Event 4: Singular Spaces

This photographic exhibit was composed of photographs of Spanish art taken by Jo Farb Hernandez.  These original works were created without any sort of architectural or engineering planning.  The pieces are often very colorful and fanciful, marked by "incongruous juxtaposition," basically just putting things next to other that don't make a lot of sense.  The most interesting part of this exhibit for me was hearing about how each artist chose to work within the confines of their own space, whether it be their home, garden, or neighborhood.  This mixture of life and art makes these works much more personal for the artist and the viewer, and I think working in your own area adds not only a personal touch, but also ties the art in with the artists' culture and surroundings.

 The first photograph that stood out to me was this one to the right, created by Julio Basanta Lopez in 1933.  This picture is depicting the Western entrance to the city of Epila, Zaragoza in Spain.  This scene is incredibly colorful, with whites, blues, reds, greens, you name it.  I also noticed the large number of crosses that can be seen in this picture, and that made me think of the Spanish Inquisition.  Whether the Spanish like it or not, religion has played a huge part in the country's history, and they have always been a predominantly Catholic country even in 1933.

 This next piece created by Peter Buch show a monumental building in the shape of a head in La Pobla de Benifassa in Castello, Spain.  Another very colorful and unique image that is a monumental building for the Spanish.  I cannot quite figure out why, but the color and the uncomfortable face on the structure really caught my eye.  Here, they have transformed an important building into a work of art that depicts a monster-like creature peeking its head out of the ground.  Such a subtle bit of re-design, and the building now has a completely different meaning, with its influence now spanning across the globe.



This image here is another photograph by Julio Basanta Lopez.  In the same location of Epila, Zaragoza, Spain, this is a picture of just a few of the demons that are resting above the entrance gate to the city.  This distinctive grouping of demons is actually at the southern end of the gate, and as you can see there are 2 angels and a demon.  Next to these three, there is also a figure dangling from a hangman's noose, but he was only recently added in 2009 or 2010 and has since been removed. I was originally very disturbed by the person dangling from the noose, but then I remembered what I learned at my Catholic High School, where religious people whether they are Christian, Jewish, or Islam, all agree that suicide is the gravest of sins.  Keeping that in mind, I now understand the presence of the noose, alongside all the other religious paraphernalia.

This final piece was cool to me, because I thought these towers that they were creating were amazing.  As you can see in the picture, these are wooden towers build from skinny poles of wood which were carefully designed, but again, without any architectural or engineering planning behind them.  The tower on the left is even supporting a man's weight!  The fact that they had the capability of creating these towers without any real advanced knowledge really inspired me.  I thought this exhibit was good, but I wish it came with more information and backstory behind the works.

Event 3: Gagawaka + Postmortem

Vivian Sundaram is the designer behind this incredibly fascinating exhibit at the Fowler Museum on campus.  Sundaram is a habitant of Delhi and a veteran of socially engaged art.  The exhibit was split into two parts, Gagawaka and Postmortem, with Gagawaka being comprised of about 30 wearable garments, made completely of recycled materials, medical supplies, or other various materials that interact with the fashion in a whole new way.  Postmortem made up the various mannequins and anatomical works throughout the exhibit.  When these two projects are combined, they create this exhibit, giving these garments and mannequins an added aesthetic appeal with the dual projects.  After seeing this exhibit, to me it seemed like the artist was trying to express the fragility of the human body, while also using the recycled materials to reflect our changing society on its way to a completely global community.  To me, this exhibit expresses the relationship between art and science, and how things like dresses made out of surgical masks can represent a cultural shift.

Upon entering the exhibit, the first two works I see are two very avant-garde dresses with hats and masks accompanying them.  They are both a similar blue-turquoise color, so that's what initially caught my eye.  Then, I read the captions below the works and found that they were made out of surgical masks and surgical caps.  I found this really interesting, how the artist used these materials to create a work of fashion.  To me, the surgical masks and hats represent our modern culture, and I could be completely off, but I think the artist is trying to show us that our priorities need to be sorted.  People, especially in Los Angeles, take fashion incredibly seriously, and can talk about the latest trends for hours, but when it comes to things like the medical field, they are completely overlooked in our modern culture.  The artist is combining art and science to start a dialogue about our global community.

