Extra Credit Event 2: Los Angeles County Museum of Art | LACMA: Ongoing Events and Exhibition

The Los Angeles County Museum of Art is the largest art museum in the western United States; it features many artworks from different styles and different continents. There is the Pavilion for Japanese Art where they have fascinating tea ceremony performances, the Art of Americas Building that hosts American Art and Latin American Art. The Hammer Building which has Korean art and ancient Chinese collection such as the amazing antique silk worm book and the children gallery. The Ahmanson Building with modern art, European Art, Islamic, South and Southeast Asian Art, the Picasso exhibition is the first time that I get to see a real Picasso work up close. There is also the Broad Contemporary Art Museum and the Resnick Pavilion that I think is particularly interesting to look at.

Among all the artworks at LACMA, I saw several interesting pieces and surprisingly they are from the same artist Chris Burden, who just passed away last month. Burden’s iconic work is definitely the Urban Light located outside the BP Grand Entrance, the Urban Light is composed of 202 historic streetlamps dating from the 1920s and 1930s originally spread throughout Southern California (LACMA).

https://www.magasin3.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/chris-burden.jpg

Urban Light

Another mesmerizing work by Burden is the Metropolis II; this piece features 1,200 toy cars on their roller-coaster ride through the sculptured city. Burden built this sculpture to present a fast paced, frenetic modern city. The steel beams forms an eclectic grid interwoven with a vast network of 18 tracks. These miniature cars speed through the sculpture city at 240 mph, the equivalent of approximately 100,000 cars circulate through the dense network of buildings (Jobson). This piece reminds me of the robotics lecture, I think that the Metropolis II is a vision of what future cities will look like if we maintain our life style. At the same time, the continuous movement of trains and cars symbolize the stress for human beings living in the modern century.

Another piece by Burden is the Ode to Santos Dumont, a kinetic airship sculpture inspired by Brazilian-born pioneer aviator Alberto Santos-Dumont, who is also the father of aviation in France. This balloon looking airship is filled with helium to neutral buoyancy, and the motor is able to push the balloon in a 60-foot circle. The reason I love this piece is because what it signifies in the age of robotics and air travel. This airship examines the balance between weight and power, and this sculpture gives insight to Alberto Santos-Dumont’s innovative ideas that bring human to the sky, and subsequently inspire many other space adventures. The airship signals a progress of human beings and their capability to break through constraints and limitations.

Reference

Jobson, Christopher. "Metropolis II: A Kinetic Sculpture That Circulates 100,000 Miniature Cars Every Hour." Colossal, 3 Mar. 2014. Web. 7 June 2015.

Sykes, Stephanie. "Chris Burden: Ode to Santos Dumont | Unframed." LACMA, 13 May 2015. Web. 7 June 2015.

Theung, Linda. "Chris Burden, 1946–2015 | Unframed." LACMA, 11 May 2015. Web. 7 June 2015.

Extra Credit Event 1 James Turrell: Breathing Light

You have to make a reservation before you can enjoy this amazing light show by James Turrell, we went there at 11 in the morning, it was bright outside, but when we step into the side of the Resnick Pavilion, where this exhibition is located, it is all dark inside without any thing that stand out. Then, the staff asks for our name and said that the exhibition should be ready in 10 minutes. The waiting area was surrounded by black walls, with only a short description of the exhibition that says the below:

Of course we have done some research about this exhibition prior from entering it, 10 minutes has passed and we were ushers into the changing area. First we have to change our shoes into disposable shoe covers, and then we started to go up stairs. The staff reminded us that there are no pictures allowed, and we cannot sit on the floor, touch the walls and try to remain five feet away from the walls. Once we went inside, an amazing journey started.  

The first thing we notice when we enter the room was how the walls were spotless and blank painted white, so that it would take on any color shined upon it. The room was lighted by a single color and slowly changed from one hue to another. Directly in front was an opening that looked foggy and reflected the same color. When walking towards the ledge it felt as though the distance in front of you was endless and the drop in front of you was also endless. The room made the viewer felt like they were in the artwork itself and could place themselves in the ever changing scenes projected by the color.

http://www.lacma.org/sites/default/files/styles/Exhibition_Main/public/image/BreathingLight.jpg?itok=ipM-xqCJ

The color that was being projected saturated the whole room and allowed the viewer to paint their own picture of what the color meant to them. For me the dark blues made the room feel like being lost in the ocean while the bright red evoked feelings of warmth and anger. At times two different colors were projected making it feel as though we were looking at a sun set, a sun rise, or just looking at the endless range of colors spanning from one room to another. The room reminded me of sensory deprivation chambers where people were placed in there to lose sight of reality. The artist utilized this idea to fill and surround the viewer with an idea rather than just viewing a painting straight on. The room itself was an illusion and the viewer's brain would project ideas that were not there. What i found out was that the smallest imperfection in the room would ruin the illusion and the saturation of the artwork because any imperfections would pull the viewer back into reality making them realize the room is not so vast and endless.

