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.

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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.

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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.

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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. 

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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.  

  

Week 6 BioTech + Art

  

Indeed the combination of biotech and art often spark ethical controversy especially on animal testing and genetic engineering. Eduardo Kac’s GFP Bunny Alba was genetically modified to glow green, Kac’s original vision was to produce “ongoing dialogue between professionals of several disciplines and the public on cultural and ethical implications of genetic engineering” (Kac 266), but activists claimed that the creation of Alba was a blatant abusive manipulation of the animal. This project also received many criticisms from scientists saying that the project is silly (Onion)..

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Although animal engineering sparks debates concerning the social and cultural ethicality, the combination of art and plant biology faces relatively less controversy. For example, the use of fungus Chlorociboria aeruginascens as natural color can be dated back from the Renaissance (Glaeser and Volk), and mediaeval artists used scale insects as lac dye on wood sculptures (Gross). Apart from biological dyes, Julie Arslanoglu from the Metropolitan Museum also used this idea to detect proteins in artworks to study protein specificity precisely (Gross).

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Different from animal engineering and testing, biological uses for plants often receives less controversy and often depicts as art. Historically, artist and scientists incorporate living organisms in their work, and seek inspiration from the biology of many life forms. While many advocate groups believe that transgenics and genetic engineering are abominations of nature that need more stringent regulations (Kwieciński), artists hope to spark debates that raise the awareness of how modern technologies changes the way we live. While Kac wanted to bring out the differential treatment when it comes to animal engineering, he was ridiculed by the world for trying to combine biotechnology and animal in the art form. 

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British artist Mark Quinn, also seek inspiration in his own biology, he created a sculpture of his own head called “Self” by filling a mould with his own blood and freezing it, every five years Quinn will renew the sculpture and by doing this, he hopes to remind viewers of the natural process of aging and physical deterioration, and the fragility of existence. 

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I believe that life itself is a valid expressive medium, no matter human, plants or animals, their existence depicts the wonders that Earth creates. I think Quinn’s work of his self is a power portrait that has important implications; although technology has made human life easier, all life forms go through a necessary but inevitable cycle of life and death.

Works Cited

Fullerton, Elizabeth. "Young British Artist Hits Middle Age: Catching up with Marc Quinn." ARTnews, 12 May 2014. Web. 10 May 2015.

Glaeser, Jessie, and Tom Volk. "Chlorociboria Aeruginascens, the Green Stain Fungus." 1 July 2008. Web. 10 May 2015.

Gross, Mike. "Where Art and Biology Meet." Current Biology, 21 Jan. 2013. Web. 10 May 2015.

Kac, Eduardo. Telepresence and bio art. University of Michigan Press, 2005.

Kwieciński, Jakub. "Genetically modified abominations?." EMBO reports 10.11 (2009): 1187-1190.

Onion, Amanda. "Rabbit Gene-Spliced With Jellyfish Glows In The Dark." ABC News, 19 Sept. 2000. Web. 10 May 2015.

Event 1: The Hammer Museum Provocations: The Architecture and Design of Heatherwick Studio

The Architecture and Design of Heatherwick Studio is an excellent showcase of British Designer Heatherwick’s famous works. Heatherwick’s work fully demonstrates his concepts of what contemporary society should look like. He uses normal everyday materials to create innovative projects, and this exhibition shows us Heatherwick’s creative process by bringing together different prototypes, objects that inspires his works and the models of several finished pieces.

When I entered the exhibition hall, I immediately noticed something familiar; the Pacific Place in Hong Kong! Pacific Place is a complex of office towers, hotels and a shopping center located in Admiralty, Hong Kong, and this shopping complex is one of the landmarks and tourist attractions in Hong Kong. I have been to the Pacific Place several times when I was living in Hong Kong and I was amazed that Heatherwick was the one behind the magnificent renovation. 

Before the renovation, Pacific Place was just one of the shopping centers that speak of consumerism with boring and outdated design. After the $166-million project (Pacific Place), Pacific Place has reinvented its image, the spatial engagement was improved with natural lighting and created a large amount of public space and gardens. Heatherwick’s design successfully merge architecture, technology and art together, he presented a vivid and lively representation of a modernize world to all the customers within the space. Whenever I passed by this place, I feel like Pacific Place is not just a commercial building anymore, but a living work of art that is welcoming and full of life.

  

http://37.128.132.134/~hstudio/content/uploads/2013/02/Pacific-Place.5.Iwan-Baan.jpg

Speaking of magnificent work, one cannot help but to mention the iconic UK Pavilion from the Shanghai Expo back in 2010. The pavilion is also known as the Seed Cathedral, Heatherwick’s studio uses 60,000 identical rods to make the curvy exterior, which resembles a cathedral to seeds that symbols the idea of future cities ("UK Pavilion"). I think the way Heatherwick’s team incorporated their national identity is very interesting, in the picture you can clearly see the British flag but when you slightly change the angle, the flag disappear. This reminds me the idea of perspective and shifting paradigm from Week 2’s lecture, I think his design fully demonstrates that our future is every changing and we cannot just see things in one perspective; that we have to constantly reinvent ourselves to see the most important thing in life.

I also think that a lot of Heatherwick’s design is very ecological, both the Pacific Place and the UK Pavilion stress the relationships of cities and nature, while we think that the two ideas are unintelligible, Heatherwick successfully demonstrates that they are both compatible and that we can have the best of both worlds by paying attention to the ecology of the planet as well as social development.

Works Cited

"UK Pavilion." Heatherwick Studio. Web. 6 May 2015.

Hawthorne, Christopher. "Review 'Provocations' Pays Tribute to Designer Thomas Heatherwick." Los Angeles Times, 27 Feb. 2015. Web. 6 May 2015.

"Closed Exhibition – Heatherwick Studio: Designing The Extraordinary." Victoria and Albert Museum, Digital Media. Web. 6 May 2015.

"Pacific Place." Heatherwick Studio. Web. 6 May 2015.

"Provocations: The Architecture and Design of Heatherwick Studio - Hammer Museum." The Hammer Museum. Web. 6 May 2015.

Midterm Project: The Acorn Crib

The Acorn Crib

Here is the link to the midterm project

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1sVzGV-mtaADPybochkq8agoh86xm3JI2K9ePU8ancsU/pub?start=false&loop=false&delayms=60000&slide=id.g9c2d6abba_2_80