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Showing posts from April, 2023

Week 3: Art + robots

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     Industrialization has been an immense focal point for humanity and obviously we have much to thank for it. The modern world, and life as we know it, has been deeply influenced by this era and has given us many advancements. For this week's module of Robots and art, I couldn't help but to focus on the purpose that robots have been given. First and foremost I do think “its important to recognize the creativity and art that goes into bringing a robot or the idea of one to life. Freerk Wieringa is an artist who I believe  does a great job of combining these two subjects. Wieringa combines an interaction of steel heavy metal looking sculptures and mechanical motors to create a robotic like experience to life . Personally I believe that in itself is the intersection of art. For humanity to utilize mechanics, science, and computers to create robotics, is indeed a form of art.       During the lecture we learn about Karel Capek, a writer who coined the term robot. I think a key ta

Week 2: Math + Art

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       After completing this week's module, I have definitely grown a better appreciation for mathematics as well as a new found understanding of the intersections math and art share. I think it's important to reference a really good point made by professor Vesna, “a lot of people who are in the arts say they hate mathematics,but they're actually using computers”. Even though that can sound super simple and unimportant I think Professor Vesna is saying a lot, Math is incorporated in so much of what we do today we forget to realize it, especially in things we usually relate to being so far from mathematics like art, “You're using mathematics whether you like it or not”.    A particular piece that stood out to me was the concept of de-geniusing created by Richard Buckminster Fuller. Buckmister Fuller believed that everyone was born with a genius inside of them, that once we entered the education system, that system works to de genius/reduce our perspective, losing our cur

Event 1: Cosmological event # 2

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  For my first event I attended the second part of the Cosmological event series on zoom. I found this zoom event to be shockingly eye opening and nothing short of beautiful. I was able to go past my own understanding of Art and Space and in turn was opened to so many unique pieces and ideologies. If this meeting was recorded I definitely would recommend others to watch the video, the chronological order in which you watch this video does not matter, constant pieces were being shown and there was so much to learn from. This event had many similarities with many of the blogs from the past couple of weeks, a recurring intersection of art and technology.  Artist Makoto Azuma displays in his documentary Exobiotanica how life can come to be and what conditions can bring life to another planet. Using his experience as a florist and expertise in ikebana, the art of Japanese flower arrangement, he combines traditional Japanese art forms with modern technological outer space accents.       Anot

Week 4: Medicine + Technology + Art | Blog Assignment

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When checking in to see the topic of this week’s blog and before getting involved in any of the readings or lectures, I immediately found myself in disbelief. Being no stranger to hospitals and medical procedures, I struggled to find the ‘art’ or beauty in medicine/technology. Growing up with a chronic illness I’ve become well accustomed to MRIs, ctscans, under the knife procedures, and basic understanding of human anatomy. Having to look at organs always made me feel queasy but was important for the understanding of my health. MRIs always made me anxious as a child, having to sit completely still for 30 minutes and do nothing but listen to a buzzing noise. After completing this week's modules I now am able to understand the unique personal connection I have with art and medicine. I feel now almost lucky to have had the opportunity to be surrounded with the images,scans, and knowledge that is what I see now, as art. As Donald Ingber says “at scales from the molecular to the macrosc

Week 1: Two Cultures

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       Being that I am a geography major and second year transfer I have rarely spent time on the south side of campus. As a humanities major, all of my classes have been on the north side and funny enough, most of the geography courses are oddly in the same room. As touched upon earlier, UCLA is divided into two sections, the north side being humanities and the south being STEM. It is in this physical separation that I believe this two cultures ideology has been visualized and present in my immediate life. Source:   freepik      After completing this weeks readings, many of my own personal feelings about the divide in UCLA's campus and the general split of humanities and science has been cemented. As author Snow said " This polarization is sheer loss to us all. To us as people, and to our society. It is at the same time practical and intellectual and creative loss..." . After reading this quote I too have always felt the lack of interconnectivity between these subjects,