Unit 4 Medicine+ Technology+ Art

       The human body has been under scrutiny by artists, doctors and scientists for centuries. As it was mentioned in lecture 1, anatomy of the human body was a hot topic for artists because they wanted to better understand how to perfect drawing and painting the human body. Now jump ahead a couple of centuries and we have utilized the advancements made in technology and science in order to use the artistic understanding of the human body to benefit our lives. This can be seen through the benefits of X-rays, plastic surgery, MRI’s and even ultra sounds for pregnancy. All of these technological innovations have been benefited by art, and can even be viewed as art.

3D UltraSound that can be used to see up close and real images of the baby inside of you. This is also helpful for detecting any problems that may occur in the pregnancy. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nD_l0EtkNYU

            As it is mentioned in the lecture, there is an artistic exhibit known as “Body World” that I have been lucky enough to witness in person. Within these exhibits, the entirety of the human body has been dissected, stretched out and preserved in order to be put on display. It is used to show populations of people how the different parts of our body work. The technological aspect of art is used here because there is a specific science used in order to make sure all of the different parts of the body can be put on display properly. 

On a more advanced scale, art, technology and medicine have been working together in order to benefit the health of our society. My own step brother has been a benefactor of this because he has metal shunts in his head that help blood flow through his brain. Had there not been someone with the ability to artistically form the shape of shunt that my step-brother needed, the surgeons and scientists wouldn't have been able to figure out how to properly fix the issue that he was having. 

Works Cited 

• Ingber, D. "The Architecture of Life."

• Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) as MIrror and Portrait: MRI Configurations between Science and the Arts
• http://www.kevinwarwick.org/

Images 

http://highbridgecompany.com/blog/2014/04/07/npr-american-chronicles-wwi-marks-100-years-of-hard-lessons/

http://www.katu.com/news/local/131116263.html

Unit 3 Robotics and Art

As it can be seen from lecture, industrialization is the key to understanding the importance of robotics and art. It was also really great to see how everything that we have learned in the past couple of weeks can be applied to this weeks topic. More specifically the first and second industrial revolutions tie in art and robotics with a common theme of mass production. The invention of the printing press was extremely influential to the developing world because it allowed books and other forms of writing to be copied and redistributed at a faster rate than ever before. While lecture jumps ahead a couple of centuries in order to better convey the idea of robotics and art, I found it extremely interesting that so many movies and other works of art, from Frankenstein to Blade Runner. That being said, I found the movie "Bicentennial Man" to be a fitting and light-hearted example of how robotics and art come together in a film about a robot who is artistically formed into becoming a "human."  (Click on the link to see the trailer)

Bicentennial Man

Personally, another thing that I found most intriguing from lecture and the Benjamin reading was the idea that negatives of photos could finally be developed into multiple copies. While this doesn't seem like a very large achievement to the expanding technological world that we live in now, it is something that we would take for granted had it not been invented. The world wouldn't know what was going on in current events had the ability to mass produce and copy one photo not been invented. Similarly, the invention and use of robots in order to contribute to the mass production of items that are useful to society can be related to the art of making a motorized vehicle, which was made possible by Henry Ford.

On another note, I found it disheartening that there is dispute between photography and works of art that are created from another physical medium because I believe that both can be credited as art in different ways. And this is the argument being made in Douglas Davis' analysis of the art in the age of digital reproduction, because he is arguing that "images are made to seem casual things of nature," the idea that it is so easy to reproduce works of art takes away from the fact that it is actually art. This is something that I had never thought of before and it was great to have a new perspective on the way that art is created and distributed. 

Works Cited

Robotics + Art Lecture 

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

Douglas Davis
Leonardo, Vol. 28, No. 5, Third Annual New York Digital Salon. (1995), pp. 381-386. 