This whole experience is linked to the lectures about shifting paradigms and our perspectives; it is also related to how neuroscience that dictates our perception of color can affect how we relate colors to different emotions and induce memories. Here the perception of color can be manipulated so we felt that we are in a different space continuum, we even lost our sense of depth and reality, and all prove that art and science are really an inextricable experience that we will not be able to feel in our normal life. Thank you Professor Vesna for recommending this exhibition, it was truly an eye opening experience for me.  

(Since photos are not allowed inside, and the staff were not willing to take photos with me, I can only take a picture with the sign)

Reference

  

 "FEATURE: Artist James Turrell Creates Intense Sensory Experiences." The Flame, 1 Dec. 2013. Web. 6 June 2015.  

 "James Turrell, Breathing Light." Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Web. 6 June 2015.

 Knight, Christopher. "Art Review: The Light through James Turrell's Eyes." Los Angeles Times, 28 May 2013. Web. 6 June 2015.

 Painter, Alysia Gray. ""Breathing Light" Enjoys Longer LACMA Run." NBC Southern California, 20 Aug. 2014. Web. 6 June 2015.  

Schweitzer, Dahlia. "Inside the Light: James Turrell in LA." Hyperallergic RSS, 1 July 2013. Web. 6 June 2015.   

Week 9 Space and Art

The space race between the U.S. and Russia has started the era of space exploration, and the ongoing discovery and exploration of celestial structures in outer space continue to fascinate human beings into exploring what is out there. Between the 1940s and 1970s, space exploration successfully brought out an interesting genre of science imagination of alien encounters, especially after the Apollo missions launched men onto the moon in 1969 (Meier).

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Space is indeed a place where only a few in billions have gone, and most of us will never ever see; with the technology advancement, scientists continue to find ways that can make space travels for everyone. Virgin Galactic, found by Sir Richard Branson, aims to develop a commercial ship that can bring space travels for normal people, by that the ones who are rich enough to afford it. Although Virgin Galactic has not successfully put out a space ship that proves its safety, there are still more than 800 people have paid or put down deposits for a two-hour trip (Virgin Galactic). The space travel tickets were first priced at $200,000 and it was raised to $250,000 two years ago. Despite the expensive price, the list of passengers includes many famous celebrities such as Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Hanks, Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, Russell Brand, Lady Gaga, Katy Perry, Justin Bieber, and Ashton Kutcher (Williams).

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/1/1d/Virgin_Galactic.png

However, not only space travel is expensive, it is also deadly. Last year when the SpaceShip Two suffered a catastrophic in-flight breakup and crashed in the Mojave Desert, California during a test flight, causing one dead and one seriously injured. This catastrophic crash shows that Virgin Galactic was not near ready to roll out commercial space travel, but only less than 3% of the ticket holders have asked for a refund. Branson ensured that his company will do his best to ensure the spacecraft’s safety and he will be the first to board to space when the spaceship is finished (Green).

Even death still could not persuade humans from backing down the dreams of exploring the outer space. The ongoing lists of movies and television shows about the mysterious outer space are what fuel our imaginations, but the interesting thing is, just like robotic genre, the space genres are almost fill with danger and emptiness. Consider the Academy awards winning movie Gravity, Sandra Bullock was lost in space all alone facing without any help; Tom Hanks’ Apollo 13, Interstellar, Armageddon, Moon, and even Alien, all have an underlying theme that depicts the danger space exploration is (Wickman). Maybe these artists are expressing concerns about the unknown, but as an ordinary citizen on Earth, I still long to gaze at the stars and see the miracles of the galaxy one day, one day.

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Works Cited

Green, Dennis. "Celebrities Aren't Bailing On Virgin Galactic After Crash." Business Insider, Inc, 4 Nov. 2014. Web. 29 May 2015.

Meier, Allison. "How the Space Race Altered Art in the Americas." Hyperallergic RSS. 28 May 2015. Web. 29 May 2015.

Virgin Galactic. Documentary Domicile, 2014. Film.

