The San Francisco Exploratorium: Saturday December 7th

On Saturday I drove home from school to Sacramento where my family lives. On the way (kind of), I stopped at the Exploratorium in San Francisco. I remembered having visited as a child and thinking it was really fun but this time when I walked in, I felt like the only adult surrounded by children. It was a little bit like going to Disneyland once you’ve grown up and the magic is gone. Anyway, I spend a good deal of time exploring the Exploratorium. There were a few rooms and “toys” that I really enjoyed.

         The easiest art connection I made was in the “Comfort Zone”. It was located in the “Black Box” which apparently rotates different installations. In this room, people’s bodies and body movement are digitally projected on the black walls with light. The result is an artwork that involves both the human body and movement along with technology and science. All these components come together to form an interactive piece of art. Most of the art here was interactive, which some people may not see as art at all. Expanding my mind to the fact that art does not have to be just a canvas with paint on a wall is the most important thing I have learned in this class.

My other favorite part of the museum was a sign on a wall that asked, “Where does the museum end and the outside world begin?” I thought about it. Then I left and walked to my car and looked out at San Francisco. The world is full of art for those who see it. Even the architecture of buildings or bridges, art in nature and rock formations, the way a leaf is shaped, it is all art. This encouraged me to explore the world as I explored the Exploratorium.

        

Imagery: 

http://www.frequency.com/video/comfort-zone-premiere-exploratorium/126746755/-/5-976

http://reeceharrisonblog.blogspot.com/2010/09/leaves.html

Griffith Observatory: Friday November 29th

Since I stayed in Westwood for Thanksgiving, I decided to visit the Griffith Observatory at the end of 9^th week. This was just as we finished learning about Space and Art so it all fit very well together. I have been to the Griffith Observatory many times and have always enjoyed the view especially once the sun has gone down. I visited the Griffith Observatory this time during the day and saw a different perspective.

         I had never been inside the dome at Griffith before this experience but I decided to attend a show and see what it is all about. I attended the “Water is Life” show in the planetarium and was blown away. The show explored the possibility of life beyond earth, which I have always pondered but I had never thought about the seemingly simple idea of water on other planets. Highlighted through the title “Water is Life”, living organisms need water to survive so if other life forms do exist out there, water is a necessary resource. The visuals were so astounding, I could have honestly watched anything and been happy but to watch something that made me think like that was a very unique and intriguing experience. It was a very real piece of art.

      

 Tied for my favorite part of the experience was looking at the Foucault Pendulum. The pendulum has been swaying since the observatory opened nearly 80 years ago and it represents the Earth’s rotation in a way that leaves you in awe. There are pegs set up that the pendulum apparently knocks down at the end of the day as the Earth rotates, however I did not get to see the peg fall.

         The word awe can very well be attributed to my feelings throughout my visit at the Griffith Observatory.

Imagery:

http://www.thedanielchallenge.com/?p=69

http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread598617/pg1

http://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/10-pentax-slr-lens-discussion/1955-review-smc-pentax-da-fish-eye-10-17mm-f3-5-4-5-ed-if.html

The Getty Museum: Friday October 18th

         For my first event, I visited the Getty Center just on the other side of the 405. I found the architecture at the Getty to be breathtaking and I never pay attention to things like that, so it must be even more impressive than I think. After immediately taking myself outside to look out over the city, I wandered around the museum looking for something to be calling my name.

 I found myself in an exhibition called “Poetry of Paper”. At first I walked over because it looked too simple to be art displayed at the Getty. The explanation helped a bit but when I pondered it on my own for a while, I really enjoyed the section. I found it so interesting that the artists incorporated the blank space in their piece of art. It opened my eyes to something I had never thought about before. However, the blank parts of a picture are still major components of the artwork as a whole. My favorite piece was a 1485 painting titled View of a Walled City in a River Landscape by Master LCz. The sky was blank which to me stood for the actually blankness of sky and air. This exhibition made me think about how many different concepts that I learned about in this class had never spoken to me as art. Once I was forced to think of them as part of the art, everything started looking like art. This is how I felt about the “negative space” in the images of the exhibition. At first I looked at the corner of the drawing with no etchings and thought, “Well isn’t that just being a tad lazy” but once I concentrated and brought my mind to focus on the blank paper as art, it made a lot of sense. The world needs the emptiness. It cannot function if all space is consumed or if there is never silence, only noise. That is how I felt after looking at the art in the “Poetry of Paper” exhibition. This blank space was the necessary silence in the art, while the rest of the drawing did the talking.

