I found the article “Two Cultures” very intriguing because C.P. Snow’s arguments are very controversial. Snow perceives the Western world as two separate “cultures” between literary intellectuals and physical scientists. He believes these cultures have vastly different emotions and energies that are incapable of getting along. I consider myself a literary intellectual because I am a Political Science major and have always enjoyed writing papers. I believe Snow has a valid point in the two cultures possessing different emotions because it is evident on the UCLA campus. The northern side of campus is depicted as students who take easier classes and enjoy talking to each other, while the south side of campus is depicted as gloomy and the students are always working strenuously. I have felt the differences in the atmospheres in the north and south campus, but I would never say that I can tell from first glance if a student is a north or south campus student. I agree with how Snow says the atmospheres are different, but I would not go as far as saying someone’s major is their primary identity. If I had to describe myself in three words, I know for a fact it would not be “Political Science major”.
I learned a lot from C.P. Snow’s article “Two Cultures” and gained a new perspective on how I view society. I would not identify myself by my classes or major, but I do agree certain people prefer different classes and interests, and that should never tear people apart from each other. Week 2:
During this week’s lecture and readings on the relationships between mathematics and art, I gained a lot of new insight on how I perceive things around me. Rangaraj believes the main attribute both mathematics and art have in common is relativity. I gained a lot of insight while reviewing the Mandelbro set because the artwork is very proportionate. I believe there is a comforting feeling in artwork when it comes to symmetry because it is visually appealing. Mathematics is all about ration and making sure everything is proportionate, and I am constantly reminded of math when I see symmetrical artwork.
I decided to explore Vincent Van Gogh’s piece of art “Starry Night Over the Rhone” because I was instantly reminded of relativity when I first saw the painting. All of the lights from the lamp posts are the same size and relative to the size of the lamp posts. The lights are also equally distanced from one another. I found comfort in this artwork. Everyone is accustomed to ratios and relativity because we are surrounded by these things every day. I believe ratios and relativity almost reassure me that I am a human being which is very comforting.
I believe mathematics and art hold completely different connotations in everyday life, even though math and art go hand in hand. Math is seen as exact and perfect, while art is seen as messy and imperfect. I have gained new insight after reading this article because I am now more aware that mathematics and art have a lot more in common than I ever thought.
I believe one of the more fascinating technological innovations that has had a huge impact on art is the X-ray machine. X-rays allow us to see the full skeletal structure of any living organism. This opened brand new possibilities for artists to accurately depict their work and make it even more life-like.
I was intrigued by how plastic surgery are both related to medicine and art. Either people are looking to repair their body because of an injury or they want to “better themselves”, people want their surgery to look as natural and realistic as possible. This is not an easy task for doctors to make life-like changes to a person’s body, and they sometimes call in artists to help out.
Living right next to Beverly Hills, I constantly see plastic surgery all around me, and I am going to appreciate it more now because I understand the difficulty of good plastic surgery. I have gained a lot of new insight by looking over this week’s materials because there is a stigma in our society that art and medicine are two different fields. By looking closely, though, we can see medicine and art are seen together all around us.
Sources:
Works Cited:
Week 3 | Robotics + Art | Blog Assignment
Ever since the British Industrial Revolution, society has been very caught up with making everything about efficiency. Countries want to spend minimal amount of money for workers and use minimal resources, and this causes Industrialization to occur. The newest phenomenon is building robotics that can carry out everyday tasks to make our lives easier. Researchers, however, are building more and more sophisticated robots each year, and are starting to build robots that are capable of experiencing the feeling of pain.
I took a look at the San Francisco Robotics Society of America website, and was baffled to see just how sophisticated some of these robots are. For example, NASA recently invented the “microbot”, a microscopic robot that is capable of traveling across terrains on different planets and collect data about the terrain. Another robot is called Robodex, and the purpose of Robodex is to provide people with "love" and "dream" through robots and to realize a society where humans and robots cohabit with each other".
I gained a lot of new insight while reading this week’s material because I had no clue to exactly how fast our society is evolving right in front of our own eyes. I also gained a new appreciation for how complex some of these robotics are becoming, and we will only rely on electronics more and more as time goes by.
Week 4| Medicine + Technology + Art |
I found this week’s material on the relationship between medical technologies and art very enlightening. A lot of people do not realize art and medical technologies have been directly correlated for centuries, dating back to before Leonardo Da Vinci. Artists would base their artwork off of actual human body parts and would even watch doctors during surgeries to understand the human anatomy.
