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Event 3: Santiago Torres - We are all made of star dust

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The third event I have chosen to attend is the online event, Santiago Torres: We are all made of star dust . Santiago Torres was a physics professor at UCLA and conducts research at the University of Austria. He studies dynamical interactions in the universe. According to Torres, everything is made of stardust that is the same stardust that was in the big bang that became galaxies and stars. The Big Bang (1) Torres states that the universe is not alone, and that we are not in isolation but together in many ways. He asks, “why do we have distinctions between people when we are all star dust?” Following this logic, all art is also stardust (2). Torres thinks that the most powerful message is that we should be sharing with everyone. I agree with Santiago Torres that we should share with each other. Sharing is one of the first concepts we learn as children, especially when we have siblings. Our parents and guardians and teachers teach us to share. At some point, many of us seem to lose thi...
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Week 9: Space + Art

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I was excited about this week’s module because I have always been fascinated by space. I studied physics at university in Scotland, and I was going to study astrophysics in Dublin, Ireland, before I decided to stay here in Los Angeles instead. The first video in this week’s series mentioned Nicolaus Copernicus who explained the observed motion of the heavens with a model of the solar system with the Sun slightly off center. I was not aware that a crater on the moon was named after him (1). Copernicus’ Heliocentric Model of the Solar System from 1512 (1) It was interesting to find out that NASA was formed in 1958 (the same year my mother was born!) I would have guessed that it had been around longer than that. It was also interesting to learn that it was formed as a result of failed U.S. attempts to catch up with Russia in the “space race.” NASA founded in 1958 (2) The materials that most influenced me this week were the videos of the animals being used in experiments for space travel...
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Week 8: Nanotechnology + Art

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  The materials that most interested me this week were Dr. James K. Gimzewski’s YouTube videos entitled Nanotechnology for artists (1). My favorite part was the images shown below of shapes made by Don Eigler using Scanning Tunneling Microscopy which uses a needle whose tip measures about one hundredth of an atomic diameter. The needle rasters across surfaces to make images, in a similar process to the one used in a cathode ray tube, the original type of television (2). Patterns created using the Scanning Tunnel Microscope Even more powerful is the Atomic Force Microscope which is able to image molecules in a way that hadn’t been achieved before with the Scanning Tunnel Microscope (2). Today there are thousands of nanotechnology products on the market and many of them are invisible.  Atomic Force Microscopy Nanoparticles are sized between 100 and 1 nanometers, and they have existed for a long time. In Roman times they were used to make pottery out of gold that looks one c...
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Event 2: Lecture by Ellen K. Levy

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The second event I have chosen to attend is the online event, Lecture by Ellen K. Levy . Ellen K. Levy is an American multimedia artist and scholar known for exploring art, science, and technology interrelationships since the early 1980s (1). She has conducted art sci research on D’Arcy Thompson. D’Arcy Thompson wrote a famous book O n Growth and Form , which is “an easy introduction to the study of organic Form”. (2) D'Arcy Thompson On Growth and Form So far in this course, it has seemed to me as though the science culture has had the advantage of finding solutions and cures, and that the art culture has been trying to catch up by offering meaning in art instead of mere aesthetic pleasure. This event by Ellen Levy has shown me that the art culture has a different advantage over the science culture: Art has more truth than does Science. Ellen Levy D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson's Generative Influence in Art, Design, and Architecture: From Forces to Forms Science has proven over ...
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Week 7: Neurosci + Art

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Carl Jung developed a theory of the unconscious employing the concept of the archetype. Archetypes are the psychic innate dispositions to experience that constitute the structure of the collective unconscious. Archetypes are found in all cultures, and in dreams and visions. Every human being is endowed with the psychic archetype layer from his or her birth (1). Humans have always had archetypes, but according to Jung “[m]odern man has lost all the metaphysical certainties of his medieval brother” having lost touch with religion (2 ). Victoria Vesna Week 7 Lecture, Part 2 Carl Jung also argued that the unconscious could be a source of creativity (1). This is evident in a lot of art that is dreamlike and inspired by dreams. One of my favorite artists who paints dream-like scenes is Salvador Dali. Major themes in his work include dreams, the subconscious, sexuality, religion, science, and his closest personal relationships (3). Salvador Dali The Hallucinogenic Toreador One way to experien...
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Event 1: COLOR LIGHT MOTION: Featuring Ryszard Kluszczyński – presenting artist Wen-Ying Tsai

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  The first event I have chosen to attend is the online event, “COLOR LIGHT MOTION: Ryszard Kluszczyński – presenting artist Wen-Ying Tsai.” The type of art that was presented is known as Cybernetic Art. Ryszard Kluszczyński is the Head of Department of New Media and Digital Culture at the University of Lodz, Poland. Wen-Ying Tsai was an American artist born in China. He is one of the forerunners of Cybernetic Art, having graduated as an engineer then studying art. Painting was his main interest for decades–optical painting and optical perceptual painting with a technical engineering approach.  1968 was a very prolific period for Wen-Ying Tsai. Pictured below is one of his first works entitled  Harmonic Sculpture #10 .  Wen-Ying Tsai  Harmonic Sculpture #10 This event was an excellent example of how science and art can come together in the “third culture” referred to by C.P. Snow (Snow,  The Two Cultures ) and I highly recommend it to other students as a ...
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Week 4: Medicine + Technology + Art

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  Humans have been cutting open bodies since almost the beginning of history (Vesna Week 4 Lecture, Part 1 ). Scientists used to cut sections of cadavers and photograph them (see below) until the 20 th century brought new technologies to help us look inside bodies without cutting them open. Scientist preparing to photograph transverse section of human head (Vesna Week 4, Part 1 ) Two familiar methods of looking inside the body without cutting it open are the x-ray and the MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) which was invented by Raymond Vahan Damadian. Dr. Damadian became his own first MRI patient because nobody else was willing to get inside the MRI. However, when he got into the machine it didn’t work and the reason turned out to be that he was too big, so a student had to get in instead. As stated by Silvia Casini in her article, Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) as Mirror and Portrait: MRI Configurations between Science and the Arts , “magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and its f...
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