Event 3

Event 3: Design Media Arts Senior Exhibition at the UCLA Broad Art Center

Fashions

Friday, June 3rd: I went to visit the Staring in the Age of Distraction (S.A.D), which was a senior exhibition event with 55 artists and designers all from UCLA. The event addresses acts viewing and creating artwork within today's pretentious environment. These artists, who were just born after the internet, have created a world for people to see a part of their culture and talent. Every piece has its own story and displays how this new generation of artists has formed.

One of my favorite pieces in the gallery was Poof. This piece reminded my of the Jesus Rafael Soto's Penetrable, at LACMA, which contains hundreds of plastic yellow hoses hanging from an aluminum and painted iron structure. They both allow the viewer to see all different angles and you can enter directly inside of it. It creates a feeling for people that they are in natural elements like walking through vines or the rain. I also thought this was very creative how she used feathers hanging from a string to create the same effect of disappearing into a maze and allowing the viewers to actually participate and become a part of the artwork. 

Art of The Title- Ariana Govan

Another amazing piece was my roommates, Ariana Govan. She was also an artist in the exhibit and I was so proud of her! She created Art of The Title, which was a piece based off of desperate housewives and masters of sex. She created two posters and a video unfolding the truths about masters of sex and desperate housewives. It was very cool that my friend was in the show and how all her hard work and time she put into it paid off! As a whole, I was blown away by the amount of talent that each of these seniors have and their capability of creating all these pieces. I could never in a million years create or come up with something so inventive and rousing. I admire all their skillfulness and would recommend anyone who hasn't gone to the gallery, DO IT NOW!!! It is truly amazing to see these pieces of work from people that go to our school and how each piece was so different and inspiring!!

Resources

1. Drolson, Karly. Art of The Title, Broad Center. Photograph. 3, June. 2016

2. Drolson, Karly. Poof. Broad Center. Photograph. 3, June. 2016

3. Drolson, Karly. Fashions. Broad Center. Photograph. 3, June. 2016.

4. "MFAH | Exhibitions | Soto: The Houston Penetrable." MFAH | Exhibitions | Soto: The Houston Penetrable. Web. 04 June 2016

5. Muñoz-Najar, Veronica. "Jesús Rafael Soto's "Penetrable" at LACMA Dematerializes the Viewer | Unframed. 5 Aug. 2013. Web.

Event 2: Angela Washko

Event 2: Angela Washko, Women in World of War Craft

Angela Washko (In bright pink)

Last week, I visited a lecture in the UCLA Game Lab with Angela Washko. She is a research based artist, who has a passion for the video game, World of War Craft and received a Master of Fine Arts in Visual Art from the University of California, San Diego. She was involved in video games at a young age and after 22 years she became a professional and decided to pursue more and begin her research on feminism in the gaming world. Not only has she started a movement for women's rights in World of Warcraft but all over the gaming world and virtual world. As a feminist, Angela felt that she needed to change something in the gaming world and started a movement for women and a forum for those that actually play the game and for those who don't to discuss feminism. She began to discover the amount of sexist language and gender stereotypes that occurred with player dialogue and continued to learn more so she could make this issue more aware.

World of War Craft Study

After realizing how racists and sexists WoW was, she began to start investigating more and asking question to players in the game. She started to create unfiltered spaces for gamers to start conversations about gender and why women are treated so poorly. Some conversations she would tell gammers that she was researching about the sexualization on female players and why women are treated so poorly. In her research she was surprised by the amount of female avatar players in the game were actually played by men due to them wanting to see a female body on screen than a man.

Roosh Exhibit of his books video clips

One of her most interesting and frustrating pieces was her research on Daryush Valizadeh also known as Roosh V. Roosh is a seductive artists who has self-published 15 sex and travel guides that offer advice to men on how to pick up and have sex with women in specific countries. She began her research by reaching out to women who have had sex with Roosh and finally after email communication with him, she got to do a video interview with the man himself. She had to act very neutralized towards Roosh and make sure to just sound curious about his work which had accusations of misogyny. He was the type of man the most women hate and had manipulating ideas over women and promoting rape. Wasnko explained how she had to perform calmness while interviewing him and listening to him control women and that being socially acceptable in society.

