Event 1: Black Mountain College

Leap Before You Look: Black Mountain College Performance April 23, 2016

Two weeks ago, I visited the Hammer Museum to see the exhibit Black Mountain College and watched an in gallery performance, “Changeling” by Silas Riener and music influenced by Christian Wolff and John Cage. The performance was done by the L.A. Dance Project and was highly influenced by similar style of teaching at Black Mountain College. This performance took place in the middle of the exhibit and the dance style was influential since it reflected many artists that actually attended Black Mountain College during the 1930s-1960s.

Geodesic Dome: Black Mountain College

Black Mountain College was a liberal arts school founded in 1933 in Black Mountain, North Carolina. The school was an experimental approach by John Andrew Rice and many other influential artists including John Cage and Buckminster Fuller, who designed the geodesic dome. The geodesic dome reflects on what Professor Vesna discussed in lecture about this distinction of two cultures of art and science. C.P. Snow explains that the curricular of schools and universities are the main reason for this separation of these two cultures. The students enrolled in this arts school were all visual artists, composers, poets, and designers and later on became influential artists. The school closed in 1957 after 24 years and now Black Mountain College is preserved as a museum and art center in North Carolina.

This exhibition was a very eye opening experience of how this art school changed history for artists and the art culture. During the exhibit you could see a variety of writings, art pieces, sketches, pottery and music that many famous artists created or composed. The Black Mountain College exhibit ends may 15^th so I would highly recommend all students to go see it and learn more about influential artists that changed the American art scene. 

Resources 

1. "Black Mountain College: A Brief Introduction - Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center." Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center. Wed. 25, May 2016.
2. "Black Mountain College." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 21 Apr. 2016.

3. Drolson, Karly. Hammer Museum Pamphlet. Photograph. 23 May. 2016.

4. Drolson, Karly. Hammer Museum John Cage. Photograph. 23 May 2016. 

5. "In-Gallery Performances." The Hammer Museum. https://hammer.ucla.edu/exhibitions/2016/leap before-you-look-black-mountain-college-1933-1957/ Web. 25 May 2016

6. Vesna,Victoria. “Two Culutres Part 1.” YouTube. 30 Mar 2012.

Midterm Blog

Karly drolson desma9_midterm (1) from Karly Drolson

Week 4 MedTech + Art

Week 4 Medtech + Art

Leonardo da Vinci's anatomical drawings

After this week, I never realized how much art is surrounded in our culture and is used everyday in society through mathematics, technology, science and medicine. Professor Vesna helps explain how important the human body is for artists and how medical technology has changed starting since the first time humans were created. Leonardo da Vinci, first helped explained the human anatomy through his anatomical drawings which put him hundreds of years ahead of his peers. MRI scans show that Leonardo’s work is still relevant to scientists today (Furness 2013). In lecture we learned that the human body and medical advances have been a huge importance for artist. For example the new forms of an MRI and X-ray scanning are a perfect example of a medical technology that is also a field of art practice.

Angela Palmer takes MRI and CT scans and etches them onto a sheet of glass, over and over.

In the article, “Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) as Mirror and Portrait: MRI Configurations between Science and the Arts”, Silvia states that MRI scanning looks the same as a portrait would but in more anatomical detail showing soft tissues and organs. The first artist to use MRI scanning in their artwork was Justine Cooper. She used multiple MRI images to create a sculpture of the body. However, MRI images weren’t created just through visual effects but the scanners used sound to become aware of the wholeness of the bodies and “show how it is possible to gain an experience of wholeness through sound, rather than through a portraying or mirroring image” (99).

RAPT II is an installation comprised of 76 of the MRI axial scans, printed on architectural film, suspended and aligned to create a 24 foot long floating body.

Resources

1. "Angela Palmer | Artist." Angela Palmer Artist RSS. Web. 25 Apr. 2016

2. Casini, Silvia. "Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) as Mirror and Portrait: MRI Configurations between Science and the Arts." Configurations 19.1 (2011): 73-99. Web.

3. Furness, Hannah. "Leonardo Da Vinci Was Right All Along, New Medical Scans Show." The Telegraph. Telegraph Media Group, Web. 12 Mar. 2013.

4. Orlan – Carnal Art (2001) Documentary. Dir. Stéphan Oriach. Perf. Orlan. Film. YouTube. 24 April. 2016.

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

Images

http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02506/Vitruvian-Man_2506735b.jpg

http://www.angelaspalmer.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/head.jpg

http://re-title.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/2008/05/08/justinecooper.jpg