Unit 7: Neuroscience + Art

The brain is the second closest thing, next to outer space, that scares me. How is it that I am able to process these thoughts and be able to write about how? The ability of my brain to process information and send signals to by body to type and be present in the moment is a phenomenon that I struggle to understand. However, it was made clear that the process of being able to understand how the brain functions is something that can be linked to influences in the world of art. The earliest ideas of the brain as introduced by Gall indicate that the brain is "phrenological," which was a very creative theory that the brain was broken up into particular sections that had their own functions. This idea, while not scientifically accurate, can still be related to how we view the brain today.

Cognitive revolution allowed there to be an acknowledgement of consciousness and unconsciousness. Even more so, as it was briefly mentioned in the first lecture, it has been found that the Left and Right sides of the brain serve their own functions. Left Brain vs. Right Brain is something that has always interested me because they can be categorized into an "artistic" side and a "structured" side. The ability of the brain to function in these ways can be loosely related to the idea of a phrenology brain because specific parts of the brain are designated or associated with different actions.

In the Penrose reading, he states that "A lot of what the brain does you could do on a computer. I'm not saying that all the brain's action is completely different from what you do on a computer...I'm saying that it's beyond the physics we know now" (Penrose).  The capability that the brain has in relation to a computer is so similar, yet we know how to use the function of a machine better than we can control our own minds. Viewing the brain in this context shows just how amazing it is that we are able to create the works of art and the possibility of the art that we will be able to make in the future.

Works Cited 

Bateson, Gregory. Mind and Nature: A Necessary Unity. New York: Dutton, 1979. Print.

Gardner, Howard. Art, Mind, and Brain: A Cognitive Approach to Creativity. New York: Basic, 

1982. Print.

Melina, Remy. "What's the Difference Between the Right Brain and Left Brain?" LiveScience. TechMedia Network, 12 Jan. 2011. Web. 17 May 2015.

Penrose, Roger. "Consciousness Involves Noncomputable Ingredients." The Third Culture: Beyond the Scientific Revolution. N.p.: Simon & Schuster, 1995. N. pag. Print.

   Vesna, Victoria. "Consciousness/Memory." Neuroscience and Art Lecture. UCLA, Los Angeles. 11 May 2015. Lecture.

Pictures

Phrenology: http://uncyclopedia.wikia.com/wiki/File:Phrenology.jpg

Artistic Brain: https://www.pinterest.com/katelynrichelle/the-creative-cranium/

Computer Brain: http://controlmind.info/human-brain/brain-and-computer

Unit 6 BioTech + Art

I found the segment on Joe Davis to be extremely fascinating this week. I never knew that there was such thing as "Bio Artist." One of his projects that caught my attention was briefly mentioned in the first lecture. Professor Vesna mentioned that he conducted an experiment that involved measuring the growth of E coli bacteria in regards to the music that was being played for the bacteria. He played a variety of different genres for the bacteria and measured its growth based on that. As someone who is passionate about music, it was nice to make an artistic connection to a scientific experiment.

That being said, I looked into other experiments that could have been conducted with the same guidelines. I discovered an experiment conducted by NASA back in 2004 and what I found was it is not necessarily the musical and lyrics instruments that affect the bacteria growth, but rather it is the sound waves and vibrations that speed up or slow down the growing process. Viewing this as an art form is something that would not have been made possible without people like Joe Davis. The information and insight that has been found out because of him thinking outside of the box is something that can even benefit the world of medicine.

While the topic of Biotech and art experiments is very controversial, it is both inspiring and eye opening to see how many endless possibilities there are when it comes to regarding something as art, and when it comes to regarding something as inhumane. I found this experiment to be something that can be regarded as an art form because it involves music as an art form and it can be viewed as  something that can be beneficial to the medical world, because being able to better understand bacterial growth can only benefit us from contracting diseases. 

Works Cited 

Levy, Ellen. “Defining Life: Artists Challenge Conventional Classifications.”Context Providers: Conditions of Meaning in Media Arts. Eds. Margot Lovejoy, Christiane Paul, and Victoria Vesna. University of Chicago Press: 2011.

Vesna, Victoria, narr. “BioTech Art Lectures I-V.” N.p., . web. 5 May 2015. 

http://www.viewingspace.com/genetics_culture/pages_genetics_culture/gc_w03/davis_joe.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Davis_%28artist%29

http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/20040152083.pdf

Bacteria Images: 
http://www.thermapure.com/environmental-services/bacteria/
http://www.playbuzz.com/maryfs10/which-pathogenic-bacteria-are-you

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'