Getty Image: http://articles.latimes.com/2012/jul/24/entertainment/la-et-cm-getty-research-institute-parking-fees-20120723

week 8

The connections between nanotechnology and art seem to be pretty vast. In a very general way, essentially every piece of nanotechnology is artistic within itself and the purpose it serves and the design that was created. In this week’s material by Dr. Gimzewski, we learned about the development of nanotechnology and the manipulation of atoms. There is a definite connection between art and nanotechnology as the chemists make the choice of where to place atoms just as an artist chooses what to create. The decision within creation is a large part of artists’ work. As Dr. Gimzewski refers to chemists “creating”, an artist does the exact same thing as they build and move pieces into a form.

Another material from the week that I found interesting was “Art in the Age of Nanotechnology”. The fact that nanotechnology can be used to creates audio speakers from a human bone is incredible. It just shows the unique connection of art and science as the use of nanotechnology creates a whole new working object through the manipulation of atoms.

Additionally, the use of nanotechnology in fabrics to create “Self-cleaning” or durable fabric has become very popular recently. I have noticed in a lot of sportswear the self-cleaning label and wondered how it worked. But through nanotech and the atom manipulation, fabric can be created so that particles may not penetrate and simply roll off the fabric. Brilliant!

With the continued development of nanotechnology, who knows what could be next in our world.

References:

"Art in the Age of Nanotechnology." Artabase.net. John Curtain Gallery, 5 Feb 2010. Web. 23 Nov 2013. <http://www.artabase.net/exhibition/2104-art-in-the-age-of-nanotechnology>.

 Gemzewski, Jim. "Nanotech for Artists." UConline.edu. University of California. Web. 23 Nov 2013. <https://cole2.uconline.edu/courses/63226/wiki/unit-8-view?module_item_id=970451>.

Jaeger, Luc. "TectoRNA: modular assembly units for the construction of RNA nano-objects." Article. 2000. Oxford Journals; Nucleic Acids Research. Retried from http://nar.oxfordjournals.org/content/29/2/455.long.

"Sound Waves Levitate, Move Particles" http://news.discovery.com/tech/nanotechnology/sound-waves-levitate-move-particles-130716.htm

Vesna, Victoria. “NanoTech + Art.” Week 8: Lectures Part I, II, III, IV.

Photos:

1) "What Do Real Atoms Look Like" http://infinite712.hubpages.com/hub/What-do-real-Atoms-look-like

2)"The Educated Chemist" http://www.rsc.org/chemistryworld/Issues/2010/June/ManagingCareerChemistry.asp

3) "Fashion is Nano" http://www.nanobugle.org/tag/nanotechnology-socks/

week 7

My natural thought about neuroscience and art revolved around the idea that one uses the brain to detect art in the world. When an individual looks at a piece of art, their brain processes the components and creates an idea about the artwork. Additionally, as art can often ring out emotion within a person, this is the brain and the neuroscience in action. The brain recognizing something as art is a very interesting phenomena.

After watching lectures, however, the part of this week that I found most intriguing was the history of how humans have learned to view the human brain. The recent development that has been made by scientists on human brain activity was very interesting as well but the way that it used to be viewed really caught my interest. Galen of Pergamon altered the view that was in place by Aristotle in the 100’s , but after that it seemed to have no real view changes or discoveries until more modern technology arose much later. Humans just lived their lives, intellectually, without knowing what was going on inside their heads for thousands on years- which seems insane to us, living in the world we experience now, knowing everything we know about neuroscience. 

I found the discussion of dreams in the lecture to be interesting as well. A lot of our art we create in the world, such as paintings, movies, or any media , arise from dream like ideas. In this way, neuroscience and brain activity, even in dreams, contributes to art. 

Citing:

Image 1: http://antiworldnews.wordpress.com/2012/02/01/sixteen-years-for-fifteen-seconds-how-long-should-you-view-a-work-of-art/

Image 2: http://legionofhonor.famsf.org/about/thinker

Image 3: http://www.newgrounds.com/art/view/kamikaye/lucid-dream-world-game-jam

-Cherry, Kendra. "Anatomy of the Brain". About.com Psychology. http://psychology.about.com/od/biopsychology/ss/brainstructure.htm

-Gardner, Howard. "Art, Mind, and Brain:." Google Books. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Nov. 2013. <http://books.google.com/books?id=2BMDYRRF1WcC>.