Resources

1. Drolson, Karly. Angela Wasnko Event, UCLA Game Lab, Broad Art Center. 25. May. 2016.

2 Roosh V. Misogynist Gathering "Does Not Have Permission and Never Will", Says Glasgow City Council." CommonSpace. The National, 1 Feb. 2016.
3 Washko, Angela. "Why Talk Feminism in World of Warcraft? | Creative Time Reports." Creative Time Reports. 20 Nov. 2014.

Images

http://hyperallergic.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/roosh-interview-installed_web-hyperallergic.jpg
http://visarts.ucsd.edu/sites/default/files/imagecache/image4all/AngelaWashko-WorldOfWarcraft_2.jpg

Week 9

Space + Art

Copernican Universe

What is space? Space is an unknown world beyond earth’s atmosphere that is a boundless three-dimensional empty area. This is an absolute area that contains our world and solar system. Astronomers have been studying space, the stars, sun and planets since the beginning of time and have began to discover information about what the actually meaning of life is. The discovery of our solar system formed from many Philosophers who came up with the understanding of physics and science that the earth moves around the sun and so do the planets. Nicolas Copernicus, a famous astronomer, who studied law, mathematics and medicine, created a heliocentric model of the solar system that started this understanding of the earth. This was the idea of having the sun in the middle of the solar system in mathematical detail. Further research and the invention of the telescope created philosophers to studied the planets in further detail and finally learn more about earth.

Neil Armstrong

 From last week we can also discuss how nanotechnology plays a role in space exploration due to meteorites holding helium and molecules being detected on earth. We use these ideas of science fiction and connect those with scientists to really explain this mystery of space and to continue the discover of how earth was created and how we are continuing to survive. Due to more technological advancements, scientists could be able to fulfill the dream of having humans see the universe in real life and actually experience being in outer space. In 1961, Yuri Gagarin was the first human in space and Neil Armstrong the first american who got to experience the american dream by landing and stepping on the moon. History was made once scientist could begin studying pieces of the moon and moving closer to discovering more information about our planets and planet/space compositions.

Sputnik (1957)

During the Cold War, the Soviet Union began a massive retaliation which resulted into the creation of the Sputnik. The Soviet Union launched the first satellite the Sputnik in 1957. It was a tiny small sphere that could reflect light and could be seen and heard by operators around the world. This satellites purpose was to orbit around the earth but had meaningless information however it did have a huge impact on citizens around the world. Russian engineers created this satellite which created an enormous change in the educational system and impacted the united states in a scare. As a result, we can thank the Sputnik because it provoked the government into giving more funding to educational systems and created more classes involving mathematics and science. Furthermore, space travel and shuttles have had huge improvements and have started a national phoneme of everyone wanting the experience and being apart of the space life and NASA due to the mass media...

Resources

1. Bekey, Ivan, Richard Powell, and Robery Austin. "NASA studies access to space." Aerospace America 32 (1994): 38-43.

2. Britain, David. Space and spatial diffusion. Blackwell Publishing Ltd, 2002.

3. Dickson, Paul. Sputnik: The shock of the century. Bloomsbury Publishing USA, 2001.

4. Herridge, Linda. "Pathfinder Operations Will Pave Way for Space Launch System processing." NASA. NASA, 28 Mar. 2016. Web. 

5. Vesna, Victoria. “Space + Art.” Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. 2016.

Images

http://galileo.rice.edu/images/things/digges_universe.gif

http://stogaapeuro.wikispaces.com/file/view/sputnik.gif/33787271/sputnik.gif

http://blueberrycreatives.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/neil-arm.jpg

Week 8 Nano Tech + Art

Nano Tech + Art

Nanoscience and Nanotechnology 

Science and art has created a new form of education not only for scientists but now for younger generation being able to learn these new and important discoveries of science and art. Nanotechnology which is defined in the dictionary as a manipulation of matter on a atomic, molecular, and supramolecular scale has been important for artists because it is a whole new genre of science and recreates science from new technology. Nanotechnology refers to 1 to 100 nanometers and was first used to describe semiconductor process such as thin film deposition and ion beam milling. Physicist Richard Feynman who worked on the atom bomb and the Manhattan project and worked on new forms of technology that could change the world helped start this explanation of nanotechnology. 40 years ago Feynman gave a lecture and explained the principles of physics and how we can manipulate things on a atomic scale. He discovered that as we make things on a nanoscale, the law of physics can change and quantum effects can be used to create new effects. Nanotechnology is now being used to create many new products and innovations such as nano medicine.