Wickman, Kase. "7 Movies That Make Me Really, Really Reluctant To Go To Space." News. 26 May 2015. Web. 29 May 2015.

Williams, Martin. "Branson's Ambitious Space-travel Project Plagued by Problems and Delays." The Guardian, 31 Oct. 2014. Web. 29 May 2015.

Week 8 NanoTech+ Art

Before this week’s lecture, I had no idea that nano technology is so dispersed into our daily life. Dr. Gimzewski in the lecture says that there are thousands of nano tech products on the market right now, and many of us just did not know about it yet.

http://www.businesskorea.co.kr/sites/default/files/field/image/Nanotech.jpg

Actually nano particles already naturally exist in our daily life such as the proteins in milk and ash in the air, but building nano particles in food can have immense results in food such as changing the food’s nutritional value, life span and even its appearance. For example, the use of the nano particle, Titanium dioxide is widely applied into a lot of the products that we use, from paint to sunscreen, cosmetics and even food coloring.

http://www.webelements.com/_media/compounds/Ti/O2Ti1-13463677.jpg

Many scientists have studied the effects of titanium dioxide cosmetic products on human bodies, but many of them concluded that thus far there have not been any concrete results that can detect an association between the occupational exposure to titanium dioxide particles and an increased risk for cancer (Point). They did find that the titanium dioxide particles cannot penetrate the intact skin into the human body, but such particles may be able to penetrate the blood–brain, blood-testis and blood-placenta barriers (Shi, et al.). In all, scientists argue that more comprehensive studies are needed to determine the exact health effects of using the titanium dioxide particles and consumers should reconsider before using Titanium Dioxide cosmetic products.

http://s.hswstatic.com/gif/titanium-dioxide-in-cleansers-1.jpg

So what about food? The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) released final guidance to companies that use nanotechnologies in food products last year, but FDA only requires companies to consult with the agency before taking products to market and warns that nanotechnology products may require additional safety review on a case-by-case basis (FDA). Moreover, the FDA allows food products to contain up to 1% food-grade titanium dioxide without including this ingredient on the label. Many have criticized that the agency did not take an active approach to mandate the companies to do rigorous testing before putting the food on the market and into our bodies (The Center for Food Safety). And two months ago, Dunkin' Donuts announced that they will stop using titanium dioxide in there powdered sugar donuts due to the pressure from an advocate group (Maynard).

http://bmedia.fooducate.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/titanium-dioxide-donut.jpg

Indeed some of the nano technology products are benefiting our lives immensely, but the concern is that we know only know so little about the effects of what these nano particles can do to our bodies. Researchers especially have concerns about these particles because they are so small and can penetrate and accumulate our system easily, so it might have some long time effects that we don’t know yet.  

http://images.gizmag.com/gallery_lrg/nanoparticledangersign.jpg

Works Cited

"Center for Food Safety | FDA Releases Final Guidance on Nanotechnology in Food." Center for Food Safety. 27 June 2014. Web. 24 May 2015.

"FDA Issues Guidance on Use of Nanotechnology by Food and Cosmetics Industries." U.S. Food and Drug Administration, 26 June 2014. Web. 24 May 2015.

Gimzewski , Jim . "Nanotech Jim pt6." , . 21 May 2012. Lecture.

Maynard, Andrew. "Dunkin' Donuts Ditches Titanium Dioxide – but Is It Actually Harmful?" The Conversation, 12 Mar. 2015. Web. 24 May 2015.

Point, Nanoparticle-Size Entry. "Titanium Dioxide: Toxic or Safe?."

Shi, Hongbo, et al. "Titanium dioxide nanoparticles: a review of current toxicological data." Part Fibre Toxicol 10.1 (2013): 15.

Event 3 Griffith Observatory

When we first went into the observatory, something really familiar caught my eye in the Wilder Hall of the Eye Exhibits, it is the Tesla Coil! In Week 3’s lecture we talked about robotics and art, and Nikola Tesla was the inventor that invented the rotating magnetic field. His vision of the wireless world is certainly fascinating during his time, he invented the first model of the Tesla Coil in 1891, and his aim was to use the coil as a transmission of electricity through the air, with the dreams to provide electricity without using wires. Eventually, the Westinghouse Company used his designs and built a power station at Niagara Falls, and right now the power grid that we use is based on Tesla’s work.

