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>.

BioTech + Art (Week 6)

As the development of biotechnology, human beings have been hugely benefitted in many ways; clone techs supports organ duplication, or GMO foods help starvations all around the world. Food coloring and shaping and DNA manipulation technology (Stem Cell) are also regarded to be a form of art.

Yellow Watermelon

Stem Cell Technology

In this regard, UCLA anthropologist professor, Chris Kelty, expected our future form of biological culture of DIYbio (do-it-yourself biology), which was encouraged to explore experimental attempts in garage or college lab believing in power of outlaws. As a result, aligned with the DIYbio idea, many artists are motivated as well in order to express their artistic desires utilizing life beings, especially such as animals, humans, or foods. They are actively participating in this movement as likely to be Victorian Gentlemen. The group, Symbiotica, is one example you can find easily tries out the combination of biotechnology and art.

Victimless Leather: Tissue Culture & Art

This is a representing illustration of artistic biology, created by Oron Catts, who cultivated "jacket" from mouse tissue inside of glass ball as an artistic experiment. Their work goes back to the Joe Davis's first type of transgenic art. Art is basically pursuing the creation of beauty from something. The more original source you use, which no one imagines, the better effects you will extract. The use of living organisms as a material for an artwork would be a shocking trial. With respect to this, mutilation, mutation, selective breeding, or transgenics are the diverse methods they use to derive best beauty from the resources just as you drive, bicycle, or walk to get to the destination. For example, George Gessert, who selectively bred and recombined flowers, then he discovered aesthetics of shape or color from the result.

However, their efforts to create a beauty, their biotechnological conducts might bring about the ethical or social problems. The DIYbio that was mentioned above encourages the public's active participation using biotechnologies. Because of incautious usage of it, technologies were abused and caused some illnesses to the society. The technology inversely harms the ones who developed it. Firstly, the movie, Gattaca, criticized the gene manipulation. The development of human technology of selecting superior genes from the inferior ones produce a horrible future. In fact, there are some scientific skills that make possible to create a baby in favor of parents' interests. That is morally supposed to happen and hugely selfish idea that misused science technology in behalf of themselves. 

      

It is definitely obvious to try many attempts on science-artistic experiments, of course in favor the expression of a certain type of beauty but also the development of biotechnology. However, as the emergence of aesthetic plastic surgery aggravated lookism to the society, especially Asian cultures, the combination of biotechnology and art produces some unwanted result; unethical gene manipulation, or obtainment of human egg cells for the clone experiments (Hwang Woo Suk incident in 2005, later cinematized: "Whistle Blower"). In this regard, their trials must have ethical guideline and limit to the point at which prevent social problems but still promotes the originality of art. 

Citations:

Feuer, Jack. "Outlaw Biology - UCLA Magazine." UCLA Magazine. N.p., 1 July 2010. Web. 10 May 2015. <http://magazine.ucla.edu/features/outlaw-biology/>.

Gattaca - Trailer. Dir. Andrew Nicole. Youtube. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 May 2015. <https://youtu.be/PC6ZA1dFkVk>.

Kelty, Chris. “Meanings of Participation: Outlaw Biology?”. Web. 10 May 2015.

Miranda, Carolina. "Weird Science: Biotechnology as Art Form." ARTnews. N.p., 18 Mar. 2013. Web. 10 May 2015. <http://www.artnews.com/2013/03/18/biotechnology-as-art-form/>.

Vesna, Victoria, narr. “BioTech Art Lectures I-V.” N.p., . Web. 10 May 2015.

MIDTERM

MIDTERM PROJECT: Jiyeong_Moon_DESMA9_MIDTERM

MedTech + Art (Week 4)

The medical technology and art seemingly are not really relevant one from the other, and I have thought in that way as well at some point. However, this week, we've learned about the intimate relevance between the two. In fact, in human bio-technology, art has been contributing so much in many ways through such as X-ray, plastic figures, drawings from dissections or so. Many experts' endeavors to bring up the medical technology went along with the development of art.  

In the lecture, professor Vesna mentioned that in the early days, the dissection was not conventionally allowed in religious reason, even though at the same time, it was highly fascinating subject to the artists. For example, the most representing artist in Renaissance years, Leonardo Da Vinci, is the one. He had pioneered many dissecting artworks as an artist. Peter Abraham, practicing physician, said that his sketch is mostly correct except female reproducing system. During the time period, Renaissance artists learned anatomy to improve drawing skills, additionally Da Vinci, focused more on the body system like mechanics would do. He only believed what he could observe that most of others wouldn't have done. In that sense, Renaissance art had been developed, which painter pursued the beauty of human and nature.

