Space Exploration + Art Week 9

“Our Species needs, and deserves, a citizenry with minds wide awake and basic understanding of how the world works."
-Sagan

What I thought was great was that scientists have looked to science fiction writers to understand possibilities in space.  It is a beautiful relationship with art and the sciences.  Where the unknown requires imagination which artist have an abundance of, and the imagination is able to become a reality with the blend of the sciences coming to create.  The "final frontier" is still full of so many possibilities and most of them are still distant dreams.

Still a very real but foreign concept to me that war and power drives the world.  The race of nations to be the first to have a satellite in space to claim that power where the USSR and America were racing to be the first.  And then to see who could be the first to get a living being in space.  And worried that Russia would claim part of the Moon which doesn't really mean a lot, but America having to be the first to make it to the moon.  Ultimately we have done very little human space travel since we have landed in 1969.

Its amazing what people are able to create.  People are so invested in their passions of the unknown that they break all obstacles and limits to meet that goal.  People created a one person spaceship funded by independent contractors to be the first single person in space.  Something that would never be possible just a short while ago is now possible.  The journey of breaking the impossible is what seems so attractive to the exploration of space.  Virgin Galatic was the company run by Richard Branson to win the first race to space by a single man'd ship.

Video/Photo Links:

1) https://youtu.be/UICK6CI1hTA

2) http://www.fanpop.com/clubs/star-trek-original-series/images/19173859/title/kirk-space-final-frontier-wallpaper

3) https://drawception.com/viewgame/sEOWxHkHdb/the-space-race/



                                    Works Cited:

1) Vesna , Victoria, dir. Space Part 1-5. 2012. Film. 30 May 2015.

2) Franklin, H. Bruce. “Science Fiction: The Early History.” Andromeda. Web. http://andromeda.rutgers.edu/~hbf/sfhist.html

3)Hull, Dana, and Julie Johnsson. "Galactic Gold Rush: Private Spending on Space Is Headed for a New Record." Bloomberg.com. Bloomberg, 5 Feb. 2015. Web. 26 May 2015. <http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-02-05/galactic-gold-rush-private-spending-on-space-is-headed-for-a-new-record>.

4)Lin, Kemy. "The 1969 Lunar Landing: One Giant Leap for Art." Hyperallergic. Hyperallergic Media, Inc., 27 May 2015. Web. 31 May 2015. <http://hyperallergic.com/204172/the-1969-lunar-landing-one-giant-leap-for-art/>

5)Sagan, Carl. "A Pale Blue Dot." Youtube. N.p., n.d. Web.

Nanotech + Art Week 8

Nanotechnology fascinates me and freaks me out all at the same time.  I think if we were able to move cells at the atomic level to move from dirt to a hamburger, that would be amazing.  At the same time, I don't enjoy that so many things are being changed and then being put on my body(sunscreen) or things that I am eating.

I've always enjoyed looking at stained glass windows.  They have always interested me and I had no idea about how they were made.  Such a genius way of creating something beautiful by starting at its basic structure and adding metallic salts to bring out its colors.  And stained glass in itself was an art form that told stories to people that were not well educated.  Sharing stories through the pictures.

I am very interested in Ned Seeman Self assembling DNA structures.  I am not sure if I fully understand what Mr Seeman is working on.  I believe he is trying to connect through different DNA structures a way for our bodies to regenerate missing tissues.  Eventually being able to heal our wounds that seemed impossible, or do it quicker, or not have to use skin from other parts of our body.  Lots of different ways to use this once it is figured out.

The Blue Morpho Butterfly has manipulated itself on a micro level to look different to the viewer than its actual look.  Its blue color which is very rare to be found in nature is not based from alterations in its pigment, but based off of Iridescence.  Because of the angle and shape of the butterfly it is possible that is why the butterfly is viewed blue.  The structural coloration is where microstructures interfere with light to create new colors to the eye.

Picture links:

http://seemanlab4.chem.nyu.edu/index.html

http://www.rgbstock.com/bigphoto/mDrSxI0/glass+pictures

http://www.rainforest-alliance.org/kids/species-profiles/blue-butterfly

Works Cited:

     Gimzewski, Jim. "Nanotech for Artists." Nanotechnology and Art Lecture. UCLA, Los Angeles. 22 May 2015. Lecture.

Iridescence: views from many angles Meadows, M. et al. (2009) J. R. Soc. Interface 6:S107-S113

Discovering stained glass - John Harries, Carola Hicks, Edition: 3 – 1996

Leach, William (2013). Butterfly People. New York: Pantheon Books. p. 201.

Seeman, Ned. "Welcome to Ned Seeman's Laboratory Home Page." Ned Seeman's Home Page. NYU, n.d. Web. 24 May 2015.

Week 7 Neuroscience + Art

I think what caught my attention right off the bat was that the Brain Model that was created by Franz Joseph Gall wasn't just a toy my mom bought for me as a child.  I always viewed it as something with little importance that was made in jest.  I hadn't put together until now that Gall who came up with cerebral functions, and mental functions and localized them used this to show how early thoughts of the brain worked.  And, that now it is used in Criminal science to understand criminals brains.   They would test which part of the brain was bigger in criminals, seeing it is like a muscle that would grow over time, and see if there was similarities between the brains of criminals with the muscles that were bigger or more developed.

