Final Project

Final Project for Jiyeong: DESMA9 Final Project

Event 3

On May 15, I've visited LACMA for my event assignment. This is very well known place that contains a lot of art+science works of art. I've found a lot of pieces and structures that related to our theme of class topic we discussed in the quarter.

There were diverse types of artworks that I could enjoy myself. Among the ones that I've browsed through, I've found a few works that highly related to the theme of what I've learned in the class.

This is Andy Warhol's Campbell's Soup Can, 1964. This is a part of pop art which was brought from the industrialization that we've learned in Lecture of Robotic + art. Thanks to the mass production triggered by industrial revolution in 19th century, artists also influenced by the trend. It doesn't seem like an art at all, which is just tomato soup can that we can easily find in the market. This could also be regarded as a form of art that Andy Warhol proved it. In a flash of inspiration he bought cans from the store and began to trace projections onto canvas, tightly painting within the outlines to resemble the appearance of the original offset lithograph labels. Instead of the dripping paint in his previous ads and comics, here Warhol sought the precision of mechanical reproduction. Creating an art through mass produced product, he aroused the sympathy of many fans of art.

The individual paintings were produced by a printmaking method—the semi-mechanized screen printing process, using a non-painterly style. Stenciling, from which screen prints evolved, has been with us since we supped in caves, but, like soup, it underwent major changes during the industrial revolution when its ease of replication attracted commercial interest.

I've found another work of his art, Two Marilyns, 1962. This was also created in the same regarded explained above. Silkscreen ink and pencil on linen were used. He is known for his exaltation of both celebrity and the ordinary. Among the earliest in a series of paintings made shortly after Monroe's tragic death, this work shows the sex symbol's carefully constructed public persona. Warhol's use of the commercial silkscreen technique suggests his love of the banal, while his use of pencil in this work harks back to his early calligraphic skills. 

From the two pieces of art, we can derive the idea of his pursuit of intimacy and popular appeal to the public. His influences by industrialization and other social and scientific changes definitely impacted on his paintings that gives a philosophy of modern art. 

I definitely recommend to visit LACMA at least once to see the paintings and sculptures and other pieces of creations from the ones back in the days and the most futurist works of art. You can definitely broaden your perspectives and ideas when it comes to art + science. There are so many collaboration of two. For example, the photo above is a "Metropolis II." It is an intense kinetic sculpture modeled after a fast paced, frenetic modern city. Steel beams form an eclectic grid interwoven with an elaborate system of 19 roadways, including one six land freeway. Miniature cars speed through the city at 240 scale miles per hour; every hour, the equivalent of approximately 100,000 cars circulate through the dense network of buildings. The creator of this masterpiece Chris Burden claimed that "The noise, the continuous flow of the trains, and the speeding toy cars produce in the viewer the stress of living in a dynamic, active and bustling 21st century city." 

Event 2

On May 21, I've visited CNSI center for the exhibition. This is "Infinity structures; paradoxical spaces," by Robert Gero. Robert Gero’s work – both built and written - is grounded in the practical and theoretical intersection of art practice, philosophy and social-architectural systems.
He believes that the border of the aesthetic is a contested space --  a multiply defended zone of discourses occupied by theorists working within the disciplines of philosophy and art history. Aside the theories and philosophies, to view a work as art is to enjoy shifting levels of interplay; seeing how the artist has merged imagery, sounds, cultural icons, found objects, sometimes even another artist's work, into new representations that express meaningful ideas. In this regard, he presents somewhat unique piece of work for this exhibition. He combined sound and somewhat eccentric object in the middle of the art.

He used dreamlike sound throughout the exhibition 

His work of art was very great. He utilized the whole exhibition place to display his art. The structure and geometric lines and shapes seemed somewhat very scientific, but it also seemed like a spatial art(Raumkunst) under modernism that used space and structures as a source of their art. 

It crosses the boundaries of traditional design disciplines such as architecture, interior design, landscape architecture and landscape design as well as public art within the Public Realm.

It focuses upon the flow of space between interior and exterior environments both in the private and public realm. The emphasis of the discipline is upon working with people and space, particularly looking at the notion of place. 

As you can see from the photo, it is quite weird to see a pillow in the art exhibition. Then, I've asked him the reason. He answered that there's no meaning in that he puts pillow on the structure. He could have put other things he found in the storage. But, he also said that the pillow means that the comfort he pursues in daily lives. It could have produced a certain ambience of comfort and coziness of the space. Even though that wasn't the special meaning he puts on the object, he still pursues a comfort. The dissonance between the object and the structures emphasizes the uniqueness of this art. 

