Event Blog 3

For my third event, I chose to attend Making Strange: Gagawaka + Postmortem by Vivan Sundaram, a Delhi based contemporary artist. This exhibition at the Fowler Museum on UCLA's campus combined two of Sundaram's pieces together, first Gagawaka: which was over 25 sculptures of garments made from recycled materials and other weird items placed onto manikins. Postmortem was a little bit scarier, as the name suggests, and consisted of manikins, wooden props, and educational medically-accurate anatomical models that were chopped up and combined in different and interesting ways, but more on that soon.

The manikins in Gagawaka had dresses made out of all sorts of things, from surgeon caps to red bras, and some of them actually looked spectacular before you realized what strange things they were made of. I think this was part of the point, and arranging things you normally would not think of as wearable items are selected and re-purposed into things that are beautiful and worthy of being worn. It really made me consider the effects of presentation, as you can see in the picture below:

Me standing next to my favorite piece from Gagawake

The manikin I am standing next to has a dress made out of recycled film material, which by itself would not look that interesting and would look like a random object. However, presentation plays a huge role, since they are arranged in such a way that emulates a beautiful dress, it becomes a pretty impressive dress. It calls into question what we normally see as beautiful and what isn't, and how much of that can be attributed to the way in which we are viewing it: like through what media or how it is arranged and compiled.

A lot of medical equipment in this particular arrangement 

I felt similarly about pieces from Postmortem, as other objects that would normally not be sort of frightening or disgusting became strange to look at due to it's presentation. For some pieces, I just did not want to study them because they were just almost gross to look at, and other pieces I couldn't help but watch and study even though I felt almost as if I shouldn't be. But really, it was just a combination of otherwise benign objects. 

It was interesting to see medical equipment being used in such a way. As discussed in lecture during the week of MedTech and Art, in the Renaissance period a lot of anatomical models and equipment were created by artists, and artists and biologists essentially worked together in order to create educational and anatomically accurate pictures and models. This piece really made me realize how much society believes the fields of art and science are separate, as even though the anatomical models were created by artists working with scientists, it felt weird to see them in an artistic setting and being used in a non-educational manner, even though they weren't created by just scientists without artists, because we normally often only see them in a biology classroom. 

The fact that medical equipment was being used also added a sense of realism to the art. Since the equipment is anatomically accurate, the proportions are all real and what is inside all looks very much real, which adds a level of perspective and depth to the piece, as you can't just brush it off as being fake even when it kind of grossed me out to see the insides of bodies arranged in such ways, which I very much believe was the point. Many pieces made me think about what was going on beneath my own skin in my own body, just as the MRI artwork I blogged about for MedTech and art did earlier in the quarter.

I would very much recommend this exhibit to everyone in this class, as the use of medical equipment in art made this a very relevant event to attend. While some parts I would not say I necessarily enjoyed, it was an extremely powerful event to attend, just make sure that you don't plan lunch directly before or after this one if you are easily grossed out like I am!   

Event Blog Post 2

Some time ago, I visited LACMA's Art + Technology Lab to attend a film screening of "Two Holes of Water," a performance piece by artist Robert Whitman created for "9 Evenings: Theatre & Engineering," a series of innovative dance, music, and theater performances held at the 69th Regiment Armory in New York City in October of 1966. 

Here's me with a cool hashtag I found near the TV where they screened the films

The film documented Whitman's work for 9 Evenings.  which was the result of collaborations between artists and engineers from Bell Telephone Laboratories. Whitman’s performance features a live mix of seven cars with film, television projectors, and a live fiber-optic camera on the Armory floor. First, we were shown actual footage from the event. It started out with cars starting and driving inside the armory slowly, and soon after a voice was heard over speakers, and with the tremendous echo it was difficult to hear what was being said.  The car's engines were incredibly loud as well, something that is familiar to me as I actually own a VW Beetle from 1966, the same year of this production. Projections behind the cars showed all sort of things in them, from people putting on clothes or brushing hair to images of animals running across open land.  A lot of the images were distorted, reflected, and superimposed on each other. I'll be honest, I don't think I, or anyone in the room, knew exactly what was going on in the film. Below, you can see the cars and the projections behind the cars inside the armory. 

