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.

Midterm PDF

https://cole2.uconline.edu/courses/484297/assignments/4325030/submissions/1875353?download=37951334

Christian Chavez Midterm PDF

Week 4:Medicine+Technology+Art

This week, I learned that medicine is a huge part in the art world when it comes to the technology within medicine that is mostly known to be in hospitals. Professor Vesna explains in the lecture videos how there are medical technologies used for human dissection(goes back to the ancient Greeks, and ancient Egyptians) and in order to know where to cut they use modern day technologies such as X-Rays, MRIs, Cat Scans, etc. to figure out what is wrong with the patient in order to know what to do. Also explained in Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) as MIrror and Portrait: MRI Configurations between Science and the Arts, Casini explains that MRI is more than just a picture and should be seen as some kind of art(almost as a portrait of the individual) because it serves as an interpretation to the viewer, patient, etc. Gromala, in her video, explains how there are different types of images of the body and how that it is more than just pictures because they evoke emotions and feelings such as medical technologies do with X-Rays, etc. when the patient sees it or doctor or any other images fall under human body. Technologies that come up and help are such as the ones I mentioned, virtual reality goggles that could help relieve pain, microscopes to help see inside the human body, and very much more technologies to view this art of the human body. In Ingber's, Architecture of Life, he explains how complex the design of organ structure and body parts including cells and tissues which could all be seen through these microscopes that give the ability to see inside the body without having to cut open anything.

Another thing I would want to discuss learning about is the topic of plastic surgery that comes up in the lecture videos and how many plastic surgeries Orlan had to go through. Orlan wanted to show herself as beautiful with these surgeries, but I feel like it is disrupting the whole art take on it by messing with natural causes to display something you're not. That is how I feel because people who usually intake a lot of plastic surgery usually end up looking fake and just horrible in my opinion and it does not look like any type of art to me. I understand it is what they want to do and I respect that. but to use these medical technologies to change their whole face structure is just wrong for me and not artistic, it is just them trying to stand out in society. Other than that, I highly respect and appreciate the work the doctor/craftsman puts into creating something different to someones face. 

Sources:

Casini, Silvia. “Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) as Mirror and Portrait: MRI Configurations Between Science and Arts.” (n.d.): n. pag. Web. 26 Oct. 2012.

Gromala, Diane, perf. Curative Powers of Wet, Raw Beauty. 2011. Video. 26 Oct 2012. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=cRdarMz–Pw>.

Ingber, Donald E. "Architecture of Life." (1998): n. pag. Print.

Orlan – Carnal Art (2001) Documentary. Dir. Stéphan Oriach. Perf. Orlan. N.d. Film. YouTube. Web. 26 Oct. 2012. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=no_66MGu0Oo

 Vesna, Victoria. “Http://www.youtube.com/v/Ep0M2bOM9Tk.” Lecture. Medicine pt1 . Youtube, 21 Apr. 2012. Web. 25 Oct. 2012. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ep0M2bOM9Tk>.

Vesna, Victoria. “Http://www.youtube.com/v/FIX-9mXd3Y4.” Lecture. Medicine pt3. Youtube, 22 Apr. 2012. Web. 25 Oct. 2012. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FIX-9mXd3Y4>.

Vesna, Victoria. “Http://www.youtube.com/v/psjnQarHOqQ.” Lecture. Medicine pt2 . Youtube, 21 Apr. 2012. Web. 25 Oct. 2012. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=psjnQarHOqQ>.


  












 

Week 3: Art+Robotics

In this weeks topic about art and robotics, I would like to bring up and discuss some topics about robotics and art. I would first like to bring up subject that was brought up in the lecture videos part one and two, which bring up the upcoming of industrial revolution technologies such as the printing press(explained in the historyofinformation.com, as well) and the world changing automobiles. They were seen as "a sign of beauty, the beauty of speed" which is crazy and incredible to think about considering that cars are the revolutionary way of transportation that we still use to this day and has advanced to others such as the plane, subway, etc, that all use robotic/electronic engines that are seen as high-quality technology to create this art form we call a car. I could see that technology is advancing from the very begin that we first started using technology to build things and now we are at very high levels, for example, on the line of building artificial intelligence which are human-like robots that could think for themselves, and end up either helping our world or slowly destroy it. We see this example from the video of Robotics by Machiko Kusahara, which explains these cyborg like robots who could help maybe rescue people when in trouble or even make jobs easier for people(an example used in the video of Astroboy who was a symbol of robotics in Japan and pop culture who was a human-like robot). Robots in the future could be beneficial, but at the same time could destroy things such as taking away jobs or maybe even taking over the world due to computers being able to think all on their own. I don't want to think of the negatives, but I like to think positively and hope these advanced robotics used for these artforms will help out this world. At the end of the day, these robotics have been influenced by art and art influenced by robotics giving everyone the ability to create art with robotics such as the examples of cars, the printing press, design art on computers, etc.

