Medicine + Technology + Art

Art meets Medicine
http://www.jeffreymlevinemd.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/Art_Medicine_Webinar1.jpg

This week's topic featured an in-depth look into the symbiotic relationship between art and the medical field. I found it extremely interesting that art and medicine had this relationship that I would have never thought existed beforehand. It makes perfect sense that to a great artist would need to understand and learn about the human body to hone his talents, but it's something I never really considered.

Human Anatomy
http://www.yogamagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/Mountain-Pose-Anatomy-768x1024.jpg

Understanding the human anatomy is instrumental for artists in accurately representing humans in their work. From Vesalius's early anatomy, to Hagens' "Body World", and further to the development of X-rays, MRI machines, and CAT scans, technology in medicine has improved the depth and detail into which artists and medical professionals can look into and understand the human body. I found Hagen's "Body World" and the process of plastination to be extremely interesting and I loved how as a scientist he created such an artistic inspirational piece of work.

Extreme Body Modifications
http://i.i.cbsi.com/cnwk.1d/i/tim//2010/07/20/Subdermal_Implants_and_stretching.jpg

The real intersection of these two fields is in the advancements of body modifications. The image above is a very extreme example of the case, but body modifications gave artists the ability to express themselves physically in a revolutionary new way. Advancements in body modifications included things such as plastic surgery, prosthetics, prosthesis, and more. Learning about Orlan and how she creates her physical art was really inspirational for me. I immediately thought that she was trying to steal the beauty of the world, but instead she was choosing her modifications in a philosophical representation. Steven Hawking's ability to communicate and express himself due to machinery is an incredible technological miracle in of it's own.

"All is Full of Love"
http://www.cyberpunkreview.com/images/bjork-love05.jpg

I'd like to end with Bjork's "All is Full of Love" music video. I remember seeing this video in the early 2000's and it meant nothing to me at the time. After this week's lesson I re-watched it and saw a completely new meaning in it. The video features robots sensually kissing and touching each other, which is a pretty normal in 2013, but what surprised me was the video being released in 1999. I thought that the video was a foreshadowing of the future and the robots expressing these human-like features suggested that in the future cybernetics will be a very strong part of a human's normal life. Maybe I'm drawing at straws here, but I thought it was a very innovative idea, and as the future showed cybernetics are a huge part of today's world.

References:
1. Levine, Jeffrey M. Art Medicine Webinar 1. Digital image. Jeffrey M Levine MD. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Oct. 2013. <http://www.jeffreymlevinemd.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/Art_Medicine_Webinar1.jpg>.
2. Mountain Pose Anatomy. Digital image. Yoga Magazine. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Oct. 2013. <http://www.yogamagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/Mountain-Pose-Anatomy-768x1024.jpg>.
3. Subdermal Implants and Stretching. Digital image. CBSI. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Oct. 2013. <http://i.i.cbsi.com/cnwk.1d/i/tim//2010/07/20/Subdermal_Implants_and_stretching.jpg>.
4. Bjork Love 05. Digital image. Cyber Punk Review. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Oct. 2013. <http://www.cyberpunkreview.com/images/bjork-love05.jpg>.
5. "Who Is Orlan?" Who Is Orlan? N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Oct. 2013. <http://oldsite.english.ucsb.edu/faculty/ecook/courses/eng114em/whoisorlan.htm>.

Robotics + Art

I'd like to start off by quoting Walter Benjamin in two ways. Firstly he said, "Even the most perfect reproduction of a work of art is lacking in one element: its presence in time and space, its unique existence at the place where it happens to be." Secondly Walter mentions that, "Mechanical reproduction of art changes the reaction of the masses toward art." Walter struck me on these two regard in realizing that, mass production and the internet has made art so readily available that it has over saturated our minds and lost it's quality amidst the unending quantity. 

Man Staring at Painting
http://farm1.staticflickr.com/41/113646283_d9fb9ae60b_o.jpg

Art used to be something that made you stop in your tracks and just stare in awe. Art is a medium of expression and it's supposed to make you think and admire. With the advance of technology and social media art has been very oversaturated as a medium.

Tumblr Feed
http://www.prophotonut.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/inspiration_03.jpg

Websites such as Facebook, Tumbler, and even your email has a feed type mechanism that constantly spews out hundreds of pieces of art every minute. Our advances in cameras, editing equipment, advanced lessons, lenses, brushes, and more has made art so easily available that anybody can express themselves (and have it look damn good at that)! This over-saturation is a bad thing, because it has depreciated our appreciation of art. Where before we would stop and stare at a painting, we now click a tiny heart or a "Like" button. Art has become a passing moment, a beautiful Instagram post, a cute Facebook post, or even quick text to a friend. The admiration and self-thought has been replaced by displaced interest and a bridge to social connectivity.

