DESMA 9 FINAL

EXTRA CREDIT BLOG 1

A week or two ago, I went to a screening of "The Dawn of the Planet of the Apes" and saw "Rise of the Planet of the Apes" right before. It had occurred to me right after the film was over, (which was fantastic by the way) that this movie series is an application of art and science.
The movie plot centers around a society of apes and their conflicts with humans. The result of the advanced species of ape is because of the ALZ-113 virus which wipes out a great majority of the human population to the point anarchy has ensued. The first movie is literally about medicine and how the invention of this new bio-technology can cure Alheizmers disease. When used on the apes, it helped them to evolve into new, hyper intelligent primates.

What I thought was interesting about the plot was that with bio-technology being so new and biomedicine being so new, there are a ridiculous amount of possibilities that have yet to be explored. Of course this movie is fiction, but it depicts a possible reality of what would happen if we let bio-tech run into the wrong hands. It also raises the questions of the possibilities of medicine in the future, and the possibilities of bio chemicals to help or hurt us in the future.

I think it is a great way to look at art and science in an interesting way. Never would have I thought about the film in this manner, had I not taken this class.

EVENT BLOG #3

The final event I got to see is something I've wanted to see for a long time but never have actually gotten the chance to sit down and take a look at it. This was the "Metropolis II" by Chris Burden at LACMA. Although it's very well known, I've only seen it once my whole time at UCLA in my freshman year.

In my opinion, Metropolis is the ultimate combination of art and science. The project, described as a "kinetic sculpture" encompasses what I think art|sci is about. This is robotic, mathematic, engineered, carefully planned, and in my opinion, a scientific and conceptual study of bustling city life. This project is a direct result of the efforts of Tesla, Ford, and in some ways, automata. While staring at it, I became entranced in the nooks and crannies, the highways, and the bustling noise of the city itself. I became so enraptured in the sheer volume and spectacle of the project that I felt stressed just looking at it. I think that this project is in a way a critique of Los Angeles, as much as it is a portrait of what it will become.

LINKS:

http://cs.stanford.edu/people/eroberts/courses/soco/projects/2004-05/automata-theory/basics.html

http://www.autolife.umd.umich.edu/Race/R_Overview/R_Overview3.htm

http://www.lacma.org/art/exhibition/metropolis-ii

http://www.complex.com/style/2013/10/chris-burden-art-new-museum/metropolis-ii

http://www.laweekly.com/publicspectacle/2012/01/12/metropolis-ii-at-lacma-will-a-sculpture-made-of-1100-hot-wheels-predict-las-future

EVENT BLOG 2

The 2nd event I ended up going to see was at the Architecture and Design Museum on Wilshire, next to LACMA. The exhibition was called "Come In! S,M,L,XLA." The show essentially played on the human sense of scale and how scale affects our perceptions. This reminded me of nano-technology in a big way. Nano-technology works at a scale that is incomprehensible to our eyes.  This exhibit was also very big on "Math and Science" as well. All of the pieces uses very calculated processes to determine the shape, form, and color of the piece itself. The pieces also took inspiration form scientific crystalline structures as well as atomic bond structures as inspiration for form.

One such project was a piece by Jae Won Cho entitled: "Mesh." Mesh is described as a "modular block that can connect infinitely to make a structure that is organic. Mesh is comprised through a systematic process, producing a crystalline structure."

One other such project was called "In Turn." In turn is a geometrical interpretation of the game chess. Described as "a chess set that manifests its pieces in two ways: as the lines and curves indicating contours or cross sections of the chess pieces and as the typical imaginary curves of geometric unfolding." 

I said in my previous blog post that the subject of math and science is foreign to me and I don't exactly understand or comprehend how it's done. But seeing this exhibit gave me a great sense of appreciation for artists that do practice and manipulate numbers, formulas, and geometry to make great aesthetically pleasing and conceptually profound work.

LINKS:

http://books.google.com/books?id=vBISE7equQ4C&pg=PA98&lpg=PA98&dq=crystalline+structure+art&source=bl&ots=6mCpifNIGx&sig=9IVVLrIGO3PcngRcW8kgHAtkKrM&hl=en&sa=X&ei=UQnfU8qlHo32oASx_IHwBw&ved=0CE8Q6AEwCQ#v=onepage&q=crystalline%20structure%20art&f=false

http://jwilson.coe.uga.edu/emat6680/parveen/Math_and_Art.htm

http://blogs.kcrw.com/dna/dna-design-pick-jae-won-chos-t-shelf

http://www.maxispina.com/home.php/

EVENT BLOG 1

The first event I attended was actually the "Made in LA" exhibit at the Hammer Museum.
This event showcased many works made by artists in Los Angeles, with many being emerging artists and content-makers.