-LaBerge, Steven. "Lucid Dreaming". http://www.lucidity.com/SleepAndCognition.html

-Ramachandran, Vilayanur. "VS Ramachandran: 3 Clues to Understanding Your Brain." TED: Ideas worth Spreading. N.p., Mar. 2007. Web. 17 Nov. 2013. <http://www.ted.com/talks/vilayanur_ramachandran_on_your_mind.html>.

-Vesna, Victoria. "Neuroscience and Art." Lecture. 17 May 2012. Web. 14 Nov. 2013.

week 4

Unlike all the other subjects we have covered, when I saw that we were covering medicine and art, I understood the artwork within it immediately. The body is the most complex and amazing piece of art in the world. The intricate connections and symmetry of the human body is simply awe inspiring. Two ears, two eyes, two arms, two legs, everything just makes sense in the anatomy of the body. With technological advances we have made, we are now able to see and experience the human body fully and the art that it is. In the Cassini article on the MRI, he states, "Through MRI’s sound, subjects become aware of the wholeness of their bodies, as sound assails the still body being scanned and provokes acute sensations in every organ". The wholeness of the human body is an intricate work of art. Even the best architect would struggle making the human body with all of its organs and systems functioning together in unison.

The organization of all the systems in the human body and the processes of these systems is incredible and above is an image that only begins to show the first layer of it all. Professor Vesna mentioned a body exhibit in lecture 1 for this unit. I actually attended a body exhibit in high school called "Bodies Revealed". I can say that this was 100 percent the most interesting experience of my life. Looking at real bodies and all the layers within them made me really start to think and this is how I began to see the human body as art. 

The human body can also lead to art. Professor mentioned that when human body dissections became popular, artists attended many viewing in order to accurately depict the human body. They were then able to draw for the rest of the community the images they saw. They used the knowledge to draw the anatomical images of the human body and create images of the raw human body accurately.

References:

http://www.bodiesrevealed.com/about-the-exhibition.html

Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) as Mirror and Portrait: MRI Configurations between Science and the Arts by Silvia Cassini

http://health.howstuffworks.com/human-body/systems

http://www.symmetrymagazine.org/article/december-2008/deconstruction-mri

Professor Vesna Lecture 1

image 1:
http://www.sciencelearn.org.nz/Science-Stories/Our-Senses/Sci-Media/Images/The-body-s-systems
image 2: 
http://www.putnam.org/Exhibit-Halls/Changing-Exhibits/Bodies-Revealed
image 3:
http://www.cliftoncollegeuk.com/collegenews/1333/

week 3

When I saw the topic for discussion this week, I thought, “What could robotics have to do with art? Are robots art? I guess. But what do they mean?” As I watched the lectures, I began to understand the idea of robotics and science connecting to art. 

One point that I pondered about throughout lecture and as I researched was the fact that robotics are often used in the mass production of art in the modern world. Picture any image you have seen at Urban Outfitters, Ikea, Kitson- they are all mass produced images on canvas. How are they made? They are made through technology and robotics in factories and sold to us as art.  

This image was a mass produced item from Ikea, made with robotics on a factory line. This is a very clear connection of robotics and science leading to art.

Recently, there was a viral video in which a robot creates a work of art through moving objects and creating images. The video below is this work of art.

Robots themselves are even depicted in movies as very artistic pieces sometimes. They appear very elegant and complex. In the movie "I Robot", for example, the robots are so sleek they appear as true pieces of art. Therefore, not only are they creating art, but they are art. 

Citations:

http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/categories/departments/decoration/10788/

http://www.urbanoutfitters.com/urban/catalog/category.jsp?id=A_FURN_WALL

http://singularityhub.com/2013/10/01/robotics-and-art-combine-in-latest-viral-video-box/

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0343818/

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/smart-sleek-home-robot-vacuum-203000184.html

IMAGES:

http://www.jama.org/media_photos_us.html

http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/30209381/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lX6JcybgDFo

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://unrealitymag.bcmediagroup