Also that LSD and Cocaine were considered miracle drugs.  That people to get off Opium and Morphine they took cocaine to fix their drug problem.  Also LSD created by Albert Hofmann was used to study Schizophrenia, with Psychedelic Psychotherapy.  And later the CIA used it to try to control peoples minds as a truth drug.  But the government could not control the radical variety of responses, so they stopped testing people with it.  And people ended up killing themselves over the drug and testing procedures.

LSD.  Artist of Tool.  Alex Grey.  LSD is definitely a very powerful drug to affect visual artists.  Most of the colors used by this artist specifically are very much inspired by his experiences with that.  Which makes me wonder if we could of ever gotten to a place of art with this kinda visual stimulation without drugs, or was it always inevitable.  That just like certain drugs like Mushrooms or Peyote that is made within in the Earth for drug induced experiences that we were to experience what the world was creating in one way or another.

Images:

http://www.johnlewis.com/john-lewis-phrenology-head-large/p231594464

http://www.tonedeaf.com.au/336072/musical-mind-control-another-music-conspiracy-theory-or-hidden-truth.htm



Works Cited:

Vesna, Victoria. "Neuroscience + Art Lectures." Desma 9 Lecture. Los Angeles. 11 May 2015. Lecture. Online

Cohen, Mark.  "Neuroscience." Desma 9 Guest Lecture.  10 May 2015. Lecture.  Online

"Sigmund Freud's Theories | Simply Psychology." Sigmund Freud's Theories | Simply Psychology. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 May 2015.

"Dream Moods: Dream Theories: Sigmund Freud." Dream Moods: Dream Theories: Sigmund Freud. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 May 2015.

"Brainbow." Center for Brain Science. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 May 2015. <http://cbs.fas.harvard.edu/science/connectome-project/brainbow>.

"Tool - Vicarious [720p]." YouTube. YouTube, n.d. Web. 18 May 2015.

Week 6 Bio Tech + Art= Art?

For me I think there should be limitations on human creativity.  Its hard for to really even agree with myself on that, because I believe in freedom to express and find yourself as an artist.  But testing products on animals or humans in general to me is augmented form of freedom that is not in my realm of creativity.  I think we should use what we have on this earth and stop using unnatural chemicals, or non homeopathic chemicals, which brings me to tense up and close myself off to the ideas spawning from those methods.

I don't have a complete black and white answer but a more gray area for "Transgenic Art." Eduardo Kac created Alba, who was an albino bunny that glowed in the dark. It was created with a zygote micro injection taken from a protein from jellyfish, which was a modified gene, that was then inserted into the rabbit eggs, which made it a fluorescent bunny.  I think that is something really amazing and really interesting.  But I am sure that the Bunny is not able to live within a Rabbit community anymore, which makes me sad.  

So I don't have a complete black and white answer but a more gray area for each situation. Or when Marta De Menezes modified butterfly wings but had holes in them, that is super interesting but I don't like that the Butterfly lost its ability to fly.

I am not really sure for the reason of The Ear Art. Using sub-dermal implant of a ear in the left art, then the body heals over the implant. This whole idea of Trans-Humanism, where our body is not enough. And we need to improve human conditions and fight limitations, believing the body is obsolete, I guess I don't really get why.

I felt very connected with the Interview Michael Pollan for Food Inc, on connecting the dots on our food and its history. Corn is at the basis of all food because we subsidize it, we feed cattle corn, which makes them sick, then we give them drugs to keep them alive. We use that meat and put ammonia in it to make edible.

All food comes from the sun, or should, but we figured out how to make petroleum into food instead of the sun. Natural way of things make the most sense to me. And is what inspires me to create.

References:

1. "Why Animal Rights?" PETA. peta.org. Web. 10 May 2015. <http://www.peta.org/about-peta/why-peta/why-animal-rights/>

2. Wenk, Gary. "This Is Your Brain On Food." This Is Your Brain on Food § SEEDMAGAZINE.COM. Seed Media Group, Sept. 2010. Web. 7 May 2015.

3.SymbioticA. "SymbioticA." The University of Western Australia. SymbioticA, 13 Apr. 2015. Web. 10 May 2015

4. Vesna, Victoria. "Biotechnology and Art." Biotechnology and Art. UCLA, Los Angeles. 10 May 2015. Lecture.

5. De Menezes, Marta. "Nature?" Projects: Nature? Marta De Menezes, 2002. Web. 08 May 2015.

6. Atala, Anthony. "Growing New Organs." TED. TED, Oct. 2009. Web. 9 May 2015. <http://www.ted.com/talks/anthony_atala_growing_organs_engineering_tissue>.

7.https://www.pinterest.com/pin/470837336017409414/

8. https://www.singularityweblog.com/stelarc/