Nano Drug

 Nanomedicine which is formed from nano materials and nanoparticles, has create new forms to revolutionize medicine to target tumors and offers great benefits for people in the future dealing with cancer or chemotherapy. Due to this creation, nano drugs was formed to help with tissue engineering and medical devices. Drug delivery systems will be able to help and improve other drugs solubility and prevent tissue damage. Nanomedicine has been tested on mice and is still waiting to be tested on a human however could be a step towards curing cancer. However, there has been several issues regarding nanotechnology and nano medicine regarding medical and health issues leading to diseases and particle in the brain and lungs. Even though there are health and environment concerns thousands of nanotechnology products are on the market and it is one of the biggest markets in the world.

Nanoparticles

The U.S. has invested 3.7 billion dollars into nanotechnology and nanotechnology products exist everywhere and to this day are becoming integrated into educational curriculum. In the article, "Art as an avenue to science literacy: Teaching nanotechnology through stained glass”, The Nanoscale Informal Science Education Network began to help engage students in the understanding of nanotechnology by creating activities connecting nanotechnology to poetry, chemical “magic shows” and art composition for example stained glass artistry. A nanoparticle stained glass program was formed for students and included three main concepts Nanoparticles of gold and silver behave differently than bulk gold and silver, interconnection between art and science and how nanotechnology has been used since the Middle Ages. Overall, students any ages could achieve a variety of learning and connect the fields of science, engineering and art through bringing public awareness of nanotechnology.

Nanoparticle stained glass window

Resources

1. Duncan, Kimberly A., et al. "Art as an avenue to science literacy: Teaching nanotechnology through stained glass." Journal of chemical education 87.10 (2010): 1031-1038.
2. Farokhzad, Omid C., and Robert Langer. "Impact of nanotechnology on drug delivery." ACS nano 3.1 (2009): 16-20.
3. Mnyusiwalla, Anisa, Abdallah S. Daar, and Peter A. Singer. "‘Mind the gap’: science and ethics in nanotechnology." Nanotechnology 14.3 (2003): R9.
4. Vesna, Victoria. “Nano Tech + Art.” Nanotech for Artists Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. 2016.
5. Zhu, Guizh, Lei Mai, and Weihong Tan. "Nanomedicine." The Scientist Magazine. Aug. 2014. Web

Images

http://pubs.acs.org/doi/pdf/10.1021/ed1000922
http://www.terasemjournals.org/GNJournal/GN0301/ck1.html
http://english.ihep.cas.cn/rh/KL/nano/Res/rp/201407/t20140716_124588.html
http://www.the-scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/40598/title/Nanomedicine/

Week 7 Neuroscience + Art

Week 7 Neuroscience + Art 

Greg Dunn Neuron Painting

The mind is continuing to expand everyday in the human body with more knowledge and insight on how the human body works. This week we learned how neuroscientists and artists are discovering more information on how the human brain works and what exactly happens inside our brain. Professor Vesna discusses how the consciousness and memory of the brain is still a mysterious place that is almost impossible to understand however researchers have discovered many facts and have accomplished new studies with new technology. After the invention of the microscope and discovery of electricity scientists were then able to research and examine the brain even deeper. 

  

Sigmund Freud Psychoanalytic Theory Dreams

Sigmund Freud who was one of the most innovated neurologists discovered the idea of our mind divided into two parts the conscious and unconscious mind and then into the Id and superego. The conscious is being aware of your thoughts and oneself and the unconscious are thoughts that occur automatically for example Freud says a representation of your dreams. Freud develops his idea of the human mind and dreams from his famous book, The Interpretation of Dreams, where he explains is your unconscious mind trying to fulfill a wish or resolve a problem. He focuses on the biological drives of the brain and how our unconscious thought is then sent to the conscious mind. Freud created the psychoanalytic theory of dreams which explains the meaning of the way unconscious thoughts and emotions are process in the mind during sleep. He discovered that dreams have two parts a remembered dream after we wake and a later dream we do not remember that is our unconscious. 