Some photography of the actual event which was shown

However, as I soon learned, that was somewhat the point it seemed. After we were shown the actual footage from the event, people involved in the event, including Robert Whitman himself, explained their preparation for the piece. Artists and Engineers worked for months in order to devise the equipment to be used, which included a lot of brand new state-of-the-art technology for 1966. It turns out the projections of the seemingly random things were, according to Robert Whitman, supposed to be somewhat random and everyday things (like the woman brushing her hair or other simple motions). They also used closed-circuit television, and the actors were back stage and filming it while it was being projected using over-the-air technology. They also used fiber-optic cameras in their filming.
Robert Whitman actually said he did not really understand (or care too much) about what the engineers were doing to help accommodate the product, which surprised me a lot. He also said that the voice over the loudspeaker was supposed to be distorted and difficult to hear, and in addition he explained that he achieved his strange reflective visual effects by having multiple cameras filming the same person and having the images superimposed. Also, a person who was inside one of the driving cars was interviewed, and he admitted he did not know what was going on, and that he had actually turned on his projections upside down on accident!
Based on what Robert Whitman was saying casually about the project, my mind immediately flew to a piece described in lecture during the week of Robot+Art, "Faraday's Garden" by Perry Hoberman (1990). Instead of being total chaos, however, the piece reminded me of driving down the street in a car, and seeing people, animals, billboards, and other visual stimuli that is almost overwhelming to the point you don't know what is going on. Hence the loud voice, loud car engines, and pretty random video that was distorted, reflected, superimposed, et cetera.

A selfie I took with a director at the Art and Tech lab at LACMA that helped put on the film screenings

Overall, I would definitely recommend the event, and if you can find some footage from the original piece you should check it out. The mere act of trying to decipher what is going on seems to cause your brain to have trouble taking it all in, causing a frustration that I think Robert Whitman was trying to demonstrate with the way the world was changing in the 60s as booming technology started to offer so much stimuli it would be overwhelming to those not used to it.

Event Blog 1

Recently, I went to a panel discussion about rivers at the Billy Wilder Theater in the HAMMER Museum near campus. With California in a historic drought, this discussion seemed to me very relevant to the times, and as it was a recommended event to attend, I decided to attend.

The panel discussing!

The panel featured Steve Fleischli, Director of the Water Program at the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and hydrologist Dennis Lettenmaier, who is  UCLA Professor of Geography. Steve Fleischli spoke mostly about about some harms to our waterways in terms of drought, pollution, and habitat loss. He stated that fewer than 40% of the world's longest rivers are free of man made obstructions, and while rivers are very important, they tend to be contaminated with what he calls "urban slober," or run off waste. He showed us a variety of provocative images, including the one below:

Picture of the screen I actually took, image below is what was shown.

This is called nutrient pollution, where algae can bloom and remove all of the oxygen from the water, making it inhabitable for a lot of wildlife. Interestingly enough, Steve pointed out that there are swimming pools at almost all of the houses that are on the water line. It's powerful to see that people are using their swimming pools over the lake right besides them because of nutrient pollution. 

Next up was UCLA Professor of Geography Dennis Lettenmaier. Honestly, he did not show us much imagery and things of that nature, and so his presentation was not so relevant to this class. 

That's him behind me on a livestreaming screen, since I wasn't allowed to take a selfie inside the theater

Rather, he showed us data on droughts and tried to explain that it wasn't a "water usage" problem, and it's not a matter of how much water people use, because water is a renewable resource which means even if we use it a lot, we can get it back. He explained further that it is a water allocation issue, and that where we take water from and where we put it matters a lot in preventing drought situations.

Provocative imagery being used to demonstrate an argument for political reasons

Honestly, I really enjoyed the event, but it did not seem all that relevant to this class, which was surprising since it was a recommended event to attend. I did, however, think of "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction" by W. Benjamin, where he explained that mechanical reproduction of art, in this case photography, can be used for political reasons. Here we were being shown provocative photographic documentation and artwork in order to get people interested in supporting policy change. I would recommend this kind of event for other people to attend but just for their own personal knowledge of how they can help stop droughts and improve the policy regarding freshwater protection and allocation, but not necessarily for this class. 