Images: 

http://blog.hemmings.com/index.php/2013/10/07/henry-fords-moving-automotive-assembly-line-turns-100/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5YMEwX2-88

http://mustbethistalltoride.com/tag/bicentennial-man/

http://www.sandrophoto.com/category/famous-photographers/

Unit 2 Math and Art

I have never been a huge fan of math, but after reading the articles this week, I really appreciated the significance that it has on the world of art. The readings this week showed how relevant math is to the worlds of art and science. More specifically the examples given in the Henderson article demonstrate how mathematics can be applied to concepts in art and vice versa. It is said very eloquently in this article and I couldn't agree with it more, "We are not in the least surprised however, to find physicists and mathematicians working simultaneously on a metaphor for space in which paradoxical 3-Dimensional experiences are resolved only in a 4-Dimensional space. Our reading history has shown us that in the development of new metaphors for space, artists, physicists a d mathematicians are usually instep" (Henderson, 209). While this concept is complex, it makes it easier to understand how relevant math, science and art really are. 

For example, a piece of art that I have personally witnessed embodies all three elements of art, science and mathematics. The Sundial Bridge in Redding, California is a large life-sized bridge that tells the time in a sun-dial fashion but on a much larger scale. Arguably, the bridge ties in both of the articles that we read this week. From the Henderson article, the bridge takes something normally small and intricate to a much larger scale, it goes above and beyond the expectations of what a normal sun dial would look like. This can be related to the idea of the 4th dimension, a place where limits do not exist and "offer the possibility of a variety of artistic interpretations, always signifying a higher dimension of space" (Henderson, p.206). This bridge also contradicts the idea of the Flatland because it brings the sun dial to 3 dimensional life, a concept that is not attainable in the world of "Flatland." This bridge sized sundial is the perfect blend of science, math and art because it must be mathematically accurate in order to stand, scientifically accurate in order to tell the correct time in accordance to the sun and finally, it is a wonderful work of art that is a product of both science and math. 

Sources

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

Abbott, Edwin Abbott. Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions. New York: Barnes & Noble, 1963. Print.

Images: http://mathcentral.uregina.ca/beyond/articles/Art/art1.html

http://www.redding-real-estate.com/LargePhotoPages/Redding-Sundial-Bridge.html

https://www.timecenter.com/articles/when-time-began-the-history-and-science-of-sundials/

Week 1: Two Cultures

My name is Erica Beebe and I am a North Campus major. More specifically I am a 4th year history major and music history minor. I found these articles to be very interesting because I think it acknowledges an issue that is very relatable to the community here at UCLA. The divide that is found between North and South campus majors has always been constant, but during my time here I have noticed that the tensions have started to run a little bit higher. With new technological advancements providing more material  While we are all members of the same school it is an unspoken but known fact that south campus majors tend to envy north campus majors. From a personal standpoint, I have never been very good at the subjects that constitute a "south" campus major. I prefer writing a paper over having to take a math or science test.

Both the Snow and the Vesna articles really put the concept of science vs. literary (and the arts) into perspective. A common theme in both of these articles is that they are talking about a clear divide that they see in intellectual society. The Snow article pits the literary scholars against the scientific scholars, stating that he observed the interactions between these two groups of people stating that the non-scientists viewed the scientists as "shallowly optimistic and unaware of man's condition." I believe that this concept can still be felt here on UCLA's campus today. The feelings of dislike that north and south campus majors have toward each other can be attributed to the increase in competition that has brought us all together in the first place. The south campus majors think that the north campus majors have it really easy, but in reality both majors are doing equally as hard work, but just in their own way. Plus, you have the option to choose your major, so in essence there should be no complaining.

Fast forward a couple decades to when technological advancements in multiple fields of scholarly fields allowed there to be third "element" added to the equation. Technology, according to the Vesna article is something that has caused the question of whether or not we have reached the end in the fields of science and art. This is a question that I hadn't really pondered before because it just seemed that there are endless possibilities that we can accomplish on both artistic and scientific fronts. I do believe that technology has already contributed to almost an equal amount of negative impacts on our society as there have been positive ones. Only time will tell how the advancements of technology will increase the competition and tensions felt between north and south campus majors.


However, at the end of the day the way that the world functions would not be complete without both (or all three) sides of these cultures.

Now after all this negative dissection of our school's "divide" here is a nice reminder that, "North or South Campus we're all just Bruins!"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zjCGMlS2B_s

• Snow, C.P. 'The Two Cultures and the Scientific Revolution'