Posts

Showing posts from April, 2017

Week 4: MedTech + Art

Image
From my observed experiences with medical ailments, I used to only think of medical technologies as instruments being involved in the diagnostic and treatment process. After this listening to this week's lecture and combing through this week's material, I realized that medical technologies' products can be considered art. As mentioned in Professor Vesna's lecture, Wilhelm Rontgen's development of the x-ray can be consider a work of art because it takes photographs of the body, with these photographs being utilized for diagnostic purposes like when I get x-rays at the dentist's. Other technologies allow us to see what's going in the body at a microscopic level, allowing us to see the body in a truly beautiful way. https://www.radiologyinfo.org/gallery-items/images/bone-xray-hands.jpg Professor Vesna also spoke in detail about how artists wanted to utilize medical technology to create art, a diametrically opposing common perception of medical technolog

Event 1: Arts Party at the Hammer Museum

Image
Recently, I had the chance to attend the Arts Party at the Hammer Museum. While the free beverages, ice cream, music, and pop-up activities were a bonus, the best part was the array of artwork that surprisingly incorporated a good deal of technology. One particularly interesting piece of art was the "Something...Perhaps a Fugue or an Elegy," which was a contraption that featured an integrated hodgepodge of technologies - cameras, televisions, VHS players, amplifiers, metal chains, lights, wires, hardware, amongst other products. It was labeled start, stop, and on the back there was a message (shown below). What I found compelling about this piece of art was that if you dislodged everything separately, then technically every product would be a generic, mass-produced good. As Walter Benjamin stated in this week's material, because of the mechanization and mass-produced nature of a good that results in the lack of a unique existence and presence in a time and space, there

Week 3: Technology and Art

Image
In regards to technology and art's influences upon one another, I was not aware that art, in actuality, also influences technology. I had always thought that it was a one-way street, with technology aiding the production of art through various means such as Adobe Lightroom or computer software programs that enable artists to edit photos or digitally construct architecture. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/4d/Adobe_Photoshop_screenshot.png Contrary to my personal beliefs, Professor Vesna showed us that art truly does influence the production of new technology, noting that the first true "robot" appeared in a theatrical production that Karel Capek created. In Star Wars, we see flying vessels resemble flying cars transport individuals all over cities in a fictional universe. Since then, scientists across all ages have been inspired and finally, our version of a flying car is here - the AeroMobil, which was created by a dutch company. https://www.forb

Week 2: Math + Art

Image
This week's lesson showed me that mathematics was and continues to be integral to the development of art. Having taken an art history class before in the past, I was familiar with the tendency of artists to utilize geometry in art. Notably, Brunelleschi utilized the vanishing point rule, a rule that many artists subsequently adopted, in order to maximize depth in paintings. Additionally, Henderson talked about how artists have strived to add as much realism and depth into their artwork as possible, evident by their efforts to incorporate the 4th dimension through shadows and virtually constructed images, amongst other artistic tools. https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/renaissance-reformation/early-renaissance1/beginners-renaissance-florence/v/linear-perspective-brunelleschi-s-experiement As explained in lecture, another mathematically integrated concept was the Golden Ratio, which was critical in the development of aesthetics in art and architecture. Dr. Vesna spoke spe

Week 1: Two Cultures

Image
My name is Harrison, and I am a Political Science student at UCLA. Personally, I have experienced the two cultures of art and science. Although I am pursuing a Bachelor of Arts, I still have experienced the culture of science. Unique to UCLA’s Political Science department, I am concentrating my major’s focus upon the data analytical approach behind illuminating political phenomena, having utilized statistical and data analytical programs to model and study political events and trends. Having been a pianist and violinist for the past twelve years, as well as an actor in theatrical productions, I have also cultivated an appetite and talent for the arts. https://sites.laverne.edu/history-political-science/files/2010/12/declaration-of-indepence.jpg In C.P. Snow’s article, he introduced the concept and two cultures as being separated by literary intellectuals and scientists, each of these cultures as being right-brained and left-brained, respectively. At UCLA, the campus is split in