The final piece that really stood out to me was the tunic made of chain mail.  I thought this was really fascinating, mostly because I really could not figure it out.  I think it could be a piece that represents how far we've come as a society, going from using things like heavy chain mail as protection, to now having things like kevlar, making chain mail simply a costume for Hollywood.  I think that's why the artist puts this piece at the end of the exhibit, as a testament to how far we have come as a species, and how much more potential we have for the future.

I really liked this exhibit and definitely would recommend it to any and all that are thinking about going to see it.  I think it provides an interesting perspective on the world and an interesting narrative about our global community.  I loved how art and science were present throughout the exhibit, with the combination oozing out of garments made of medical supplies.

Week 8: Nanotechnology + Art

In this week's lecture we learned about just how important nanotechnology is.  Dr. Gimzewski, former IBM researcher and current UCLA professor, informed us that almost every aspect of science and technology is somehow affects or influenced by nanotechnology.

First of all, what is nanotechnology? By definition, it is science, engineering, and technology conducted at the nanoscale, which is about 1-100 NANOmeters (there are 25,400,000 nanometers in an inch.  Basically, we are dealing with stuff that's really small, but can be used across many scientific fields like chemistry, biology, physics, materials science, and engineering.  Nanotechnology is a pretty recent phenomenon, with its technologies only being created 30 years ago.  Nonetheless, nanotechnology has proven incredibly useful for scientists working to create materials at the nanoscale.  Materials created this way come out with "higher strength, lighter weight, increased control of light spectrum, and greater chemical reactivity than their large-scale counterparts."

In my research, I discovered a Nanotech artist named Christian Orfescu, who's day job involves an analytical laboratory at Caleb Technology.  Orfescu is incredibly passionate about his craft, and about nanotechnology, but he hopes to expand the curiosity behind nanotechnology, considering over 70 percent in the U.S. use products incorporating nanotechnology.  Orfescu is very talented when it comes to color manipulation.  He is very good at using the nanotechnology to his advantage, creating beautiful images that are full of both color and wonder.


The next body of work I found was one belonging to Cambridge University, specifically the Department of Materials Science and Metallurgy.  The piece to the left is entitled "Crystal Kaleidoscope" because that's exactly what this looks like.  This particular work is a "false colour convergent beam electron diffraction pattern."  There are a number of reflections in the center, including concentric circles of reflections similar to the energy levels of an electron. Additionally, odd numbered energy levels have only a single branch of intensity that corresponds to scattering from the oxygen atoms within the structure.


Another article I found, written by National Geographic, believes that art is the key to making nanotechnology for understandable and relatable.  The article actually talks about the exhibition "nano" at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, which of course was created by a team of UCLA minds.  The article is basically saying that nanotech art can catch people's attention, and make them think about nanotechnology and ask more questions.  Because of this, art is making this intimidating science more approachable.

And finally I came across an article entitled "When Nanotechnology Meets Art."  This article was basically another blog post comprised of Nanotechnology Images of incredibly beautiful things in nature.  The first was the underside of a single scale on a butterfly wing, and then the blog went on to compare the image of a type of butterfly that looks like an owl, to the actual face and eyes of an owl.  The similarity is pretty scary.  I really liked finishing with this article because for me, it is a culmination of everything about nanotech and art.  These images are beautiful parts of nature that we simply never get to see up close.  The future in this field looks incredibly bright, and it is already one of the most important industries in the modern day.  We are just at the tip of the iceberg here, and I cannot wait what lies in store for the future.













Works Cited:

"What is Nanotechnology?" Nano.gov. National Nanotechnology Initiative, n.d. Web. 20 May 2015. <http://www.nano.gov/nanotech-101/what/definition>.

Feder, Barnaby J. "The Art of Nanotech." Bits The Art of Nanotech Comments. New York Times, 25 Jan. 2008. Web. 20 May 2015. <http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/01/25/the-art-of-nanotech/?_r=0>.

