Week4

Undoubtedly, art and medicine and technology are closely related, we can feel this from everyday experience. Through the learning of this week, I got a chance to explore the topic more and read more about interesting projects and perspectives about this field. 

From ancient time, people are interested in exploring human bodies, which facilitated the development of the technology of anatomy. As we see in the lectures, back in ancient Egypt times, people were developing methods to preserve dead body. Also in ancient Chinese times, we have similar thing called Terracotta Army. 

People are interested in these anatomical exhibitions, and sites in Egypt and China have become famous tourists’ sites, and projects like Body World are successful. Until now, the idea of preserving the biological tissues of human bodies is still inspiring, and it has been used widely such as waxworks. 

Movies and novels are also having anatomy related subject as themes, or mention these subjects. One of the famous novels, is Perfume: The Story of a Murderer. Like other ruthless murderers in history that dismembered the dead bodies, the main character did the same thing to beautiful girls to get their oder. Another example is Marvel. The characters in this series gain their super powers from either surgeries or medicine, but all using technology to engineer their body, either by accident or deliberately. 

Speaking of surgeries, I am impressed by the carnal art that Orlan created, it was very brave that she turned herself into art by this technology. There are many other more common uses of plastic surgery, such as sex reassignment surgery for gender queer people and little adjustments for public figures to have a better appearance.

Bruestle, Sara, Noah Haglund, Diana Hefley, Jerry Cornfield, Kari Bray, and Sharon Salyer. "China’s Terracotta Warriors on exhibit at Pacific Science Center." HeraldNet.com. N.p., 23 Apr. 2017. Web. 28 Apr. 2017.

Sativa, Rahma Lillahi. "Perfume, The Story of A Murderer: Obsesi Seorang Pembuat Parfum." DetikHealth. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Apr. 2017.

Jeffries, Stuart. "Orlan's art of sex and surgery." The Guardian. Guardian News and Media, 01 July 2009. Web. 28 Apr. 2017.

TEDxTalks. "TEDxAmericanRiviera - Diane Gromala - Curative Powers of Wet, Raw Beauty." YouTube. YouTube, 07 Dec. 2011. Web. 28 Apr. 2017.

"Terracotta Army." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 26 Apr. 2017. Web. 29 Apr. 2017.

【组图】范冰冰蜡像披龙袍 情趣娃娃有木有！." 【组图】范冰冰蜡像披龙袍 情趣娃娃有木有！ IT.com.cn IT世界网-先上IT网再逛电脑城. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Apr. 2017.

"Kids Games, Videos, Characters & More on Marvel Kids." Marvel Kids. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Apr. 2017.

MutleeIsTheAntiGod. "Orlan - Carnal Art (2001) Documentary." YouTube. YouTube, 13 Mar. 2011. Web. 28 Apr. 2017.

Week3

Week3

As an Electrical Engineering major, my focus is robotics and control, and I’m currently in a robotics research group right now. From learning the history starting from Faraday and my own experience, I can say robotics and art are definitely closely related and facilitate each other.

As the guest speaker Machiko Kusahara commented about Japanese robots, the designing and building of robots contain art. For example, the anime Astro Boy is a humanoid that gives people console after the defeat of WW2. Instead of making completely functional robots such as robot arms, the idea of making humanoid robots is itself an art. As she mentioned, the humanoid robots look more friendly to people so they can be useful in being rescuers during earthquake. 

Also, humanoid robots are becoming entertainment for rich people, which further illustrates the art embedded in robotics. Being a spiritual figure, a friendly rescuer and an entertainer, these various jobs of robots all show they have been artworks created by human beings. Speaking of my own research, we are building a foldable mini helicopter, and we will explore the use of origami in robotics design. The most famous origami design is the magic ball, which is very useful in robotics system as it can build self-foldable robots.

The Prestige is my favorite movie illustrating the relationship between art and robotics. Magic itself is an art, and Christoper Nolan depicted a young man that is too ambitious to seek the help of technology from Tesla and finally went crazy. The young man used the colon machine to make duplicates of himself and killed the clone every time, and finally couldn't tell whether the survived himself is the colonel or the real one. This great movie uses robotics and clone as an object to create this masterpiece.

Undoubtedly, robotics and art facilitate each other in their developments. Each design choice of robots is art; and art gets infinite inspiration from the arrival of robotics.