Neurosci and Art

The fact that Sigmund Freud was a cocaine addict is very interesting, because after studying about him so many times in different psychology and history classes, that fact was always left out of the textbooks. Last week, I discussed the use of Adderall, and I believe it applies here too. We can connect this to the first week animation video by Ken Robinson, where he claims the ADHD epidemic isn't real, and references the use of drugs like Adderall and Ritalin in children to help fix a broken education system. Adderall is an amphetamine, just like methamphetamine and maybe sometime in the future we will think about the use of Adderall in the same way we think of those in the past and their use of cocaine.

Continuing on the topic of drugs, Bryan Lewis Saunders, an adventurous artist, drew self portraits of himself on different drugs. One of which is found below, while he was on psilocybin mushrooms.

Check out the whole collection of this project in the number 3 citation! 

I found this piece very striking, as it shows not just the change in perception drugs have, but that individuals interpretation of their change in perception while using. It is fascinating to think that there are different worlds of perception and consciousness that the human mind is capable of while influenced by different substances, and how capable our mind is, while not forgetting how fragile the chemistry is (that such a small amount of this kind of smoke or just one or two some other pill can completely change your outlook on reality).

Finally, the lecture questions on dreams had me researching dreams until I came onto the topic of lucid dreaming. This is a state where, inside a dream, the dreamer is lucid and aware of their state in a dream, and can exercise control on their surroundings and imaginary experiences. Somewhat like the movie Inception.

When Dr. Stephen LaBerge of Stanford University studied lucid dreaming he found that the subjective experience of time was the same as waking life while in a dream, the activation of the right and left brain was the same when singing and counting, respectively, in both lucid dreaming and waking states, and that the physiological effects of lucid dreaming sex, sexual arousal and orgasm matched real life. It really calls into question what roles our conscious, sub conscious and unconscious states play on our interpretation of reality when dreams can mimic real life so well, except that we can have complete control.

Cites:
1. "Ritalin and Cocaine: The Connection and the Controversy." Ritalin and Cocaine: The Connection and the Controversy. The University of Utah, n.d. Web. 16 May 2015.
<http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/content/addiction/ritalin/>

2. Majoy, Benajmin. "GETTING ABILIFIED WITH BRYAN SAUNDERS | VICE | United States." VICE. Vice Media, 9 Feb. 2011. Web. 15 May 2015.
<http://www.vice.com/read/getting-abilified-with-bryan-saunders>

3. Short, April M. "30 Self-Portraits Drawn While the Artist Was Under the Influence of 30 Drugs." Alternet. N.p., 04 Apr. 2014. Web. 12 May 2015.
<http://www.alternet.org/drugs/30-self-portraits-drawn-while-artist-was-under-influence-30-drugs>

4. Blackmore, Susan J. "Lucid Dreaming: Awake in Your Sleep" Skeptical Inquirer 15 (1991): 362-370. Print. <http://www.susanblackmore.co.uk/Articles/si91ld.html>

5. Vesna, Victoria. "Neuroscience pt3” YouTube Lecture. YouTube, 16 May 2012. Web. 15 May 2015. 
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=12&v=E5EX75xoBJ0>

Biotech and Art

Biotech and Art immediately struck me as an extremely controversial topic even before I watched any lectures, and the lectures only reinforced that idea. 

However, Eduardo Kac's fluorescent bunny struck me as interesting because of the controversy that surrounded it, yet a company called GloFish® currently creates and sells fluorescent fish for recreational aquariums and I have heard little controversy around that. In fact, I helped set up a 10 gallon tank with one GloFish Tetra and numerous other fish currently in my girlfriend's dorm at UCSB. 

 This picture has no filter. GloFish use that same gene mentioned in lecture from jellyfish. 

However, they were banned in California (and only California) for a number of years and made illegal because the Fish and Game Commission in 2003 decided that they were created using a trivial use of powerful technology. Recently, they were made legal as the genetically modified fish do not pose no threat to natural wildlife populations. It seems that slowly but surely, efforts by Eduardo Kac and others like the GloFish company have caused people to realize that this technology isn't something to be afraid of.  

