. Maybe if we explored more of the campus we would be able to find things even better and more interesting than the Meteorite collection, but first we have to break away from the idea of there being two cultures.

Sources :

1.Kelly, Kevin. “The Third Culture.” Science, American Association for the Advancement of 
2.“News and Publications | The New York Academy of Sciences.” Nyas, www.nyas.org/news-and-publications/?filter=eBriefings.
Science, 13 Feb. 1998, science.sciencemag.org/content/279/5353/992.full.
3.“Meteorite Collection.” UCLA, meteorites.ucla.edu/.

4.“UCLA Meteorite Gallery.” L.A. Weekly, www.laweekly.com/location/ucla-meteorite-gallery-7350652.

5.Vesna, Victoria. “Mathematics-pt1-ZeroPerspectiveGoldenMean.mov.” Cole UC online. Youtube, 9 April 2012. Web. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mMmq5B1LKDg&feature=player_embedded>

Event #1

Event #1

April 23,2019

For my first event, I decided to go to the Leonard Kleinrock Internet Heritage Site located at 3420 Boelter Hall, where the first message was sent through the internet. This not only was interesting but was also many of the multiple hidden pieces of UCLA's campus. The room I went to was filled with regular furniture, historical pictures, research papers, and notes. The room was designed in a way that'll make you feel as if you were there the exact year the message was sent, and in my opinion, is very successful at doing so. 

This event is related to the topic we discussed in week 3, which is related to robotics and art. Professor touched on ideas of what an influence technology has had on our lives. War has had a casualty of reoccurring to cause technological advances. After visiting this site I was able to see the first development of the Internet came from the ARPANET, a network commissioned by the U.S. Department of Defense. Leonard Kleinrock when speaking about the ARPANET node said "How many revolutions can you think about where you can see—within a few feet!—where it began? This machine is where the internet breathed to life, spoke its first words," (Kleinrock). I say that to elaborate on the idea that technology is always advancing and creating an impact on our daily lives.

I really enjoyed this site because it is amazing to see how the first form of internet messaging was created and to discover that it even happened at the college we go to ... UCLA. It is astounding how they were able to keep this site in the exact location where it occurred for all these years. If someone were to ask me about anywhere to visit on this campus I would highly recommend this site right here. It is one thing to read about it online or on Daily Bruin, but seeing this in person makes it feels like you are actually there back when the message was sent. 

Sources:

“Internet Hall of Fame.” Leonard Kleinrock | Internet Hall of Fame, Internet Society, 2019, www.internethalloffame.org/inductees/leonard-kleinrock.

Kudler, Adrian Glick. “Here's the Room at UCLA Where the Internet Was Born (It Tweets).” Curbed LA, Curbed LA, 11 Apr. 2011, la.curbed.com/2011/4/11/10473182/heres-the-room-at-ucla-where-the-internet-was-born-it-tweets-1.

“Oral-History: Leonard Kleinrock.” Oral-History: Leonard Kleinrock - Engineering and Technology History Wiki, ethw.org/Oral-History:Leonard_Kleinrock.

Savio, Jessica. “Browsing History: A Heritage Site Is Being Set up in Boelter Hall 3420, the Room the First Internet Message Originated In.” Daily Bruin, Apr. 2011, dailybruin.com/2011/04/01/browsing_history/.

Walker, Alissa. “This Is The Room Where The Internet Was Born.” Gizmodo, Gizmodo, 5 Mar. 2014, gizmodo.com/this-is-the-room-where-the-internet-was-born-1527205592.

Week 9: Space and Art

Week 9: Space and Art

June 1,2019

Two significant factors in both science and art are the universe and space. An example that demonstrates this. well is Van Gogh's famous painting, The Starry Night. This painting portrays Gogh's actually observation when he looked at the night sky combined with his emotion, memories, and imagination. Along with Gogh's imagination, I feel like this is very common in what everyone perceives when looking at the sky: it's a combination of what one sees with the naked eye as well as what goes further beyond that – many of these factors are dependent on our imaginations and can be interpreted depending on each individual's different experiences.

In addition, scientific research has open many doors allowing us to further search into the universe and everything around us. One thing it allowed for was discovering other planets and even finding life on those planets and elsewhere. Alongside that, the way we are. able. to view space is greatly influenced by art in the form of movies, paintings, etc. One example is the movie E.T. which portrays how life from other planets and galaxies can be beautiful in their own way. 

Another correlation to how art shapes the way we view space is the artist Ron Miller. Miller is an artist who specializes in astronomy, science fiction, and fantasy in his works such as his depictions an "Ice World Canyon". I think space is a very fascinating thing to many people because it is endless assumptions since it is still so unknown in many aspects and can essentially span infinitely – this allows for our imaginations to run continuously as well as allows interesting and creative art to come from it, ranging from ideas of extraterrestrial life to representation of planets, galaxies, and the universe. 

Sources: 

1. Blumer, D., The illness of Vincent van Gogh. Am. J. Psychiatry, 159 (2002), pp. 519–526 

2. Foust, Jeff. “When space and art intersect.” The Space Review: When space and art intersect, 8 Sept. 2009, www.thespacereview.com/article/1460/1. 