I believe one of the more fascinating technological innovations that has had a huge impact on art is the X-ray machine. X-rays allow us to see the full skeletal structure of any living organism. This opened brand new possibilities for artists to accurately depict their work and make it even more life-like.
I was intrigued by how plastic surgery are both related to medicine and art. Either people are looking to repair their body because of an injury or they want to “better themselves”, people want their surgery to look as natural and realistic as possible. This is not an easy task for doctors to make life-like changes to a person’s body, and they sometimes call in artists to help out.
Living right next to Beverly Hills, I constantly see plastic surgery all around me, and I am going to appreciate it more now because I understand the difficulty of good plastic surgery. I have gained a lot of new insight by looking over this week’s materials because there is a stigma in our society that art and medicine are two different fields. By looking closely, though, we can see medicine and art are seen together all around us.
Sources:
Laramee, Eve Andree. "No Title." Eve Andree Laramee. N.p., 18 Aug. 2016. Web. 30 Apr. 2017. <http://home.earthlink.net/~wander/>.
Luxereau, Christophe. "HOME." Christophe Luxereau Website : Home. Christophe Luxereau, 30 Nov. 2016. Web. 30 Apr. 2017. <http://www.luxereau.com/>.
Medicine Pt1. Youtube. Uconlineprogram, 21 Apr. 2012. Web. 30 Apr. 2017. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ep0M2bOM9Tk>.
Medicine Pt3. Youtube. Uconlineprogram, 22 Apr. 2012. Web. 30 Apr. 2017. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FIX-9mXd3Y4>.
Staines, Judith. "A Unique Online Source on Contemporary International Artists." Zoran Todorovic Artist Portrait. Culture Base, 14 May 2003. Web. 30 Apr. 2017. <http://www.culturebase.net/artist.php?188>.
Week 7 | Neuroscience + Art |
This week’s materials on neuroscience was very eye-opening for me because I really wanted to be a Psychology major. I had no clue that art is oftenly used to understand the human brain and neuroscience in general. I have never been able to understand how the human brain is able to comprehend a number of different vowels and sounds and can quickly interpret what someone is trying to say in nanoseconds. Not only can the brain instantly understand other people, but it starts to think of a response immediately. I found Pierre Paul Broca interesting for this reason because he was the first person to demonstrate the existence of a speech center in the brain.
The “Brainbow” showed me exactly how art is used today in order to figure out new information about the human brain. Brainbow is a new tool used by researchers and scientists and is a way of visualizing neurons. Bright colors are designated to a certain emotion. When the Brainbow is in use, the brain will fire neurons and the neurons will transmit different colors in order to understand human emotions more easily. I gained a new appreciation for art after reading about the Brainbow because it is evident how critical of a role art plays in scientific fields today.
The most surprising thing I learned from this week’s material is that a sea sponge shares 70% of its genes with humans, including the genes that are related to disease and cancer. Doctors are now studying sea sponges to better understand diseases and cures. I would never have guessed that a sea sponge could be the answer to finding cancer (although probably not).
Works Cited:
Kac, Eduardo. "GFP Bunny" http://www.ekac.org/gfpbunny.html#gfpbunnyanchor Web.
Uconlineprogram. "5 Bioart Pt1 1280x720." YouTube. YouTube, 18 Sept. 2013. Web. 14 May 2017. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PaThVnA1kyg>.
Vesna, Victoria. Narr. "Neuroscience + Art Lectures I-V.” N.p., . web. 5 Nov 2012.
Weissman, Tamily. "Brainbow: Cell Pictures." Cell Picture Show. Cell Picture Show, 13 Oct. 2014. Web. 16 May 2017.
Willoughby, Leslie. "As Sea Stars Die, New Worries About Urchins." National Geographic. National Geographic Society, 15 May 2017. Web. 16 May 2017.
The one main idea that will stick with me after this weeks lecture is how nanotechology is extremely advanced because of artistic developments. In return, nanotechology plays a role in the development of art because artists are able to get a better understanding of the genetic makeup of organisms.