One topic I did not notice in lecture was the use of steroids in bodybuilding. Bodybuilding, unlike Powerlifting or Olympic Weightlifting, is really a sport that focuses on the aesthetic, literally turning the human body into a piece of art with muscle growth and enhancement. But, the human body has a limit to the amount of muscle it can build, which is where anabolic steroids come in, biologically enhancing someone's ability to synthesize muscle. 

 Steroids are illegal, but this is interesting when other enhancement drugs, like the use of amphetamines like Adderall is perfectly okay, even though the health effects of both are still under debate. Adderall prescriptions are much more common than those for anabolic steroids, and people abuse both, but as the documentary "Bigger, Stronger, Faster" points out, one is much more frowned upon than the other. It really calls into question what we see as normal and what isn't, and my theory rests on the fact that things that are tangible, like muscles, are easier to see and therefore people take enhancements in that area more seriously, while Adderall's enhancements can't really be seen just visually. 

Sources:

1. Bigger Faster Stronger. Dir. Christopher Bell. Perf. Christopher Bell, Mark Bell, Michael Bell. Madman Films, 2008. Documentary.

2. Starr, Barry. "Lighten Up, California: Why GloFish Can't Glow in the Golden State." QUEST. N.p., 11 Feb. 2013. Web. 7 May 2015.
 <http://science.kqed.org/quest/2013/02/11/lighten-up-california-why-glofish-cant-glow-in-the-golden-state/>

3. Talbot, Margeret. "Brain Gain - The New Yorker." The New Yorker. New Yorker, 27 Apr. 2009. Web. 8 May 2015.
<http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2009/04/27/brain-gain>

4. "U.S. Food and Drug Administration." Genetically Engineered Animals. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 May 2015. <http://www.fda.gov/AnimalVeterinary/DevelopmentApprovalProcess/GeneticEngineering/GeneticallyEngineeredAnimals/default.htm>

5. Vesna, Victoria. "5 BioArt pt 1” YouTube Lecture. YouTube, 17 May 2012. Web. 6 May 2015.
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jUENH6GLzXY>

Med Tech and Art

Again, this week one of the underlying themes I noticed was that of science and technology changing our perspective on ourselves and our world, with art following as a reaction to that new found understanding.

People have been dissecting human cadavers for centuries, and during the Renaissance it became important for artists to work with other researchers in this process to learn more about the human form and also artists helped in documenting the internal structures through visual media.

Ancient Egyptian mummification process, involving dissection of the dead

Fast forward and we have things like the Visible Human project, and even more forward to technology like X-Ray, MRI and CT scans. This video by Vox features videos produced by MRI scans that show the human experience through a very different lens, as one would see if they could cut open everyone and look inside



Drinking, speaking, playing instruments, sex, giving birth, and even using the restroom all look extremely different through this different lens, and of course this new found understanding of what is really going on when we do the things we do impacts our understanding of ourselves in radically different ways. Self perception has changed drastically since the technology has been introduced.

Artist Angela Palmer used MRI's to create the above piece, by layering MRI images on vertical sheets of glass to create a unique physical 3D view. Her inspiration for this piece comes from the idea of "mapping" the human body, and being able to understand it from the inside out and render it as such. 

But of course, it is not just about scientific technology influencing the psyche of the general population. Art seems to be a vital component too of making use of these new technologies, and a Forbes article describes that in the digital image based world of modern medicine, skills in evaluating visual art can help with physical diagnosis and interpretation of MRI's, CT scans, and X-Rays. The article goes into great detail about how "thinking in pictures" can lead to success in the field of medicine, which the article also admits is essentially an art itself. 

