Week 9: Space+Art

In this lecture, I learned that space is a very interesting topic when it comes to science and art coming together because it influenced a lot of revolutionary ideas and discoveries. I've seen videos about how the camera spans out from a human being and into outer space, but seeing it in the Powers of Ten video, it made it clearer to how exact or estimated it gets when it comes to measuring where everything is and how we deep to look into it. You could see it from every 10 millimeters and you could see everything from the city, state, earth, stars, space, etc. and goes all the way out to the milky way and goes right back exploring molecular cells inside the body relating to nanotechnology that we discussed last week. In the lecture video, Space part 1, there is an explanation how the telescope revolutionized how we saw outer space and the ideas and discoveries that came from it, it is truly amazing and unimaginable to be see that couldn't be seen with the naked eye. It is a tool that is able to help the human being explore the universe and influenced more advanced tools to better explore the universe.

In the other lecture videos, the topics of air crafts being sent to space with living beings inside or humans was explained and this fascinates me because to live in a world where long ago going into space seemed impossible has been made into a reality, and to live somewhere that explores beyond the human race and earth is amazing because we a curious species. Sputnik won the space race that was the world's first satellite to go to space by the USSR, and Laika(dog) was the first living being to be sent into space. All these things  are amazing to be because apart from sending air crafts into space, humans were able to create spaceships, etc. to help the human or living being survive in it while in space which blows my mind. All this influenced ideas from people to further explore space such as capsules being sent into space, the Leonardo space art project where individuals work together to further investigate space activities, the Arctic Perspective Initiative where development of knowledge in technology towards regions in Arctic regions. 

 








Sources:


"ARCTIC PERSPECTIVE INITIATIVE." ARCTIC PERSPECTIVE INITIATIVE. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 May 2016.

"An Eames Office Website." Powers of Ten Blog. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 May 2016.

"CODED UTOPIA." Continental Drift. N.p., 27 Mar. 2007. Web. 25 May 2016.

"Leonardo Space Art Project Visioneers." Leonardo Space Art Project Visioneers. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 May 2016.

Vesna , Victoria, dir. Space Part 1. 2012. Film. 30 Nov 2012. <

Vesna , Victoria, dir. Space Part 2. 2012. Film. 30 Nov 2012. <

Vesna , Victoria, dir. Space Part 3. 2012. Film. 30 Nov 2012. <

Vesna , Victoria, dir. Space Part 5. 2012. Film. 30 Nov 2012. <

Event 3: Fowler Museum Masa, Robots and Androids

I am very happy that I attended this event because of the interesting topic discussed which was the research projects of robots and androids in Japan that are very advanced and amazing! The first thing we talked about was the definition of some robots/androids that were very helpful guiding what kind of robots were being shown in each different project. There were three types such as Humanoids that are robots that are in shape of a human being, Android that is a robot that looks and moves like a human being, and geminoid that is a copy of an actual human being. There were examples such as, Bishop android that were shown in the movies Alien 3 that were robots that had a figure of a human being, therefore, able to perform tasks that actual human beings aren't able to accomplish. It showed a ripped in half human being(robot) with fake guts everywhere which was awesome and disturbing to see because you can never see that in real life with the human being still fully responsive.
There was a project that Masa was involved with which was the Telenoid which is a teleoperated robot that is from the ATR Hiroshi Ishiguro Lab which was a very small robot that was in shape of an infant, and anyone was able to interact with it by hugging it, etc. It was very cool to see one of the first works of a robot representing a human being by walking, talking, etc. with Elektro, which was a giant robot who was able to talk for itself and explain stories in relation to represent a human with these characteristics, Elektro was given some sort of personality that was one of the first to be given this sort of work.
There were plenty of example of these different kind of robots that scratched the surface of artificial intelligence with interviews with robots with the ability to think for itself which was cool and scary at the same time because it was asked a very dark question followed with a dark answer that everyone hopes that robots don't take over the world with evil instead of the hope of helpful robots. I would love for artificial intelligent robots to help in the future and I'm sure they will, but I hope it doesn't get to the poient where it becomes dangerous because they want more things perhaps power or control which could put the human race in danger. There were little projects such as pepper which is a humanoid robot that is capable of recognizing regular human emotions that I think is pretty damn interesting and amazing for a robot to be able to so such a thing.
The project of Hiroshi Ishiguro making a replica of himself in human form with a robot was insane because his kid and wife were brought in to interact with it and the kid thought it was very creepy because like Masa said once you are in there, no matter if you know you are going into the same room as a humanoid, there is still this feeling of tension since it's a robot in a human form which is weird because humans aren't used to these type of interactions.It's amazing what technology could do and I can't wait for the future to see how advanced technology gets.