Walter Benjamin
http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Books/Pix/pictures/2012/4/26/1335450968248/Walter-Benjamin-008.jpg

As I stated at the beginning of my post, Walter Benjamin mentioned two very important things that stuck with me. Mechanically reproduced artwork lacks the original's part in time and space and this reproduction changes the reaction of it's audience. Has what I described above not mimicked just that? The advance and spread of art to the world has definitely ruined the place and lasting appeal of individual works and instead creating a fleeting attraction to it that's forgotten after the click of the "Like" button. I'd like to part with a question to my readers. When is the last time you saw a work of art online and been drawn to it so much that you spent the day looking for it's name or the name of it's artist?

Banksy was the first artist I discovered through social media.
http://www.thegnomonworkshop.com/news/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Banksy_Napalm_HR_400k.jpg

Citations:

Man Staring at Painting. Digital image. Flickr. N.p., n.d. Web. <http://farm1.staticflickr.com/41/113646283_d9fb9ae60b_o.jpg>.
Inspiration 03. Digital image. Pro Photo Nut. N.p., n.d. Web. <http://www.prophotonut.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/inspiration_03.jpg>.
Walter Benjamin 008. Digital image. Guim. N.p., n.d. Web. <http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Books/Pix/pictures/2012/4/26/1335450968248/Walter-Benjamin-008.jpg>.
Banksy Napalm. Digital image. The Gnomon Workshop. N.p., n.d. Web. <http://www.thegnomonworkshop.com/news/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Banksy_Napalm_HR_400k.jpg>.
Benjamin, Walter, and J. A. Underwood. The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction. London: Penguin, 2008. Print.

Math + Art DESMA 9 Blog Topic

Art meets Mathematical Proportion
http://www.bridgesmathart.org/art-exhibits/jmm09/McBurney1.jpg.jpg

This week's topic called Math + Art was about how the development of mathematics has influenced a variety of artists including painters, architects, writers, and more to create their works of art. I found this topic really interesting, because honestly before this day I didn't even think about some of these things. I would have never thought that math had such a huge influence in art, but it went hand in hand.

It Started With This Number
http://indianapublicmedia.org/amomentofscience/files/2011/07/130_zero.jpg

It all started with the number zero which was created in Mesopotamia, but at the time only defined as an empty space. Zero as a number appeared from mathematician Brahmagupta who created the rules of the number zero. With the development of arithmetic and the number zero as we moved further in time the Greek and Italian people began to work on the theory of perspective and the vanishing point.

Vitruvian Man
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/22/Da_Vinci_Vitruve_Luc_Viatour.jpg

The Golden ratio was created by the Greeks and used to create structures such as the Egyptian pyramids and the Parthenon in Athens. Even the famous Mona Lisa is using the golden ratio in its image. The Vitruvian Man could be considered the perfect collaboration/example of art and science. It's supposed to be the perfect proportion of a human man. I found "Flatland" by Edward Abbott to be a very interesting story and felt like in a way it described an early artist's view on the progression of mathematics and art. The artist painted the world as an expression of shapes and lines and the square discovered that there were so many more dimensions and shapes than he previously comprehended, but he wasn't allowed to share his ideas and was imprisoned for trying. I felt like a lot artists had avante-garde ideas that were very unappreciated in their times only to be called genius a few centuries later. Mathematics working together with art? Who would have thought a correlation even existed?

Pete Mondrian, The Founder of Modern Art
http://art-educ4kids.weebly.com/uploads/8/9/6/9/8969100/3265711_orig.jpg

These ideas of mathematics and proportion influenced a generation of artists for years to come. Piet Mondrian a very famous painter in 1942 used mathematics and logic to create art showing that anything could be created using basic geometric shapes. Charles Jeanneret used the golden ratio, the Fibonacci numbers, and proportions of the human body to make his architecture better pieces of structural art. In even more recent works, Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code, a literary piece of art, was based on the proportional and mathematical work of Leonardo Da Vinci as well as the Fibonacci numbers.The long-running television show Numb3rs was based on a genius using mathematics to solve crimes.

The juxtaposition of art and math was something that never previously occurred to me and it makes me wonder what other connections I've failed to make. This week's class really opened up my mind into the world of art, and I'm definitely going to be looking at future art pieces with a mathematically inclined eye. 