I recommend this exhibition to visit because this collaboration of architectural science and art increases the importance of spatial art here. As we've discussed in the lecture of early in the quarter, the architecture has been a great expression of art and science. In that sense, his infinity, paradoxical spaces shows how great architectural/spatial art and additionally a paradox of existence of pillow. if you are interested in the architecture and spatial art (spatialism), you would learn a lot. 

Citation:

Gero, Robert. "The Border of the Aesthetic." Art History versus Aesthetics. Ed. James Elkins. New York: Routledge, 2006. N. pag. Print.

Event 1

On May 14th, I visited the student exhibition at CNSI center. There were a few interesting works that motivated me a lot. The works are the expression of the combination of Art and Science that we've discussed throughout the quarter. Among the pieces, there were an brain made of postage attracted me.

This creation by Christina Kong is called, "The Brain-Book." Post-its and a pen is used for this work. Since her childhood, she has loved animations -- Disney movies, Pixar, and Studio Ghibli. What she has found unbelievable amazing is the brain's ability to take all of the still images that make up an animation and transform them into motion. She wanted to combine this function of the brain with another childhood favorite of mine-- flip books. Just as the brain is able to create the illusion of movement, she wished to created a flip book of the brain that would both illustrate this organ's different functions and highlight the viewer's visual perception. Each color represents a different part of the brain and its corresponding function. 

Her perception is highly related to what we've been discussed in the lecture. In lecture 7, professor Vesna, tells the brain's ability and many utilization in art. She introduced Franz Joseph Gall who is an inventor of Phrenology. He argued that mental's functions are localized in specific region of the brain that human behavior is dependent upon those functions. Her art is created in that sense. The brain described above is divided into several sections, which might be determined by its function in the brain. Each color of the flip book resembles different parts of the brain which manage different types of functions throughout the whole body and each flip book contains an animation show the example of the function. If we go flip the book, as the yellow part you see from the photo, each different page of the post-it contains various drawing meaning different things. It is the one related to art. And the pink postages you see contains the scientific capacity of brain. Different contents means separated neural functions and capacity of the brain. She combined all the meanings and functions into a piece of work so that people could see and understand its function as soon as they see. Her artistic expression of scientific knowledge was great. 

Citation:

Brain Anatomy and Functions. Youtube. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 June 2015. <https://youtu.be/HVGlfcP3ATI>.

Space + Art (week 9)

This week's topic of "Space" is the perfect concept that embraces all the ideas that we've studied throughout this quarter. Cosmos is the most complexed entity we are involved in. Its single organism works highly complicated and accurate cosmic system -- many scientist indicates that the cosmos is the "complexity machine". Human beings have awed its existence and continuously tried to explore the mysteries it has. Since long time before even the science technology couldn't have developed yet, people made several efforts in quest of outer space. Professor Vesna introduced Copernicus as the prominent astronomer back in the days. His devotion to the study for space is admirable and several theories (such as Heliocentrism) he developed against conventional studies eventually brought the space age forward.

heliocentrism by Nicolas Copernicus

After the Soviet Union invented Sputnik in 1957, this caused the whole new era scientifically and politically as well. The space science research in the United States had been accelerated tremendously in the US out of the fear of the Soviet Union. This period of space race between the US and the Soviet Union brought another big progress in space studies. During the Cold War, the political containment policy against Soviet Union and vice versa encouraged both countries even though it was originally to prepare for the war to destroy each other.

Cosmos is the most mysterious and unknown space even until today. The curiosity that human beings have had was expressed through many artists' films, writings, paintings, and photographies. Firstly, artist Yann Arthus-Bertrand -- who took a picture of both earth and space, then compared its similarities -- says that there's a certain pattern of beauty across the earth and the whole universe. When we carefully observe the photographic patterns, the universe and earth look alike in some ways. It seems somewhat contrived. Even though, the great observation and original interpretation from different perspective produced an unique work of art. The artist is well utilizing art, nature, and science as the source for another artistic work.