"The Prestige – film review." Mossfilm. N.p., 25 June 2014. Web. 22 Apr. 2017.Uconlineprogram. "Robotics MachikoKusahara 1." YouTube. YouTube, 14 Apr. 2012. Web. 22 Apr. 2017."Shape Shifting Origami Robotics." YouTube. YouTube, 16 Mar. 2016. Web. 22 Apr. 2017.Lee, Dae-Young, Ji-Suk Kim, Sa-Reum Kim, Je-Sung Koh, and Kyu-Jin Cho. "The Deformable Wheel Robot Using Magic-Ball Origami Structure." Volume 6B: 37th Mechanisms and Robotics Conference (2013): n. pag. Web."Walter Benjamin,." Jamie L. Brummitt. N.p., 30 Mar. 2015. Web. 22 Apr. 2017."Astro Boy." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 29 Apr. 2017. Web. 29 Apr. 2017.

Event 1

This Wednesday I went to the workshop at the California Nanosystems Institute, where the instructor led us to a discussion about how technologies have influenced our life and how we are deprived of being in contact with our nature such as the earth, living livestocks. and natural products that can grow. Due to the rapid growth of technologies in the last century, a large portion of our life only rely on human-manufactured products such as the paved streets, digital technologies and processed food. As the instructor has observed and experienced for her own, her life has largely changed after the Industrial Revolution, and it has only been about several decades and the change is very significant. She found this idea inspiring and devoted herself into this movement, there were other people that have the same idea as her, and in the past they have held similar movements that oppose the development of technology and encourage people to embrace nature more. Through the discussion, I  was thinking about my life, and this is true. Besides my pet, all of the rest of time I only touch human-manufactured products, and I have never stepped on the dirt for a long time. Even when I was traveling to famous tourists’ viewpoints, there are always paved roads. 

Then she guided us to the next section of the workshop, that is to feel the various natural materials that she brought from her home. Being used to artificial and human-manufactured goods all the time, those senses, feelings, smell, and looks will be very rare for us. When I entered the room, I observed all of the natural materials carefully one by one, and they are all very natural and abundant in the nature, but we haven’t seen them for a very long time because we live a fast-pace life in the city. 

In my memory, there are dry mushrooms in multiple shapes and sizes, woods of different colors and kinds, dirt, leafs, stones, sands, wood ashes, maple syrup, and comb honey. I touched the mushrooms, and the feeling is very unusual. Unlike everyday human-manufactures products that are very smooth and of regular shapes, the mushrooms have very irregular shapes and special material. Maybe because I’m used to the abundant artificial materials in daily life, this special material that I am not familiar with appears to be very interesting. This is a product of the nature, which cannot be replicated easily by humans. Even though everyday products are more regular-shaped, smooth and functional, I still feel that the mushrooms are very beautiful and special, since every mushroom in nature is different, and they are more beautiful as they naturally are. 

Among all of the natural materials that I have touched and observed, the most memorable one is the comb honey. I have never seen a comb honey in my life before, and I didn’t read the description on the box, so at first I was puzzled about what it actually is. Then I felt scared and didn’t have the courage to touch it since it is something that I don’t know. It’s a complicated feeling that I was afraid it is something dirty or smelly, or it could possible have dead insects in it. Then I looked at it carefully, and I searched in my knowledge and finally confirmed that it is a comb honey. Then I finally touched it and held it very close to my eyes to further observe it and smell it. It has a smell of dirt and honey, it smells like the woody forest abundant with insects and dirt. I was truly amazed by its light-weight and beautiful shape. It is so tightly connected and so thin, and it it aligned so perfectly and of the same size. I couldn’t help but think that nature truly is something that is very distant for us, and it has the ability to thrill us by its endless power and uncertainty, as well as its stunningly beauty. 

Thinking back about our everyday life, I feel that we are still not friends with nature, which is gradually more and more distant from us. We are busy with our work, and nature sometimes seems scary to us beaches it is unknown and unpredictable, but most of the time we view nature as a means of entertainment. In the future, I hope we can fit more time to slow down and feel nature as it is, and learn to understand it more and do a better job in sharing the earth with it.

"Evolution and Human Behavior." The Primate Origins of Human Nature (2016): 59-70. Web.

Miller, Will. "Social Change and Human Nature." Monthly Review 1 Feb. 1999: n. pag. Print.

Gibney, Elizabeth. "Force of nature gave life its asymmetry." Nature(2014): n. pag. Web.

"Earth, its health and stability before industrial revolution." YouTube. YouTube, 17 Feb. 2017. Web. 24 Apr. 2017.

MacCready, Paul. "Nature vs. humans." Paul MacCready: Nature vs. humans | TED Talk | TED.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Apr. 2017.

Math and Art

Week 2 Math and Science

I viewed math as an art since high school, as high level math is very abstract, which makes it seem like philosophy and art questions. However, after this week, I realized how art depends heavily on math as well. I didn’t know there are so many math principles about linear space behind paintings and sculptures and buildings, without which the art works will seem unrealistic to the audience. 