Another example or arts and robotics is Walter Benjamins, The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction, where he talks about how films and there is no place like a movie scene
that is being shot that has an illusionary nature is that of the second degree which is cutting. The studio uses mechanical equipment to create the shot that is this art of film to cut scenes to create a movie story line. For example, the Terminator and how he is a human-like robot that protects a human from a invasion and taking over of the world. Another example of this, is Douglas Davis, The Work of Art.., and how he explains that a photograph could be photoshopped and chopped up nowadays to where someone uses robotics to create art. Art influences technology and technology influences art.

Sources:

 Benjamin, Walter. The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction. London: Penguin, 2008. Print.

 Davis, Douglas. “The Work of Art in the Age of Digital Reproduction.” The MIT Press, 1995. Web. 19 Oct. 2012. <http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/1576221?uid=3739560&uid=2&uid=4&uid=3739256&sid=21101286048881>.

Kusahara, Machiko. "Professor Machiko Kusahara on japanese robotics". Cole UC online. Youtube, 9 April 2012. Web. 19 Oct. 2013. <https://cole2.uconline.edu/courses/63226/wiki/unit-3-view?module_item_id=970429>

Vesna,Victoria. “Lecutre Part 1.” Math + Art. 12 Oct. 2012. Lecture.

Vesna,Victoria. “Lecutre Part 2.” Math + Art. 12 Oct. 2012. Lecture.

Week 2:Math+Art

In this weeks lesson, I have learned that mathematics influences art and science through the readings and lecture. For example, In the lecture notes I learned the roots of mathematics and how it came about in order to influence art and science. Professor Vesna explains in the lecture video how the great artist, Leonardo DaVinci, uses mathematics in his art by using pyramid lines, studies geometry perspective to use in his art to create a reality to see with the eyes. I actually just took an Modern Art history course last quarter and I learned all about Noe-classicism and how geometry shapes were used to create perspective and reality(three-dimensional figures or objects). For example, I learned about Piet Mondrian and all about his use of squares and geometric shapes to create his art in relation to mathematics influencing art and science.

In relation to  "The Fourth Dimension and Non-Euclidean Geometry in Modern Art" by Henderson, L.,    he explains how those who subscribed to fourth-dimension art are those who were under cubism and worked to distrust visual reality and create total abstract works. An artist that came to mind was Pablo Picasso and his devotion to cubism and using geometrical shapes(squares/cubes) to create abstract figure/objects falling into the fourth-dimension. This falls into the passage, Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions by Edwin A. Abbott., and how he talks about how we are able to perceive things differently in other perspectives and expands our minds in what we can actually see.  We can inspect art works through a different perspective and dimension which creates the whole fourth dimension that helps with this topic and mathematics used to create art relating to art and science. Here, The girl with the mandolin, by Picasso shows how he uses cubism to show shapes to create art so it is in relation to using mathematics with art and science.

  I learned this week that learned this week that mathematics is used in more art than what we imagined, for example, in Leonardo DaVinci's painting of Vitruvian Man uses mathematics to show how art and science are related and intertwined within each other. Every artist uses mathematics in some sort of way using lines or shapes, that is all math using geometric shapes to create. In Math and Art:The Good, the bad, and the pretty , Annalisa Crannell explains how, "Most realistic art aims to depict a three-dimensional world on a two-dimensional canvas." creating realistic images to the eyes with geometric shapes. Mathematics, art and science are intertwined to create art and it is all in the roots to start reality painting and it is in the arts whether you like it or not.


Sources:
 Abbott, Edwin. “Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions.” N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Oct. 2012. <https://cole.uconline.edu/content>.

Henderson, Linda Dalrymple. “The Fourth Dimension and Non-Euclidean Geometry in Modern Art: Conclusion.” Leonardo. 17.3 (1984): 205-210. Print.

Vesna, Victoria. “Mathematics-pt1-ZeroPerspectiveGoldenMean.mov.” Cole UC online. Youtube, 9 April 2012. Web. 11 Oct. 2012. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mMmq5B1LKDg&feature=player_embedded>

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pablo_Picasso

http://www.maa.org/meetings/calendar-events/math-and-art-the-good-the-bad-and-the-pretty