Week 3 | Robotics + Art | Blog Assignment

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 3: Event 1

              I was pleasantly surprised as to what exactly I learned at Linda Weintraub's presentation. Ms. Weintraub talked about eco materialism and contemporary art. I gained the most insight from Ms. Weintraub talking about three different artists: James Bridie, Kazmir Malevich, and Claude Monet. 

             James Bridie is known for his drone's-eye view artwork called "Dronestagram". He would post the landscape of drone strikes on Instagram from 2012-2015 and gained a lot of popularity because of a new and refreshing perspective. 

           Kazmir Malevich has a very distinct style of art. She does not include a horizon, there is no sense of near or far, and there are no relationships to observed reality. This style of art gave a whole new perspective on landscapes and triggered a sense of euphoria for the viewers. 

          Claude Monet tried to created a visual interaction between himself and the world around him through his art. He used a lot of vibrant colors and lights and a lot of his artwork featured blurry beams of light. 

       I learned a lot from Linda Weintraub's presentation on how gaining new perspectives on landscapes and art causes new emotions and feelings to be triggered. I will now try to carry out Linda Weintraub's ideas on perspective and practice with my own drawings. I have always found it difficult to draw from different perspectives because I am not extremely artistic, but I have grasped the power of different points of view after this presentation. 

Week 2: Math and Art

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.

Week 1: Two Cultures

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.