Among all the inspiring sources of arts, the most enlightening for me is Last Supper by Leonardo da Vinci. Since I know little about Christianity, I viewed it as a great painting of significant religious importance, and that’s it. I only learned from this lecture that this is also a milestone in the history of 

Last Supper, Leonardo da Vinci.

realistic paintings that use precise math principles about linear space. Before da Vinci, many artists also illustrated the pivot event Last Supper through painting or sculpture, but I observed that they are very flat, and the audience cannot get a sense of space from it, so it seems merely religious without giving people a sense of reality. 

Miniature Depiction from Circa 1230

Now when I  look at da Vinci’s work again, I can observe that it is very precise and realistic in terms of spacial correctness. In fifteenth century, it was a great improvement in art to depict space precisely. It is indeed a masterpiece that marks the juxtaposition of art and math.

The idea of golden ratio is also a great example of the juxtaposition of math and art. I can think of pyramids and Venus de Milo, but I never think of the Vitruvian Man as the embodiment of it. Now I see it as the best example of the combination of math and art, as da Vinci is a mathematician and artist, and the golden ratios of the circle and square illustrate the tight relationship of art and math. 

Vitruvian Man, Leonardo da Vinci

Since I am not an artist, in the past I only studied math and science, and I felt the art inside it. Examples include the number theory, definition of zero  and infinity, shapes in geometry, etc. From this class, I got a chance to feel the usage of math inside various arts. Sculptures, paintings, and buildings largely use math in geometry and linear space. Math and art are inside each other.

"Golden Ratio." Golden Ratio -- from Wolfram MathWorld. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Apr. 2017.

http://mathworld.wolfram.com/GoldenRatio.html

"15 Facts About The Last Supper." Mental Floss. N.p., 02 Apr. 2017. Web. 15 Apr. 2017.

http://mentalfloss.com/article/64372/15-things-you-should-know-about-last-supper

"Full-page miniature of the Last Supper." NYPL Digital Collections. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Apr. 2017.

https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47da-ec5d-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99

TEDEducation. "Da Vinci's Vitruvian Man of math - James Earle." YouTube. YouTube, 11 July 2013. Web. 15 Apr. 2017.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aMsaFP3kgqQ

TEDEducation. "The infinite life of pi - Reynaldo Lopes." YouTube. YouTube, 10 July 2013. Web. 15 Apr. 2017.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9a5vHXsUvUw

Two Cultures

Week 1 Two Cultures

CP Snow introduced us to the idea of two cultures 50 years ago, and this idea is still worth exploring. The interview and lectures provide me with an idea of how art and science are separated yet connected.  

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/an-update-on-cp-snows-two-cultures/

Being an Electrical Engineering and Applied Math double major that loves art, I’m very interested in this topic as it is very relevant. I firmly believe art and science are inspirations of each other and enhance each other. “Art and science serve a functionally similar role, informing the different ways in which we come to know and re-know our human and physical worlds.” (Brygier, 1997) Einstein is a great violinist; Da Vinci is both an artist and a scientist; Schrödinger is a good poet… No one can be a completely passive observer of the world, among his understanding there must be some art, some imaginary, some romance that lead towards a soft and emotional filter of the world from which he sees it. In UCLA, I have been to the opposite side of campus many times and even taken DESMA classes and enjoyed them. I have many of hobbies such as piano and dancing, and it works great together with my science courses.  

http://dgtully.in/art-science-content-marketing/

I noticed the education issue about separation of art and science back when I was reading the book “The Crowd,” which criticizes public education of only teaching each person a limited set of knowledge while we need a comprehensive understanding in order to have the necessary abilities including ability of judgement and experience. After this week, the video on the website emphasized this issue of again, which is thought-invoking. Personally speaking, I am very open-minded, so I always question authorities; but most people couldn't break the rules easily. Meanwhile, the education system deepened their stereotype of the deep gap between art and science. So courses like DESMA 9 are very good to inform people about this issue.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDZFcDGpL4U

Even though it is difficult to change people’s minds about stereotypes, I will still try to encourage more people to think more about the relationship between art and science, and hopefully get a chance to experience the other side.

Snow, C. P. “Two Cultures and the Scientific Revolution.” Reading. 1959. New York: Cambridge UP, 1961. 

Print.

"The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind : Gustave Le Bon : Free Download & Streaming." Internet Archive. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Apr. 2017.

 https://archive.org/details/crowdastudypopu00bongoog

"J.b.krygier: Cartography as an Art and a Science?" J.b.krygier: Cartography as an Art and a Science? N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Apr. 2017.

TheRSAorg. "RSA ANIMATE: Changing Education Paradigms." YouTube. YouTube, 14 Oct. 2010. Web. 10 Apr. 2017.

Vesna, Victoria. “Toward a Third Culture: Being in Between.” Leonardo 34.2 (2001): 121-25. Web.