3. “Ice World Canyon.” The Planetary Society Blog, www.planetary.org/multimedia/space-images/universe/ice-world-canyon.html.

4. Time Out New York. “E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial in Concert | Things to Do in New York.” Time Out New York, Time Out, 8 May 2017, www.timeout.com/newyork/things-to-do/e-t-the-extra-terrestrial-in-concert.

5. “Vincent Van Gogh - Starry Night Painting.” Saatchi Art, www.saatchiart.com/art/Painting-Vincent-van-Gogh-Starry-night/997136/3657602/view.

Week 8: Nanotech and Art

Week 8: Nanotech and Art

May 24, 2019

When I took AP Chemistry in 11th grade, my teacher had a model kit that he used to help us visualize the molecules he would talk about. This related to a nano scale because he would build these minature sculptures. After being in this class I realized he was teaching us the information with a form of art: meaning he allowed us to see how nanotechnology and art can coexist to help one learn or other reasonings. Nanotechnology and nanoscience can be fascinating to many people because it is a combination of all of the following : mechanical engineering, biotechnology, chemistry, biotechnology,  electrical engineering, and physics – this is very interesting because there aren't many ways one would be able to incorporate all of these concepts with addition to art. as well. Along with that, the fact that nanotech is able to coexist with art adds another aspect.

Nanotechnology incorporates chemistry, pharmaceuticals, and cells and into a system of designing art. These things increase society’s knowledge of technologies like this as well as helping develop new methods and technologies to be used for research purposes. This makes it possible for people to appreciate every aspect from what the naked eye can see as well as the world around them – where everything is multifarious with a deep meaning beyond what we see everyday. I think in. theory this is what art is and the.  addition of nanotechnology just gives us more reasoning to notice and appreciate how it can coexist.

Sources: 

“Atomium.” Page d'Accueil - Visit Brussels, visit.brussels/en/place/Atomium.

Feder, Barnaby J. “The Art of Nanotech.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 25 Jan. 2008, bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/01/25/the-art-of-nanotech/.

“Chemistry Model Kit - Molecular Model Kit for General and Organic Chemistry - Expert Molecular Modeling Kit (240 Pieces).” Amazon.co.uk: Welcome, www.amazon.co.uk/Chemistry-Model-Kit-Molecular-Modeling/dp/B06XZQ5L8S.

Gimzewski, Jim, and Victoria Vesna. The Nanomeme Syndrome: Blurring of Fact & Fiction in the Construction of a New Science. N.p., n.d. http://vv.arts.ucla.edu/publications/publications/02-03/JV_nano/JV_nano_artF5VG.

Sinha, R. “Nanotechnology in cancer therapeutics: bioconjugated nanoparticles for drug delivery.” Molecular Cancer Therapeutics, vol. 5, no. 8, Jan. 2006, pp. 1909–1917., doi:10.1158/1535-7163.mct-06-0141.

Week 7: Neuroscience and Art

Week 7: Neuroscience and Art

May 18, 2019 

This week we reviewed how art and neuroscience coexist, whether it is images of the brain and neural networks or the art while under the influence of drugs. When looking at neurons traced from over long distances through what is known as the "Brainbow method" which is not. only art, but also neuroscience, showing neural networks for research purposes. This is a perfect example of how interrelated various segments of the brain are and show them coexisting in a very artistic manner. 

Furthermore, art has been created through the use of mind-altering drugs. Lysergic acid diethylamide, LSD, is a drug that allows one to feel more "connected to the universe" because. it gives them a disfigured visual reality, sometimes even causing hallucinations. An interesting study relating to this. was conducted by Salvador Dali, a Spanish artist, he was famous for his psychedelic-looking art such as The Persistence of Memory, in this study Dali did not actually take LSD or any other mind-altering drugs. Despite that though, it is still interesting how his work focuses on memory known to be controlled by the brain, strengthening the connection to neuroscience. The art LSD creates when one has it. in their system is very interesting. An experiment I was able to find was one where they had a patient take a dose of LSD and draw his doctor over an eight-hour period of time. These images evolved from coherent to abstract over the eight hours, which clearly showed the effects on LSD on the brain and perception.

Sources:

“Artist Draws Nine Portraits on LSD During 1950s Research Experiment.” Open Culture, 15 Oct. 2013, www.openculture.com/2013/10/artist-draws-nine-portraits-on-lsd-during-1950s-research-experiment.html.

“Brainbow.” Brainbow | Center for Brain Science, Center for Brain Science, Harvard University, cbs.fas.harvard.edu/science/connectome-project/brainbow #.

Frazzetto, Giovanni, and Suzanne Anker. 

“Neuroculture.” Nature Reviews Neuroscience, vol. 10, no. 11, 2009, pp. 815–821. DESMA 9, doi:10.1038/nrn2736.

“MoMA Learning.” Salvador Dalí. The Persistence of Memory. 1931, MoMA, www.moma.org/learn/moma_learning/1168-2.