Sources:

1. "MRI Art Exhibit Captures Beauty Of Human Brain." The Creators Project. VICE, 20 Jan. 2014. Web. 24 Apr. 2015. 
<http://thecreatorsproject.vice.com/blog/mri-art-exhibit-captures-the-beauty-of-the-human-brain>

2. Glatter, Robert. "Can Studying Art Help Medical Students Become Better Doctors?" Forbes. Forbes Magazine, 20 Oct. 2013. Web. 25 Apr. 2015.
<http://www.forbes.com/sites/robertglatter/2013/10/20/can-studying-art-help-medical-students-become-better-doctors/>

3. Bamberg C, Rademacher G, Güttler F, et al. "Human birth observed in real-time open magnetic resonance imaging." Am J Obstet Gynecol 2012. Web. 25 Apr. 2015
<http://www.ajog.org/article/S0002-9378(12)00023-3/abstract>

4. "Inside Out: Body Imaging Sculptures by Angela Palmer." The Royal College of Surgeons of England. RCS, n.d. Web. 25 Apr. 2015.
<https://www.rcseng.ac.uk/museums/hunterian/exhibitions/archive/inside-out-body-imaging-sculptures-by-angela-palmer>

5. Vesna, Victoria. "Medicine pt1." YouTube Lecture. YouTube, 21 Apr. 2012. Web. 24 Apr. 2015.
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=74&v=Ep0M2bOM9Tk>

Robots and Art

Robots and Art

We, as human beings, take pride in our intelligence, communication, accomplishments, etc. because we feel unique in these capabilities.

However, as technology improved over time, artificial intelligence has been on the rise, upsetting this train of thought. If robots could do things we do, then maybe we aren't so special after all.

As seen in the video, humans were able to make a computer do a very human thing: sing, in one of our languages, as early as 1961. These developments hinted that artificial intelligence might one day rival human intellect. This was picked up on in 1968 in the film 2001: A Space Odyssey. The film features an intelligent robot that is believed to be incapable of error, named HAL 9000, a direct reference to the IBM computer.

HAL is IBM with letters moved back in the alphabet

In part of the movie, HAL and some astronauts are on their way to Jupiter. After a series of events HAL is deemed to be malfunctioning, but before the astronauts can disconnect HAL, he kills several astronauts. In an iconic scene, HAL expresses emotion (something only people previously could do) and even sings "Daisy Bell," the same song as above.
The movie is an artistic expression of the fears and wonder generated by rapid technological development at the time. The roles of the humans and robots are practically reversed, with the astronauts doing the mechanical mundane tasks while HAL handles more complicated ones. The movie can be said to support the idea that machines remove the "aura" of human expression, with HAL's creepy presence reducing the role of the astronauts significantly and having an unnatural cold-hearted mentality. HAL has even been compared to Frankenstein's monster, his very presence an abomination. But it also can be said to oppose that view, as HAL has emotions and is a complex character, very human-like. He only did what he did to try to survive. The movie could show us that maybe  humans are also just machines of nature, and we should not think ourselves so superior to artificial intelligence.

The movie is important because it impacted technology as well, like RUR to robots; it was labeled as a near-documentary vision of how engineers and scientists saw the future. It even was used by Samsung to invalidate Apple's patents of the iPads, as similar devices appear in the movie.

Cites:

Math and Art

I have often heard my Math teachers and professors call certain mathematical proofs, equations, sequences, etc. beautiful. Now, naturally, this would seem strange, because the word 'beautiful' is typically used to describe something stimulating to the physical senses. Although math often seems dry and not 'sensory', there is evidence to suggest that equations can be just as 'beautiful' as visual forms of art, according to the Huffington Post article cited.

I found this article relevant because it compared the neurological effects of visual forms of art and pure mathematics and found them the same, using the science of brain scans!

Euler's equation, considered by many to be one of the most beautiful math equations

However, the equation above can only really be understood by someone with background knowledge in math, which is a problem. This week, I learned that mathematics can influence visual art through the development of technique, and also that art can be a means of explaining complex mathematics.

In lecture, I learned that the ideas of perspective were pioneered as early as 1000 AD by al-Haytham. In addition to it's artistic influence, it seems that the Book of Optics he wrote also has philosophical impacts as well, as he argues that personal experience can affect how individuals see the world around them.

The latter concept, of art being used to demonstrate complex mathematical concepts, was brought up in lecture by the work of Piet Mondrian, but also can be demonstrated by the following photographic artwork.