A piece that stuck out as soon I was walked through the door was the piece by Samara Golden, entitled "Busts." Busts is a multi-media and medium project that involves photography, video, sculpture, sound, 3d printing, and to top it all of, it's an instillation piece. The viewer walks into a room of doll heads perched on a bleacher type desk structure. The piece immerses the viewer in an all surrounding experience and eventually, they too will be part of the piece. Viewers will be added to the doll collection as the exhibit continues and the project is shown more. 

 The other exhibit that interested me was the piece by Sara Rara entitled: "The Pollinators." This piece entranced me completely because it literally makes art out of science. The piece surrounds the viewer in a dark room that confines the space with benches in the shape of beehives in the middle. On the front wall is a video of the process of pollination. It is meant to show us that "humans perceive only a small fraction of the physical world."

"It is not a question of annihilating science, but of controlling it. Science is totally dependent upon philosophical opinions for all of its goals and methods, though it easily forgets this. 

—Friedrich Nietzsche"

To me, these two exhibit the theory of the "two cultures" and intermixing them and the above quote represents this. I found myself in these two exhibits for a minimum of 20 mins each. One literally takes science and uses the process as art. Something extremely scientific as pollination is also a beautiful process. The other utilizes the intermixing of mediums that normally wouldn't be put together. While it is not specifically scientific, I think it speaks to theory Snow talks about in his book when it comes to the two cultures.

LINKS:
http://www.newcriterion.com/articles.cfm/-The-Two-Cultures--today-4882
http://hammer.ucla.edu/made-in-la-2014/#c4502
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/22/books/review/Dizikes-t.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
http://sarahrara.com/pollinators/
http://hammer.ucla.edu/made-in-la-2014/samara-golden/

DESMA WEEK 5 - SPACE

SPACE

The section on space this week was one of the more fascinating topics thus far in the class. 

When I saw space was going to be the topic, when I think of art + science and space, I automatically go to "Gravity" by Alfonso Cuarón. In my opinion, Gravity is the perfect mix of art, science, and technology. From the special effects, to the vastness of space, to the message of survival and hope, the movie truly represents what I believe to be a crossroads of what we are learning in this class and real life application of that knowledge.

Space is the final frontier for the human race and is still unknown to us. This is what makes it so alluring. This is what fueled the space race. In lecture, the space race was talked about as a time of political and social change. With multiple countries, mainly the USA and the USSR rushing to get into space, the time was a technological boom, with many countries looking to improve their capabilities in order to be the first to get into space. Yuri Gagarin and John Glenn were proof of this.

I want to relate this back to another class I've taken, the history of American television, because the cinematic arts also capitalized on the prospect of space and the space race. There were numerous shows that depicted humans venturing to explore other planets, galaxies, and solar systems such as Captain Video. The times truly were buzzing from the space race and the television industry looked to capitalize on that as well.

The reading this week brought me to the attention of "Dancing on the Ceiling" by Chris Doyle, who's piece Method Air demonstrates the effect of zero gravity by projecting videos of skateboarders without their skateboards. The effect this piece has is magical and I found myself watching the clip over and over.

http://zerogravity.empac.rpi.edu/doyle/

http://www.impawards.com/2013/posters/gravity_xlg.jpg

http://wrongsideoftheart.com/2009/05/captain-video-master-of-the-stratosphere-1951-usa/

DESMA WEEK 5 - NANO TECHNOLOGY + ART

DESMA WEEK 5

This week we had the topics of NanoTech + Art and Space + Art.

Diving into NanoTech was something I had zero idea about, aside from seeing nano-tech on cartoon shows like the "Justice League" etc. 

Nano-technology is a faucet of science and technology who's full potential has yet to be tapped into.

The part that struck me the most about Dr. Gimzewski's lecture, is part four. The use of nano-technology in medicine, and the potential that it holds. I wasn't aware of the fact that nano-drugs even existed, or were in applicable in cancer treatment. As I've had someone in my family suffer from cancer around the time that Abraxane was introduced, this hit home for me.

Artabase.net also had some great works to see and were pretty fascinating on their own. The two that caught my eye were "Transjuicer" and "A Mote it is". The concepts behind the two and the application of nano-technology are astounding. While I don't completely understand the logistics behind the work, I am in awe of the sheer multifaceted applications of nano technology. Mote explores a more conceptual notion of nano-technology. The fact that we cannot see it. The objects in front of us become invisible, such as nano-tech is invisible to the naked eye. 

https://www.tumblr.com/search/nano+technology
http://www.artabase.net/exhibition/2104-art-in-the-age-of-nanotechnology
http://www.celgenecanada.net/en/research/nab-technology.aspx