Event 2: Anne Niemetz in Media Design 

In this event there were a lot of different parts of the presentation that I found very interesting. I was astounded to find out what has been done in regards to technology being used in forms to express art. For example, I found it weird that Niemetz and Andrew Pelling used these constructions of poles and covers of sheets with light shined on them at specific positions/parts in  order to create this art of lights to pleasure visually. I fount it a good weird because it was unique and light shined on something could be visually pleasurable expressing beautiful art. Then another project that impressed me was Stretching L.A. 2003, where these groups of men got together wearing suits where they could control different words/phrases/sentences when they are said and how fast with just the different movements of the straps they had on their shoulders. It went to a point where they kept repeating words for a period of time and it almost sounded like some kind of beat, in a way, making some sort of music with it to my ears. It was an eary sound but the point that they were able to cue certain audio with the different movements of their straps, perhaps, forward,back, side to side, or any movement you could make to make the audio appear to the audience. That was very interesting because the technology used to create that must take a lot of coding, which was a topic that I discussed in my midterm. I may be wrong, but that is what comes to my mind when it comes to these kind of things. 

There was another thing that was presented that blew my mind as well, it was the the sound waves of specific amplitudes where if played at once each, they play a tone where it is smooth, but once played at the same time, with one being stronger than the other, it created a sound wave where it began to become a sound wave instead of just a smooth tone. I found that pretty crazy because putting two different tone of sounds together could create a certain sound that doesn't match it when they each play a smooth tone but together play a wave type sound. 

There was a fashion statement as well, where technology was brought to the fashion side of clothing colliding technology with the art of clothing which is such a huge deal in society. For example, the Cinderella Intoxication by Shiping Tohey 2012 where there is a dress filled with lights all around. It is revolutionary in the side of technology and art colliding because technology is used to create art with the clothing in order to make it stand out. I found it really weird with the dress, for fear of being hunted, where there were these objects that popped out making it really creepy, but very interesting as well. These new fashion statements could be the new face of revolutionary clothing in the future with technology. 

Forks in sockets was very interesting because sounds created different electric shocks on a pole with just the different types of sounds. That's pretty amazing as well, considering that sounds have the ability to control electrical shocks. 

   

Week 8:Nanotechnology+Art

In this week's lecture, I learned that nanotechnology is an area that can't be seen because it is too small,considering they are related to atoms and molecules, and they are available for us to observe and study them through touch and sound. In the lecture video part 1, Professor Vesna explains how they are related to atoms and the behaviors of these nanoscale objects can be used to create new effects. I really found interesting the different type of projects that were done to show the art of nanotechnology because it is something that you wouldn't think is possible because the size of these nanoparticles. In lecture video part 2, Dr. Gimzewski explains how there is a Scanning Tunneling Microscope that were atomic resolution images of surfaces that you were able to feel atoms, represented by a ball-like surface, in order to map out position of the atoms with the touch of your fingers. I find that incredible because you are able to feel something too small for the eye to see with just the touch of your fingers.

These small nanoparticles could help out in the medicine world with nano-medicine which is a therapy treatment and this will revolutionize medicine in ways that weren't possible with other medicines. There is medicine that targets specific tumors,such as Abraxane, for breast cancer. Nanotechnology is revolutionary to some parts in medicine because of this case where it could save people with breast cancer or other diseases that nano-medicine could help with(explained in lecture video part 4). I found it very interesting with the fact that nanotechnology is used in our foods and agriculture, explained lecture video part 6, that nanoparticles could be in our clothes,food, anywhere really. It could be in our candy wrappers that are edible in order to make it edible and foods that could be personalized. I find food that is personalized with your own needs of nutrition, protein,etc is insane due to the fact that you are given the opportunity to personalize a food to your own preference. Nanotechnology combines all the works of biotech,chemistry, physics, electrical and mechanical engineering that could impact our everyday lives, explained in Gimzewski and Vesna. 'The Nanomeme Syndrome: Construction of a New Science. I believe that nanotechnology is involved in our everyday life in some way, but it is starting to evolve and become involved in more things. More projects are coming along in order for nanotechnology to help out humans if it is with medicine or whatever, I am just glad to hear that we are able to do things as impacting as nanotechnology that we aren't even able to see. but there are representations of atoms to touch or hear. There aren't any limits for this type of technology to impact the art world. 