Citations:

Abbott, Edwin Abbott. Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions. New York: Barnes & Noble, 1963. Print.

Da Vinci Vitruve Luc Viatour. Digital image. Wikimedia. Wikipedia, n.d. Web. <http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/22/Da_Vinci_Vitruve_Luc_Viatour.jpg>.

Zero. Digital image. Indiana Public Media. N.p., n.d. Web. <http://indianapublicmedia.org/amomentofscience/files/2011/07/130_zero.jpg>.

Piet Mondrian 3265711. Digital image. Art Education 4 Kids. Weebly, n.d. Web. <http://art-educ4kids.weebly.com/uploads/8/9/6/9/8969100/3265711_orig.jpg>.

McBurney 1. Digital image. Bridges Math Art. N.p., n.d. Web. <http://www.bridgesmathart.org/art-exhibits/jmm09/McBurney1.jpg.jpg>.

Two Cultures

This week's reading and concept called "Two Cultures" was very intriguing indeed. Stephen Wilson describes the two cultures of artists and technological people and how they differ. This reading showed me exactly why artists and inventors work so well together. They cover each other faults! While inventors are always so precise and strict with their work, artists are very open, creative, and not afraid to make mistakes. On the other hand while these artists creativity flows, they aren't able to take this creativity and extend it the global market. There's a clear separation between these two fields and when I thought about it, people who can possess the traits and qualities of both groups transcend what it means to be human and change the world.

Steve Jobs | Artist/Inventor | World Revolutionaryhttp://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b9/Steve_Jobs_Headshot_2010-CROP.jpg

Looking at my immediate world at UCLA there was a very obvious comparison staring right in front of me. North and South campus comprise themselves of two completely different social classes. North Campus is exactly like the artists described. People have unbelievable talent and creativity, but this creativity for most lies dormant in the confounds of UCLA while it should be shared with the world. South Campus is it's own social clique entirely, filled with brilliant science/math/engineering students who are all hoping their skill and talent will help them win the next Nobel Prize or invent the next Facebook.

UCLA South Campus
http://today.ucla.edu/portal/ut/artwork/2/9/3/6/5/229365/patio-prv.jpg

UCLA North Campus
http://www.tracygallagher.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/gardens-ucla-wide.jpg

I myself am a North Campus major and a future entrepreneur. Reading this gave me a huge change of heart. Throughout college I've been trying my best to network well in my major. I wanted to meet as many artists, dancers, actors, etc I could, because I believed it would help me in my life, but I now realize that's not the case. I'm breeding a contact list of people who think like me instead of meeting the people who could cover my faults and work well with me. I need to start meeting scientists, inventors, programmers, and more. Especially in this age of e-commerce and technology we're heading into. Why should I stick to the idea of Two Cultures when I can combine them and live with this third culture, a culture where everyone can work well together and understand each other. 

I was doing a bit of research and found a very interesting major in the University of Washington that I thought I should mention. They have a major called Human Centered Design and Engineering which focuses on creative engineering that teaches students how to program and create computer websites/programs/etc in the easiest, most user-friendly way possible. This college created a third culture, a culture where even inventors work creatively with people rather than slaving away at a computer alone. 

http://www.washington.edu/students/gencat/academic/hcde.html

As our world grows and people continue to develop in different ways, I can only hope that the development will be a path towards integration rather than separation. When humans work together, we accomplish things that the world would not even deem possible, so why stop? 

Our World, The Canvas
http://www.artpause.com/upload/uppic/778-world-map-canvas-art.jpg

- Nick Lerman

Citations: 

Steve Jobs Headshot 2010 Crop. Digital image. Wikipedia. N.p., n.d. Web. 6 Oct. 2013. <http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b9/Steve_Jobs_Headshot_2010-CROP.jpg>.

Patio PRV. Digital image. UCLA Today. N.p., n.d. Web. 6 Oct. 2013. <http://today.ucla.edu/portal/ut/artwork/2/9/3/6/5/229365/patio-prv.jpg>.

Gallagher, Tracy. Gardens UCLA Wide. Digital image. Tracy Gallagher. N.p., n.d. Web. 6 Oct. 2013. <http://www.tracygallagher.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/gardens-ucla-wide.jpg>.

HCDE. Digital image. University of Washington. N.p., n.d. Web. 6 Oct. 2013. <http://www.washington.edu/students/gencat/academic/hcde.html>.

World Map Canvas Art. Digital image. Art Pause. N.p., n.d. Web. 6 Oct. 2013. <http://www.artpause.com/upload/uppic/778-world-map-canvas-art.jpg>.