Phrenology Chart

In the youtube video lecture, Mark Cohen explains how there are multiple parts of the brain that obtain lots of functions and can easily get over used. He conducted an experiment where he could alter visual worlds or inverted visuals worlds and discovered that the human mind adapted very easily due to our brains remembrance. He discusses how scientists first tried to explain the human brain by using phrenology, which are measurements of the human skull. Phrenology was developed by Franz Gall and is now known as the ancient version of brain mapping. Gall discovered that the mind is a collection of independent entities and the shape of the brain determines the personality and mental development of the human. In the picture shows Gals 27 fundamental faculties of the brain which therefore make an assumption about someones personality and character. We have learned that our culture is shaped and influenced by our body and mind through the discoveries from scientists and artists. 

Resources

1. Bateson, Gregory. "MIND AND NATURE: A necessary unit.” Web. 15 May 2016.

2. Cohen, Mark. "Neuroscience-Mark Cohen.mov." YouTube. 12 May 2012.

3. Masterson, Jessica Tress, et al. Art therapy and clinical neuroscience. Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 2008.

4. Solso, Robert L. "The cognitive neuroscience of art: A preliminary fMRI observation." Journal of Consciousness Studies 7.8-9 (2000): 75-86.

5. Vesna, Victoria. “Neuroscience + Art.” Lecture 1, 2, 3. 2016.

Images

http://sphinx.planetwaves.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/sigmund_freud.jpg

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/23/greg-dunn_n_1534366.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phrenology#/media/File:1895-Dictionary-Phrenolog.png

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Week 6 BioTech + Art

BioTech + Art Genetic Engineering Art In week 6, we discussed the field of Biology + art and how artists are discovering many pros and cons to the field of biology and art. In lecture, Professor Vesna explains how BioTech art has many different meanings like Gmo in your food, experimentation with animals and creating hybrids between species. It can be a mixture of working in laboratories getting to exam the flesh, cells and tissues directly or it can be a collaboration with scientists and using scientific imaging. Artists now days are entering labs and working with live animals and cells to discover more about what biotechnology is bringing into the world.  Joe Davis  Joe Davis who created this idea of Biotech art has very unique and dangerous ideas of how to experiment more within the human body. His research takes place at MIT and he is known for his creative ideas with genetic materials. For example he discovered the art in E. coli that responds to jazz and soundstage music and he created an audio microscope that translates light information into sound that allows you to hear living cells. He became an artists known for his extensive research genetic databases and new biological forms. X Farmacy- Natalie Jeremijenko Another well known artist, Natalie Jeremijenko, who is the director at X Design and is a biochemistry genius, explores the art field of technology and the environment. She focuses on environmental issues and creates art pieces inspired by her passion for the environment. One of her pieces, X Farmacy was an urban farming system that is designed to improve environmental health and augment biodiversity in addition to producing edibles. Natalie Jeremijenko also created the new invention of robotic dog toys to sniff out toxins in our environment. She along with Joe Davis are very influential artists that are beginning to challenge the art and science culture. Ultimately, I think it's amazing that artists and scientists can work together on new biotechnology and have their own ideas however, there should be some restrictions on human creativity and what types of things scientists/artists are creating to protect our environment from a miscalculation or error. Resources 1. Jeremijenko, Nataile. "Natalie Jeremijenko". Inspiration Green, 20 Apr. 2011. 2. Miranda, Carolina A. "Weird Science: Biotechnology as Art Form." ARTnews. Weird Science, 18 Mar. 2013. 3. Ted Talk, Nataile Jermeijenko: The art of the eco-mindshift. October 2009. 4. "UNESCO Arts, Science & Technology." UNESCO Arts, Science & Technology. Digi Arts, June 2000. Web. 5. Vesna, Victoria. “BioTech + Art.” Lecture 1, 2. 2016 Images http://4.bp.blogspot.com0hQqCTT7_UQ/TViGkvapqVI/AAAAAAAAAEk/pnpe9tWiw64/s1600/ joe_seattletimes.jpg http://eco-publicart.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/xfarmacy3_large.jpg http://archive.turbulence.org/blog/images/2010/09/biotechnique.png