The Griffith Observatory is a place that full of artistic works, the Hugo Ballin Murals located on the upper walls right above the Foucault pendulum is one that depicts many classic celestial mythologies, such as images of Atlas, the four winds, and the planets as gods. The artist illustrates the progress of science through the mural, even the mural was made more than 80 years ago, it has included stories that related to modern day science advancement such as astronomy, aeronautics, navigation, mathematics and physics.

Our perception of light and color is depended on what our eyes can see, but there are many wavelengths of light that are beyond the colors we see. For example, we cannot see microwave, infrared, ultraviolet, x-ray, or gamma-ray light. Once again, the ability to see light is linked to neuroscience, the photoreceptor cells that are in our retina. But the fact that we cannot see some colors does not mean that they do not exist.

What I have learned last week about Neurosci+ Art is that “What You See May Not Be Real,” and the experience at the Griffith also taught me that “what you cannot see may be real” as well. I also want to bring out the important of perspectives that we have learned throughout this quarter. In ancient times, people did not know that the earth is round and the earth rotates after the sun, but with the advancement of technologies, we are able to change our perspectives and find out what is the truth. The main take away in this visit is that, if we can extend our vision, we can be able to understand way more stuff than what is visible in front of us.

Works Cited

"Beyond the Visible." Griffith Observatory. Web. 21 May 2015.

Deioma, Kayte. "The Ballin Wall and Ceiling Murals at Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles." Web. 21 May 2015.

"Hugo Ballin Murals." Griffith Observatory -. Web. 21 May 2015.

"The Tesla Coil." PBS. Web. 21 May 2015.

"Using the Sky." Griffith Observatory -. Web. 21 May 2015.

Week 7 Neurosci + Art

Week 7 Neurosci + Art

I am sure that a lot of you have heard of the expression “What You See May Not Be Real,” and this is especially true in the worlds of neuroscience and art. Mark Cohen in the lecture talks about various equipments and researches such as Stratton’s inverting glasses, these findings suggested that our brain is able to adapt to an altered visual world, this perceptual adaptation is fascinating and can be applied in how we perceive things in daily lives (Cohen).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-kohUpQwZt8

Landau argues that several elements of art that we take for granted, can trick our brains into interpreting meaning from the arbitrary (Landau). Particularly, artists often manipulate the arrangement of lines, colors and different angles to play with our minds. For example, some artists will use luminance to give the illusion of 3-D image; others use shadows and lights to trick the eye into perceiving depth. Indeed, this can go back to what Cohen says about our brain is an organ that can be trained.

http://www.moma.org/explore/conservation/demoiselles/images/demoiselles_NewFINAL.jpg

Semir Zeki, a British neurobiologist who studies the visual brain and the neural correlates of affective states, believes that aesthetics must obey the rules of the brain and it is based on the understanding of the workings of the brain (Zeki 71). Zeki’s exhibit White on White: Beyond Malevich, purportedly trying to use works of art to understand the brain. His exhibit used white sculptures on a white wall, then they use a white light and the light of one color together to generate different shadows, the amazing thing is, the color of the shadows change as your angle of vision changes. Zeki wants to show how the brain reality can sometimes override the objective reality, he points out that not only the perception of colors is created by the brain, some of the objective realities that we think is real, are actually  determined by brain reality (Zeki).

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In one of his research, Zeki found that MRI images shows when people look at something they find beautiful, a portion in the front part of the brain, the medial orbito-frontal cortex will lights up, and when people see something that’s  ugly, a completely different part of the brain will light up (Lebwohl). Therefore, beauty is actually in the brain of the beholder.

http://en.es-static.us/upl/2011/07/frontal_cortex_300-e1311277403338.jpg

Indeed, human brain works in a very mysterious way that even scientists cannot fully comprehend what will happen if a brain reaches its fullest potential. But that is exactly why we can somehow understand impressionism and our neurons will be hyper-activated when we see all the distorted figures (Landau). Picasso once said, “We all know that Art is not truth. Art is a lie that makes us realize truth, at least the truth that is given us to understand.” It is true that our perceptions of art works are influenced by our social and cultural values (Frazzeetto and Anker 815), but research after research shows that our brain can be trained to adapt to various situations, so what is real? What is the truth? What is the reality? The answer is inside our brain. 

http://scienceblogs.com/mixingmemory/wp-content/blogs.dir/455/files/2012/04/i-a211d4e4e142b0685a8021a1af447c01-EscherUpDown.jpg

Works Cited

Cohen, Mark. Neuroscience-Mark Cohen.mov. 2012. Film.