Second artistic interpretation is "Powers of ten (1977)" by Eames. It shows the macro and micro world zooming in and out the world. The camera took the whole universe in one frame. This video encouraged me to realize that a human being would be another entity of the universe. The organisms of cells and molecules look like the universe as we've observed above that the universe is also similar to Earth and nature. It means that eventually we are connected to the universe at the end, the space organism isn't different from the ones that consist of our bodies.
It is generally very hard to recognize how we are small part in the humongous universe, or we have never recognized the bigger assemblage that we are involved. We might be a part of another human body. Apparently, the universe and the human body doesn't relate to the other, it makes a certain harmony in a mathematical mechanism; powers of ten. The designers Charles and Ray Eames (who took the Power of tens) are the representative artists who are applying third culture ideas to their design who combine the scientific ideas with their artistic desire.

Ciatations:

"The Daily Galaxy --Great Discoveries Channel: Sci, Space, Tech." 'The Daily Galaxy --Great Discoveries Channel: Sci, Space, Tech' N.p., 23 Jan. 2015. Web. 31 May 2015. <http://www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2015/01/the-universe-is-a-complexity-machine-intelligent-life-and-technology-may-be-common-in-the-cosmos.html>.

8 Space Pt1. Dir. Victoria Vesna. Lecture, n.d. Web. 31 May 2015. <https://youtu.be/6ZIqTR332l8>.

8 Space Pt2. Dir. Victoria Vesna. Lecture, n.d. Web. 31 May 2015. <https://youtu.be/hLZMDpoP-u0>.

Heaven and Earth. Youtube. N.p., n.d. Web. 31 May 2015. <https://youtu.be/lj7_zkk6i4o>.

Powers of Ten. Youtube. N.p., n.d. Web. 31 May 2015. <https://youtu.be/0fKBhvDjuy0>.

NanoTech + Art (Week8)

Nanotechnology is seemingly very difficult and complicated field to dig into as a political science major student. This is never familiar for myself and many other of my fellow students who are not studying science. Watching the lecture videos this week, Dr. Gimzewski explained how nanotechnology originated, developed, and utilized in many parts of our lives today. Even though it is always near to us, we don't really recognize the existences of those. Nevertheless, it seems hard to collaborate nanotechnology to art, but there has been evidences of nano (nanoparticles) utilizations.
                                   

Stained glass art that you can easily find in church is a good example of the utilization of nanoparticles. Firstly, in the lecture, nanoparticles are introduced to have diameters between 1 and 100 nanometers. Using this nano-sized small particles, of course they didn't know the nanotechnology at that point, medieval artisans conducted alchemical experiment adding gold chloride to molten glass. This is the beginning of the stained glass; analysis of the stained glass revealed that gold and silver nanoparticles, acting as quantum dots, reflected red and yellow light, respectively. Different size of the nanoparticles affect the color of the gold particles. Nano-metallurgy played a role in medicine and religion. Both gold and silver nanoparticles were utilized in Biblical times and probably much earlier than that. The famous scientist, Michael Faraday, deduced that the unexpected color was due to the extremely small size of the gold particles.

  

Lycurgus cup is another example of combination between nanotechnology and dichroism in ancient years. Its method of fabrication and the exceptional workmanship involved, and unusual color effect makes this extraordinary. What is important this cup has is dichroic effect achieved by making the glass with tiny proportions of nanoparticles of gold and silver -- Dichroic effect is caused by dichroic material of which visible light is split up into different arrays of colors. Alchemist experimented mixture of gold and silver alloys with several different proportions. The Lycurgus Cup illustrates a short-lived technology developed by ancient Roman glass-workers. They discovered that glass could be colored red, and unusual color change effects generated by the addition of a precious metal bearing material when the glass was molten thanks to the development of nanoparticles. However, the inability to control the colorant process meant that relatively few glasses of this type were produced, and even fewer survive, which brought great impact on red-green dichroism.

Citations:
Chan, Chi. "From Nanotech to Nanoscience | Chemical Heritage Foundation." From Nanotech to Nanoscience | Chemical Heritage Foundation. Chemical Heritage Foundation, n.d. Web. 24 May 2015. <http://www.chemheritage.org/discover/media/magazine/articles/26-2-from-nanotech-to-nanoscience.aspx>.

Freestone, Ian. "The Lycurgus Cup – A Roman Nanotechnology." The Lycurgus Cup – A Roman Nanotechnology (n.d.): n. pag. Web. 24 May 2015. <http://www.arne-lueker.de/Objects/work/Surface%20Plamons/lycurgus.pdf>.