"A spiral aloe (aloe polyphylla) in the UC Berkeley Botanical Garden." - Joe Christianson

"SunFlower: the Fibonacci sequence, Golden Section" - lucapost

The Fibonacci sequence might seem to some as an esoteric idea that doesn't have a practical value, but this photograph shows that it can even be found in nature, and that math truly surrounds us.

Further, art in the form of the novel Flatland also demonstrates the idea of higher dimensions, something normally outside the grasp of someone not well versed in high level math or science. It really changed my perspective.

All of these collaborations between math, art and science allow us to interpret high level ideas in a new light, and change our perspective of the world around us to see that mathematical concepts are ubiquitous in our lives.
Links:
1. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/02/17/beautiful-math-equations-brain-great-art_n_4789667.html

2.http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/738111/Ibn-al-Haytham

3.https://www.flickr.com/photos/parsectraveller/3193354054/in/faves-110482765@N04/

4.https://www.flickr.com/photos/lucapost/694780262/in/faves-110482765@N04/

5. http://www.popmath.org.uk/rpamaths/rpampages/sunflower.html

Cites:
Freeman, David. "Here's Proof That Beautiful Math Equations Affect The Brain Just Like Great Art." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 17 Feb. 2014. Web. 11 Apr. 2015.
Christianson, Joe. "Fibonacci." Flickr. Yahoo!, 04 Apr. 2011. Web. 12 Apr. 2015.
Lucapost. "SunFlower: The Fibonacci Sequence, Golden Section." Flickr. Yahoo!, 09 Sept. 2007. Web. 12 Apr. 2015.
Vesna, Victoria. "Mathematics Part 1." Youtube. YouTube, 9 Apr. 2012. Web. 12 Apr. 2015.
Abbott, Edwin A. Flatland. 2nd ed. Princeton: Princeton UP, 1991. Flatland. Ibiblio.org. Web. 11 Apr. 2015.
"Flowers and Fibonacci." Flowers and Fibonacci. U.C.N.W., n.d. Web. 11 Apr. 2015.
"Ibn al-Haytham". Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online.
Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2015. Web. 11 Apr. 2015

Two Cultures

TWO CULTURES

When I first started listening to Professor Vesna about the idea that art and science are separated "unnaturally," my instinct was to disagree. Before delving deeper, I thought that art is a far more expressive undertaking, that is highly subjective and open to interpretation, fundamentally at odds with science which only has one answer and results from passive observation. This explains why at my high school, they kept all the science classrooms on a different floor than the humanities, just like at UCLA where we have divide between North and South Campus.

Sierra Canyon, my high school. Top Floor: Physics; Bottom Floor: English

                                                 

I made an analogy to political philosopher John Stuart Mill's On Liberty, in which he says that a two-party system is ideal, because it is "the opposition of the other [party] that keeps each within the limits of reason and sanity." However, the congressional gridlock as we have in America today is a result of this system. (and stereotypes, like lecture referenced). 

Looks like having two, opposing points of view isn't always helpful

                                                                         

Through the lecture and reading the work of C,P Snow, I understand that when there is no collaboration between the Two Cultures, neither advances in the way that each should. Scientist Richard Feynman, in an article by the BBC, explains that both appreciating the beauty of a flower from an artistic perspective is important, but science can only add to the experience.


 Interestingly, his work in quantum physics is relevant, because the observer can not simply be passive, and instead has an effect on the outcome! (Goethe thought of this active role too)  

Awe-inspiring interference pattern, generated by Feynman Double-Slit experiments 

I understand how science can further art, but I am not sure about the other way around. C.P. Snow, in his last chapter, fails to explain how art's impact on science can help lessen the divide between rich and poor, only how science can help, and the 'Third Culture' as referenced seems to be science-biased. 

Cites:

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

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

Kelly, Kevin. "The Third Culture" Science 13 February 1998: Vol. 279 no. 5353 pp. 992-993. Web.

Brooks, Christopher. "Richard Feynman on Flowers, Artists and Scientists."BBC News. BBC, 16 May 2013. Web. 

Collini, Stefen. J.S. Mill: On Liberty and Other Writings. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1989. Print.