Oaklander, Mandy. “Here's What LSD and Psychedelic Drugs Do To Your Brain.” Time, Time, 13 Apr. 2016, time.com/4292298/lsd-acid-trip-drugs-brain/.

Pangburn, DJ. “Salvador Dali & psychedelic drugs: Dali's fake documentary.” Death and Taxes, 28 Mar. 2012, www.deathandtaxesmag.com/181036/salvador-dali-psychedelic-drugs-dalis-fake-documentary/.

Week 6 : Biotech & Art

Week 6 : Biotech & Art

May 11, 2019

This century has established the era of biotechnology, the exploitation of biological processes for industrial and other purposes, especially the genetic manipulation of microorganisms for the production of antibiotics, hormones, etc. Biotechnology is faced with many moral dilemmas such as its ability to edit out genes creating a "designer baby".A designer baby is a baby whose genetic makeup has been selected or altered, often to include a particular gene or to remove genes associated with disease. The idea of editing out a gene for an fatal disease is amazing, but there is a small difference between that and editing genes to get a baby with planned genetics.

The problem with choosing one's babies genetics is used for an artistic statement showing how clinical and artistic purposes bisect . Also, there’s the proposal that gene editing is going against natural selection and it is still a question today whether or not this is moral.This idea is similar to art in many ways. One example being there is a specific reason why certain animals don’t naturally glow green in the wild,  it isn’t promoting survival for these animals so they have no reason to naturally activate the GFP. This can be related to Ellen Levy’s combination of nature and culture that she explains  in Defining Life: Artists Challenge Conventional Classifications.

There is a lot of talk surrounding biotechnology being combined with art.  Artists are now able to create art that was nearly impossible before. However, no one knows all the possible consequences of gene editing at the moment which creates effects that are different, but may also have others that won’t be seen for an unknown time period. Nonetheless, this concern is also seen in hospitals, laboratories, and etc. One example being, Dolly the Sheep which created a new concern no one had ever thought about yet, but the manipulation of biotechnology in this scenario won’t even be seen for decades.

Sources:

“Dolly (Sheep).” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 10 Mar. 2019, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolly_(sheep).

Levy, Ellen K.. “Defining Life: Artists Challenge Conventional Classifications.” DESMA 9.

“Saynsumthn's Blog.” Saynsumthns Blog, saynsumthn.wordpress.com/tag/green-fluorescent-protein/.

"The Life of Dolly." Dolly the Sheep. University of Edinburgh, n.d. Web. 15 May 2017

“Why You Shouldn't Worry Too Much About Designer Babies.” The Crux, 10 Dec. 2018, blogs.discovermagazine.com/crux/2018/12/10/why-you-shouldnt-worry-too-much-about-designer-babies/#.XNkXci-ZNQI.

Week 5: Midterm

Week 4: Medicine + Art

Week 4: Medicine + Art 

April 27, 2019

Having seen many X-rays and MRI's I always knew these type of imageries are important in diagnosing problems in the body but never really thought further than that. Now when reading about how medicine is related to art, I googled some X-rays and MRI's and analyzed them in ways. I never did before and I realized these are very detailed and in fact very artistic. Also, this creates room for creativity from doctors since they're the ones analyzing the photos. Different doctors can analyze the same MRI or X-Ray differently which clearly shows a relationship between medicine and art. 

Also, MRI's can be used. as art themselves, which Justine Cooper demonstrates with her RAPT project (to the right). Cooper used various forms of artistic media to create her artworks, including animation, video, and photography, and she frequently incorporates medical imaging technologies including MRI, ultrasound, DNA sequencing, scanning electron microscopy into her works. Cooper's work has been exhibited at The New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York; the Singapore Art Museum, the Netherlands Media Art Institute and at the NTT InterCommunication Center, Tokyo, RiAus in Adelaide, and in the exhibition WetLab: The New Nexus Between Art and Science in 2005. Specifically, the one that most relates to this weeks topic though is her 1998 work, Rapt, she uses MRI scans of her own body.

Additionally, when watching Professor Vesna’s lectures from this week and it made me look at the body in relation to art. After thinking about this I began to see a similarity to the Egyptians and their burial practices and how it is seen as an art as well.

Sources:

“Burial Practices, Afterlife, & Mummies.” Burial Practices, Afterlife, & Mummies, Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum, 2014, www.egyptianmuseum.org/burialpracticesgallery.

“j u s t i n e c o o p e r.” j u s t i n e c o o p e r, justinecooper.com/.

Kedmey, Dan. “MRI Scans Detect Parkinson's Disease in It's Earliest Stages, Study Finds.” Time, Time, 11 June 2014, time.com/2860630/mri-scans-can-detect-early-onset-of-parkinsons-study-finds/.

Lucas, Jim. “What Are X-Rays?” LiveScience, Purch, 5 Oct. 2018, www.livescience.com/32344-what-are-x-rays.html.

“Making Art from Science.” Filter, Australian Network for Art and Technology, filter.org.au/issue-68/making-art-from-science/.