Gilleo, Ken. "The Alchemy of Nanotechnology." CircuiTree (2006): n. pag. Web. 24 May 2015. <http://www.et-trends.com/files/The_Alchemy_of_Nanotechnology.pdf>.

Nanotech Jim Pt3. Dr. Gimzeweski. Lecture. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 May 2015. <https://youtu.be/X0HCNiU_108>.

Nanotech Jim Pt4. Dr. Gimzeweski. Lecture. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 May 2015. <https://youtu.be/yHCuZetAIhk>.

Sciau, Philippe. "Nanoparticles in Ancient Materials: The Metallic Lustre Decorations of Medieval Ceramics." The Delivery of Nanoparticles (2012): n. pag. Web. 24 May 2015.

Neuroscience + Art (Week 7)

The study of Neuroscience and brain is one of the field that has a humongous and countless potentiality of future biology. When it comes to the combination of Neuroscience and Art, the book, The Age of Insight, says that human brain takes a huge part of artistic creativity to produce great artworks. In other words, it means that all art follows the rules of visual art. The pioneer of the Neuro-aesthetist, Semir Zeki, indicates all the artists as tacit and potential Neuroscientists giving us an example of Mondrian's art that based on straight line before the discovery of brain cell that only reacts with straight lines. He believes that the artistic intuition is a result of internal and instinctive appreciation of human brain activities.

Mondrian's Paintings

In the lecture, professor Vesna explains main two concept of brain activity; consciousness and unconsciousness. And then, she introduces two prominent psychologists, Jung and Freud. Even though two scholars have different point of view toward details about consciousness and unconsciousness, both claim the artistic expression is definitely related to a certain neurological activities. Especially, Freud argues that artists' paintings or any other forms of artworks are the result of unfulfilled need. Unconsciously, individual artists put their hidden desires or blurred memories of their early years(childhood years) into the drawings. 

Leonardo Da Vinci could be the best example of an artist that explicitly expressed his unconscious desires through his art. He was born as a illegitimate child in noble family and raised under step mother. His entire childhood was full of lack of fatherhood. He kept dreaming of an eagle that pecks his lips; which implies the passive sexual activities. Actually, the lack of the father led to the obsession for motherhood and homosexual inclination. He would have picked some pretty-boys as pupils by their appearance rather than drawing skills. Also, he had drawn "Mona Lisa", and "The Virgin and Child with St. Anne" during the highlight of his career trying to reproduce the benevolent smile of mother in the memory.

Based on the theories, art has been developed and created by many painters in many types. In modern days, Art Therapy is another form of collaboration of brain and art. Art therapy is one type of therapy to treat patients emotions and internal anxieties through drawing something, which many experts believe that the art is the main medium that human beings can express themselves. That is originally derived from both theories by Freud and Jung. According to Freud's therapy method, patients are required to draw anything that comes up with their minds and then, they get to explore their unconsciousness in the drawings. On the other hand, Jung emphasizes the connection of the drawing from our unconsciousness to our consciousness eventually, which can be accomplished through conversation about the drawing.

From the above explanations, we could figure out that the each artwork could be better understood if we take our brain activities of unconsciousness and consciousness into account. Human brain technology and art has amazing potentials to create synergy effect when our brain is well-appreciated by artists and well-utilized by them.


Citations:

Huang, Mengfei. "The Neuroscience of Art." The Neuroscience of Art (n.d.): 24-26. Stanford University. Web. 17 May 2015.

Jung and Freud 1. Youtube. N.p., 11 Nov. 2012. Web. 17 May 2015. <https://youtu.be/_OXGd_mHut4>.

Jungian Art Therapist. Youtube. N.p., 13 Nov. 2012. Web. 17 May 2015. <https://youtu.be/BBjVB3SalBk>.

Kandel, Eric R. The Age of Insight: The Quest to Understand the Unconscious in Art, Mind, and Brain: From Vienna 1900 to the Present. New York: Random House, 2012. Print.

Vesna, Victoria. Lecture. “Neuroscience-pt1.” 17 May 2015. <https://youtu.be/TzXjNbKDkYI>

Vesna, Victoria. Lecture. “Neuroscience-pt2.” 17 May 2015. <https://youtu.be/TFv4owX3MZo>

What Is Art Therapy? Youtube. Southwestern College - Santa Fe, 27 May 2013. Web. 17 May 2015. <https://youtu.be/E5tgfOBqwMk>.