Sources: 

Gimzewski, Jim, and Victoria Vesna. The Nanomeme Syndrome: Blurring of Fact & Fiction in the Construction of a New Science. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Nov. 2012. <http://vv.arts.ucla.edu/publications/publications/02-03/JV_nano/JV_nano_artF5VG.htm>.

Gimzewski. "Nanotech Jim Pt1." YouTube. YouTube, 21 May 2012. Web. 19 May 2016.

Gimzewski. "Nanotech Jim Pt2." YouTube. YouTube, 21 May 2012. Web. 19 May 2016.

Gimzewski. "Nanotech Jim Pt4." YouTube. YouTube, 21 May 2012. Web. 19 May 2016.

Gimzewski. "Nanotech Jim Pt6." YouTube. YouTube, 21 May 2012. Web. 19 May 2016.

 (Links to an external site.) 

Week 7: Neuroscience + Art


This week I learned that neuroscience is very closely related to art because of the things scientists come up in order to explore the brain on how it works and why gets more advanced. In Neuroculture, by Giovanni Frazetto and Suzanne Anker, neuroscience gives the individual emotions, consciousness, why we make desicions, and more. There are plenty of tools and concepts of how we think the brain works such as electric microscopes where it first searched where the brain started and phrenology were explored being the different parts of the brain explained in Professors Vesna's lecture video. For example, Mark Cohen explains numerous amounts of devices that measure the brain or brain activity, for example, he talks about phrenology and how people will feel bumps on the brain to tell what actions an individual was involved with and a lens device that made you see everything upside down messing with what you actually see. For example, in the music video Fearing by Amygdaloids, it proves that we discovered with tools or devices that the Amygdola gives you the capability for an immediate response when there is a time of danger recognizing when your body needs to go to survival mode in order to protect yourself from danger. In Jungs, The Spiritual Problem of Modern Man, he explains how the modern man is in the immediate present and is fully conscious of the present and being in danger gives you the ability to become more aware of your surrounding helping you to be in the present moment.

Drugs are a topic in which it disrupts the normal flow of the brain and creates certain feelings, images, actions, etc. due to what type of drug you intake. For example, In Professor Vesna's lecture videos, she explains how neurochemicals are used to alter mental states which were Cocaine and LSD. This topic interested me because it is very fascinating how drugs are able to make you feel a certain way and see things that aren't real due to chemicals being understood by your brain making you see it. For example, LSD puts you in a dreamlike state which makes you see and feel intense, pictures, shapes, and makes sounds become images to you once heard. The field of vision was wavered and it is safe to say that if you didn't know what you took then you would probably believe you were going insane. There are many of artist, musicians that take drugs because it brings out the creativity out of them, therefore, are high when recording a song or writing a song or painting, I find that so crazy. Neuroscience has many studies on why all of this happens to to figure it out little by little makes it that much more interesting and extraordinary. 

          

Sources: 

Cohan, Mark. Lecture. 16 Nov 2012. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=eDq8uTROeXU>

Frazzetto, Giovanni, and Suzanne Anker. "Neuroculture." Nature Reviews Neuroscience Nat Rev Neurosci 10.11 (2009): 815-21. Web.

Jung, C.J."The Spiritual Problem of Modern Man." Collected Works of C.G. Jung, Volume 10: Civilization in Transition (n.d.): n. pag. Web.

Theamygdaloids. "Fearing - The Amygdaloids." YouTube. YouTube, 14 July 2010. Web. 11 May 2016.