"Nanotechnology Now." Nanotechnology Art Gallery. Nanotechnology Now, n.d. Web. 20 May 2015. <http://www.nanotech-now.com/nanotechnology-art-gallery.htm>.

Lovgren, Stefan. "Can Art Make Nanotechnology Easier to Understand?" National Geographic. National Geographic Society, 23 Dec. 2003. Web. 20 May 2015. <http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2003/12/1223_031223_nanotechnology.html>.

"When Nanotechnology Meets Art." ScienceAndReligion.com. N.p., 20 Apr. 2011. Web. 20 May 2015. <https://iaincarstairs.wordpress.com/2011/04/20/when-nanotechnology-meets-art/>.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 

Event 2: This is the End

This was a very bizarre experience to say the least.  It was a rather brief movie, which they set up in front of two very comfortable bean bag chairs.  We walked in and immediately saw a slow-motion clip of water dropping onto a thumb, although I couldn't really tell if it was real or computer generated.  That confusion lasted throughout most of the movie.  There were constant random sounds that would almost jump out at you and make you a little uncomfortable.  All of the shots in the movie were really slow, drawn out pans, and there were never more than a few words being said and displayed on the screen at one time.  Then I was really confused when a CGI chimpanzee began talking to us, and I couldn't really understand what he was trying to say.  The phrases were very confusing, and it almost seemed like I was missing something throughout most of the movie.  By the end, a thumb went into a belly button that began spilling a blue liquid, and the narrator was repeating the word summer a lot.  I was pretty confused, and didn't really know what to think, but it was a really interesting experience that definitely spurned some thought.

Event 1: Provocation

 Earlier today I attended the Hammer Museum and saw the exhibit "Provocation" in Gallery 1.  I had no idea what to expect going into the event, but I must say that I was pleasantly surprised.  I began reading about the exhibit  and the artist behind it, and I was taken aback upon reading brands like Longchamps attributed to this artist.  I then turned around and saw a really tall structure which looked like a spool or press of some kind.  But what really caught my eye about this piece was all the various questions that were covering it.  Questions like "How do we light a fire under the lazy customer to walk up a flight of stairs?"

 The next piece I noticed was these two bus seats.  I thought this was weird at first, so I read the snippet beneath the work and read about how the artist worked to create brand new double-decker buses in London that would be nicer, cleaner, better engineered, and better for the environment.  I really like that the artist chose to use two seats to represent this great achievement in his career.  He could've used a big huge picture of the bus, but I like the simplicity of the seats.  They are much more subtle, and I think that's why I enjoy them so much.

Next, I saw a diorama of a building somewhere in Asia, with the question under it: "How do we build a building to represent a city?"  I thought just the fact that the artist was asking this question was amazing.   But I really like the aesthetics behind the structure as well.  The gold represents prosper for the city, and it's also very modern and almost futuristic, showing that the city is well-equipped and prepared for the future.  Above all, the building is a gem compared to its surroundings.  And I think the city is the same for its inhabitants.  

 This structure here is actually a series of large blocks, with trees planted on top of them.  However, the blocks are varying heights, so some tress stand taller than others, creating a "forest village" of a park.  The amount of time and effort these people are putting into a park just baffles me.  But at the same time, I can really appreciate the attention to detail, and the uniqueness of this idea.  This will be really awesome once it gets built, and I think the fact that it is being built within a city makes it that much cooler.

 This final work is another park, but it is a "park made out of desert."  They are planning on building large, desert colored coverings over the park to provide shade for the pool and park below.  These people are literally building an oasis in the desert, the most modern and beautiful oasis that I've ever seen.








Overall, I was fascinated by this exhibit.  I actually learned a lot about architecture, and the process behind the designing of these structures and parks. A lot of this relates back to our Art + Science section, along with Art + Math.  Both of these combinations are at play, creating a cornucopia of brilliant designs and ideas.   I would highly recommend this exhibit to anyone considering going.  The Hammer Museum is a really cool place.