Frazzetto, Giovanni, and Suzanne Anker. "Neuroculture." Nature Reviews Neuroscience 10.11 (2009): 815-821.

Landau, Elizabeth. "What the Brain Draws From: Art and Neuroscience." Cable News Network, 15 Sept. 2012. Web. 18 May 2015.

Lebwohl, Beth. "Semir Zeki: Beauty Is in the Brain of the Beholder." Earthsky, 3 Feb. 2012. Web. 18 May 2015.

Zeki, Semir. "Art and the brain." Daedalus (1998): 71-103.

Zeki, Semir. "Centro per L'arte Contemporanea LUIGI PECCI - Prato." Web. 18 May 2015.

Event 2: Fowler Museum: Making Strange: Gagawaka + Postmortem by Vivan Sundaram

This exhibition consists of two projects by artist Vivan Sundaram, when you walked into the room, you first see the Gagawaka, and then on the right is the Postmortem exhibition.  The title of the exhibition, “Making Strange,” was actually a quote from German poet Bertolt Brecht, which means “estrangement” or “defamiliarization,” (Henry) in contemporary times. Indeed this two projects give strong impressions of the sociological idea of “making the familiar strange,” because sometimes we need to see things beyond our normal lense of thinking in order to challenge the status quo.

Gagawaka is a collection of sculptural garments made from recycled materials and medical supplies, when you look at all the eccentric garments that put together on the mannequin, you will instantly think of the pop singer Lady Gaga who is famous for her outrageous dressing style. Turns out the Gagawaka was actually an invented word referencing the pop queen Lady Gaga and the 2010 FIFA World Cup song, “Waka Waka, which represents the artist’s own fictional brand and line of “strange” haute couture” (Henry). By strange, Sundaram literally uses ordinary materials such as plastic cups, sanitary napkins, bras and some hospital surgical supplies like bandaging, plastic pill packs, masks and X-rays. Sundaram combine these normal everyday materials together to make garments that seems unusual and unlikely.

One of the pieces, the “Wedding Outfit” is particular striking to me. The Wedding Outfit is a men’s suit made out of women’s sanitary napkins. Sundaram stitched and quilted together these menstrual pads in a separate pants and jacket design, so the color of red and black can also be seen under the linings of the sanitary napkins. Sundaram successfully made the normal strange, by using something that are only used exclusively by females on a monthly basis, and put the garments on a male’s body. When I saw this piece, my inner sociological self came out, I think that Sundaram is trying to tell viewers about the societal norms that we inherit and reproduce every day. The gender norms of how women’s feminine products and menstrual cycles should be hidden and how men are not supposed to dress in feminine wardrobes; are all challenged by Sundaram.

The second project Postmortem, gives a more striking and even haunting experience. Postmortem is a collection of sculptural objects which include mannequins, tailors’ dummies, wooden props, and anatomical models (Ghoshal). Very different from Gagawaka which puts exotic garments on the body; Postmortem strips the mannequin and portray its inherent nakedness. In the documentary that Sundaram filmed and played in the exhibit, he talked about the idea of Postmortem is to reflect how modern society, humans use garment to cover their own body, with the reconfiguration of modern art, Postmortem allows us to look inside the body, but often times we found its hollow form the inside. Sundaram says that he wants to raise question about human existence, about the inside and outside, how human subjectivity is developed and what is the price that we have to pay. I recalled the our lecture about MedTech and Art, the disembodiment of the mannequins shows the fragility of the beauty that we seek, just like plastic surgeries, human body can be torn apart, the outside can be changed, but the hole inside will bound us forever even after death, just like the mannequins. 

Works Cited

D'mello, Rosalyn. "INTERVIEW: Vivan Sundaram on." Artinfo. 9 Nov. 2013. Web. 14 May 2015.

Ghoshal, Somak. "Art | Savage Beauty." Livemint. 16 Nov. 2013. Web. 14 May 2015.  

Henry, Rowanne. "Making Strange: Gagawaka Postmortem by Vivan Sundaram." Web. 14 May 2015.  

Jumabhoy, Zehra. "Vivan Sundaram Talks about GAGAWAKA." Artforum.com. 20 Dec. 2011. Web. 14 May 2015.  

"Making Strange: Gagawaka Postmortem by Vivan Sundaram | Fowler Museum at UCLA." Fowler Museum at UCLA. Web. 14 May 2015.  

Oommen, Elizabeth. "Fashioning Eccentricity as Couture." The Sunday Guardian. 28 Dec. 2011. Web. 14 May 2015.