Vesna, Victoria. “Conscious / Memory (Part 1).” Lecture. 16 Nov 2012. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=DLVQIwOn7o8>

 Vesna, Victoria. Lecture. “Conscious / Memory (Part 2).” 16 Nov 2012. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Xlg5wXHWZNI>

 Vesna, Victoria. Lecture. “Conscious / Memory (Part 3).” 16 Nov 2012. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=E5EX75xoBJ0>
 

 

Week 6: BioTech+Art


This week I learned that science and art really clash in this topic of BioTech because it includes the experimentation of animals, cells, genomes, technology, etc. in order to create some sort of art with it. The fact that artists can now use genomes,genes, it creates a new path for scientists to express their artistic ways through science(Biology and technology). In Professor Vesna's lecture video, she explains how there is Audio-microscope where you involve light and sound and you hear living cells, infogene(send message of human to the heavens by genome put into bacteria), and the one that stuck out to me the most which was micro injection. Micro-injection was where scientists got protein from jellyfish and modified it to glow where they inserted this into rabbits,known as green fluorescent protein. This is also an example from Defining Life: Artists Challenge Conventional Classification by Ellen K. Levy, where genes from coral species of fish added to genome of black and white zebra fish which made them glow in relation to the slime glow , and I related this to the micro-injection.   

I find it really amazing that you could do so much with cells, genes, etc, to create art due to how and what the scientists defines as art. For example, in the lecture video part 2, I found it really interesting how Symbiotica, which is tissue engineering based projects, with their project Fish n' Chips where a robotic arm was run by goldfish neurons, and it gave the robotic arm the ability to draw something to create art with these neurons(live cells) within the network. This is something I didn't even know was possible to be able to move something technical with living cells from a fish to create art, I believe everything in the process is art.

BioTech and Art has no limits because in, Meanings of Participation: Outlaw Biology? by Chris Kelty, explains how you don't need sciences permission to do experiments and it is for nutty ideas, for example, extracting DNA from strawberries with just household products! That absolutely makes me want to go to my kitchen as fast as possible and try it. Ideas like these are everywhere in BioTech and Art, for example, in lecture video part 4, the project the Third Ear, where there is a sub dermal implant where jewelry is put into the skin and it molds around this piece. This falls into body modification and works as a piece of art to prove that human body limitations could be overcome. I was very fascinated with this topic because of all these example being so out of the box, and makes the boring part of science fun which relates science into making art with the art of science.

Sources:

• Levy, Ellen K.. “Defining Life: Artists Challenge Conventional Classifications.” DESMA 9. Web. 2 Nov 2012.
• Kelty, Chris. “Meanings of Participation: Outlaw Biology?”. Web. 5 Nov. 2012.
• Vesna, Victoria, narr. “BioTech Art Lectures I.” N.p., . web. 5 Nov 2012.
• Vesna, Victoria, narr. “BioTech Art Lectures II.” N.p., . web. 5 Nov 2012.
• Vesna, Victoria, narr. “BioTech Art Lectures IV.” N.p., . web. 5 Nov 2012.

 
 

Event 1: Toni Dove Lecture

April 19th, 2016

This event was very interesting for me because it was closely related to robotics which interests me very much, and her works were very new and exciting for me. Dove showed us her project where a computer(technology) could read a individuals movements with a camera and you were able to control how fast,slow, what came up in the video, where to move it, and all by just moving your arms/body in specific ways in order to operate it how you wanted it to. The topic of robotics and art were very much expresses in this presentation because she also showed us a video where it reads these machines on your hands where you could be in some sort of virtual reality, where you could touch things, pick things, where it decides where you would go next and it gave me this feeling of horror fore some reason with the darkness within the video and the music playing in the background, but blew my mind with what you were able to do and discover from robotics(technology). I really enjoyed this event because it was welcoming to the viewers and it gave you the ability to be motivated by these projects to think and express yourself creatively as well. I would highly recommend it to classmates because it certainly isn't boring and isn't a waste of time, it is worth the time because of these extravagant things that you would see with your eyes that you might of thought couldn't be possible either now or  couple of years ago. Technology does amazing. miraculous things relating it to med+art, which explains how hospitals use robotics in order to save lives. This all opened my eyes for my project in which I did on a food making fridge that could read the food you have in the fridge, and based on those foods, it makes/prepares it on the bottom half so you don't have to cook it(it involves variety options and recipes that are healthy as well based on your foods in the fridge.) This event inspired me to think creatively because of the projects shown to me and what is possible with technology nowadays, why not think outside the box, right? This is all art. Robotics is some kind of art, just like everything else is that is to evoke feeling and emotions.