Week 7: Neuroscience + Art

Neuroscience is of course the study of the brain, but many of us often forget about the beauty and the art behind the study of our conscience and how our brain functions.  It truly is a fascinating topic.  This ball of gooey flesh is the core of our existence, and it's what makes each one of us the beautiful creatures that we are.  Now, artists like Karen Norberg and Margerie Taylor are using their fixation on the human brain to create art from its physical beauty and wonder. These artists actually used real MRI images, dissections, and publications as research to create these scientifc works of art.

V.S. Ramachandran is the Director of the Center for Brain and Cognition, and Distinguished Professor with the Psychology Department and Neurosciences Program at the University of California, San Diego.   He has been studying the relationship between art and neuroscience for years.  Specifically, he has noted the universal human appreciation for art, and he believe he can explain the human appreciation for abstract art especially.  Ultimately, he comes to the conclusion that we don't really know.  He has been learning about the brain by analyzing its dysfunction, and he is optimistic about his research, but he cannot make any definitive claims about how our brains perceive art.  

Week 6: BioTech + Art

This week's lecture touched on a number of different topics including physical and genetic manipulation of the human body for artistic purposes.  This idea rings true in Oron Catts and Ionat Zurr's Victimless Leather (depicted to the right), which is a work of art in which cells are not only living, but they are also multiplying.  In fact, they were producing at such a rapid rate that the machine would barely hold all of the newborn cells.  This is but one example of how Biotechnology can double as art. There is so much beauty behind science that people often forget about the art behind the innovation.



Another thing that was brought up in lecture was the issue of genetic mutation. Now, this is cause for great concern when it comes to the ethics behind genetic mutation.  In my opinion, we need to be very careful about how we allocate genetic mutation, because if we are not careful, we will end up creating a new race of beautiful, more intelligent, and not to mention rich young children.  Because after all, the only income brackets that would be able to afford this technology would be the rich. According to this BBC article, "designer babies were no longer HG Wells territory."  We now have the ability to create beautiful, intelligent, and disease-free babies.  As exciting as this may sound, we need to be very careful with this technology.  If not, we will see an overwhelming majority of the population without access to this technology, and in turn upset about the unfair advantage being given to the wealthier society that can afford to implement and fund these technologies.


In 1999, an Enlgish artist names Heath Bunting created a project entitled "Natural Reality SuperWeed Kit 1.0," in which he attempted to highlight the effects of biotechnology on things like agriculture.  This project of his was a DIY kit which he considered a biological weapon "capable of destroying genetically modified and conventional crops."  This was his way of threatening the corporate biotech companies.  In a sense, Bunting is mostly worried about the dangers of humans becoming too dependent upon this biotechnology.  This is something that I think is very important.  Although we have the technology to do all of these things to genetically modify life, we need to be very careful about how we are using this technology.  Some of the negative effects we are already experiencing are things like "superpesticides" which are pesticides that have mutated in response to old pesticides, and are now immune to all pesticides that we have created.  The same argument might be made about cancer and some other serious health issues that have formed in the last 25 years in response to all the antibiotics that pharmaceutical companies have been telling us to take for years.  Sure, technology is a great thing, but we need to be extremely careful that we do not get too carried away.

Works Cited

Miranda, Carolina A. "Weird Science: Biotechnology as Art Form." ARTnews. N.p., 18 Mar. 2013. Web. 9 May 2015.

Gallagher, James. "'Designer Babies' Debate Should Start, Scientists Say - BBC News." BBC News. N.p., 19 Jan. 2015. Web. 9 May 2015. 

Gkoutziouli, Katerina. "Art and Biotechnology: When Art Looks into Science." Therestisart.wordpress.com. N.p., 26 Oct. 2010. Web. 9 May 2015.

Wilson, Stephen. "Art and Science Now: How scientific research and technological innovation are becoming key to 21st century aesthetics." London, England: Thames and Hudson, 2012. N.d. Web. 9 May 2015.

"National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences." Pesticides. N.p., n.d. Web. 9 May 2015