Works Cited:
Week 8 | Nanotechnology + Art |
I was surprised after this week’s readings that nano means “dwarf” and deals with microscopic objects and organisms. I was confused as to what exactly the relationship between art and nanotechnology, but then I discovered nanotechnology is primarily based on touch and feel because the objects are microscopic.One of the most interesting pieces of this week’s material was the gecko feet. Scientists took a closer look at the feet of gecko because they have very fine nanostructures that grants geckos the ability to stick to walls.
I was surprised after this week’s readings that nano means “dwarf” and deals with microscopic objects and organisms. I was confused as to what exactly the relationship between art and nanotechnology, but then I discovered nanotechnology is primarily based on touch and feel because the objects are microscopic.One of the most interesting pieces of this week’s material was the gecko feet. Scientists took a closer look at the feet of gecko because they have very fine nanostructures that grants geckos the ability to stick to walls.
The lotus leaf was also very interesting to me. Water droplets stay in tact on top of the leaves because of the fine nanostructure of the leaf. The leaf appears to have microscopic prawns that stick out and reject the water droplets. We are able to study the nanostructure of these objects because of microscopic tunneling. Microscopic tunneling is an “instrument for imaging surfaces at the atomic level.” (Wikipedia) 
Works Cited:
-"Asian flowers lotus in pink." Asian flowers lotus in pink.jpg Hi-Res 720p HD. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 May 2017.
- Nanotech Jim pt3. Dir. James Gimzewski. Perf. Dr. James Gimzewski. Youtube.com. YouTube, 21 May 2012. Web. 25 May 2017. <https://youtu.be/X0HCNiU_108>.
- Nanotech Jim pt4. Dir. James Gimzewski. Perf. Dr. James Gimzewski. Youtube.com. YouTube, 21 May 2012. Web. 25 May 2017. <https://youtu.be/yHCuZetAIhk>.
-"Scanning Tunneling Microscope." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 25 May 2017
Web. 27 May 2017.
-"The Scanning Tunneling Microscope." Nobelprize.org. Nobel Media AB , n.d. Web. 20 May 2017. <http://www.nobelprize.org/educational/physics/microscopes/scanning/>.
Works Cited:
- “Vincent van Gogh. The Starry Night.” MoMA Learning, MoMA, www.moma.org/learn/moma_learning/vincent-van-gogh-the-starry-night-1889.
Week 9 | Space + Art |
I was very excited to learn more about the relationship of space and art because I have always been fascinated with stars and the endless possibilities of what might be in space. I instantly thought of many paintings I have seen that involve the sky and space because artists have always been obsessed with space. The one painting that really stuck out to me was “The Starry Night” by Vincent Van Gogh. The background in Van Gogh’s painting almost jumps off the canvas because of the stars and the color scheme.
I was very excited to learn more about the relationship of space and art because I have always been fascinated with stars and the endless possibilities of what might be in space. I instantly thought of many paintings I have seen that involve the sky and space because artists have always been obsessed with space. The one painting that really stuck out to me was “The Starry Night” by Vincent Van Gogh. The background in Van Gogh’s painting almost jumps off the canvas because of the stars and the color scheme.
Nuclear bombs were also intriguing to me because I never appreciated how intricate the bombs were. Scientists would test the bombs in remote fields and were helped designed by a few select artists. Because of the nuclear bomb threats, the Cold War was ignited and the Soviets launched the first satalite.
The “sputnik” is a genius design because it is the size of a beach ball, yet it reflects light and the light reflection is visible from 170 miles away. Not only did the “sputnik” serve as a satalite, but it also changed how people thought about the war and the economic situation. The “sputnik” taught me that a little bit of creativity can change the energy of people around you. Space and art are a powerful combination, and it can send powerful messages to large groups of people.
Works Cited:
- Carillo, Joe. "Copernicus’ heliocentric theory as the mother of all paradigm shifts."josecarilloforum.com. N.p., 16 Oct 2009. Web. 4 June 2017. <http://josecarilloforum.com/forum/index.php?topic=330.0>.
- "Leonardo Space Art Project Visioneers." Leonardo Space Art Project Visioneers. N.p., n.d. Web. 1 June 2017.
- Vesna, Victoria. “Space and Art: Part 2.” YouTube. YouTube, n.d. Web. 25 Dec. 2012.
- Vesna, Victoria. "Space pt5." Online video clip. YouTube. June 2017. Web. 4 June 2017.
- “Vincent van Gogh. The Starry Night.” MoMA Learning, MoMA, www.moma.org/learn/moma_learning/vincent-van-gogh-the-starry-night-1889.