After Leonardo Da Vinci's integration into medicine, dissection became one of the main parts in medical research and experimentation. Even though, this boom toward dissection brought some ethical problem of seeking corps, which caused illegal grave-robbing. This social injustice was reflected in many literature works of Mark Twain, Mary Shelley (author of Frankenstein), and other writers in 1800s. Later, art had drifted apart from medicine for about a century, then, the artists got to pay attention to the medicine again that boosted up the medical development. Aligned with this combination of two, today, we have a certain type of art that illustrates real human body through polymer preservation process using liquid silicon rubber. That body Plastination helps us understand the beauty of human/super-realistic description.

Artists have had an eager for an appreciation of human body and derived the ultimate beauty from it. Their trials just changed its form along with the development of technology, then, eventually artists' products conversely affected to medical research and findings. Art and Med-tech build mutually beneficial cooperative relationship.

Citations:

Leonardo Da Vinci the Scientist: New Show Reveals Anatomy of a Genius. Youtube. IBTimesTV, 30 Apr. 2012. Web. 26 Apr. 2015. <https://youtu.be/jMTJD5hTx4U>.

Lienhard, John H. "No. 301: Art and Dissection." No. 301: Art and Dissection. University of Houston, n.d. Web. 26 Apr. 2015. <http://www.uh.edu/engines/epi301.htm>.

Pappas, By Stephanie. "Human Body Part That Stumped Leonardo Da Vinci Revealed." LiveScience. TechMedia Network, 08 May 2012. Web. 26 Apr. 2015. <http://www.livescience.com/20157-anatomy-drawings-leonardo-da-vinci.html>.

"The Preservation Process." BODIES: The Exhibition. Premier Exhibition, n.d. Web. 26 Apr. 2015. <http://www.premierexhibitions.com/exhibitions/4/48/bodies-exhibition/preservation-process>.

Vesna, Victoria. “Http://www.youtube.com/v/Ep0M2bOM9Tk.” Lecture. Medicine pt1 . Youtube, 21 Apr. 2012. Web. 25 Oct. 2012. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ep0M2bOM9Tk>.

Robotics + Art (Week 3)

The development of technology, it definitely affected art and artists's work in some ways. Regarding to the advent of machinery technology, Benjamin Walter asserted in his essay that technology is changing art, just like our changing perceptions. Then, it gives us a question the worth of art if it's not original. Everything can be replicated, copied, and reproduced by anyone.

Early industrial society

The most prominent feature of industrialization that professor Vesna speaks about in the lecture would be "Mass production." As a result of development of machineries, things could be produced in a large amount in assembly line. For example, Henry Ford could be the representing figure that shows the mass production using assembly line; he made it possible to make way more cars in a short time utilizing high efficiency of production. How does this mass production apply to the change of art? 

Henry Ford's car assembly line

In fact, this social change also brought huge impact on art as well. Because of the mass production, many artworks and activities became not only for the privileged, but also for the general civilians. Everyone can access to artworks easily and also take part into the middle of production. Instead, according to the Davis's writing, since it is replicating tons of same art pieces, the original doesn't have that much of value that it had before. So it can be changed its form in many different ways by producing in volume through new pop art production techniques: Silk Screen. Aligned with this idea, Helena E. Wright, who wrote about graphic arts in industrialization, states the change in distribution and American perspectives on art. She said, "Prints in particular had the advantage of wider distribution at lower cost and therefore reached a larger public, helping to inform American attitudes about the process of industrialization ... influencing the public toward positive acceptance of an industrial way of life." (5)

          

 

     Silk Screen technique; pop art

However, this similarity brought by mass production caused skepticism among many artists who cherished the uniqueness and creativity of each person. Because of the industrialization, everybody as a whole was more important rather than each individual, then, individual's are not protected as themselves.  This time period's social conditions are well reflected through lenses in several films, for example, Oliver Twist. It illustrates one boy's story who lives in this dynamic time period. In the movie, in general, children in labor are not treated well as much as they are supposed to be. This is what mass production caused that each individuals are only recognized for all and totally replaceable.  

https://youtu.be/4aUGLJicck8

Many artist became to revolt against this ridiculous contemporary flow in art. That is what Benjamin Walter called, Dadaism. This movement(anti-war) refuses the existing art paradigm that laid stress on sales value of art, instead, follows the unusual values. Pursued difference and uniqueness. It destroyed the authoritative or elitism of art, which pursues radical form of art like putting toilet in the middle of museum that nobody would have expected ever. One type of it would be parody and the most outstanding artist in Dadaism is Marcel Duchamp who made, fountain. He followed different meaning of rationality and reasonability. He used a certain "objet" to reject the stereotype of it. It was later influenced a lot on many post-war European artists, especially pop artists. As what Kurt Schwitters said that everything an artist created is work of art, he chose ready-made as his source of artwork, then establish the concept of ready-made in art. It clearly showed one disobey against whole existing conventions that indicates the importance of one rather than all.  

Marcel Duchamp: Fountain

http://www.artyfactory.com/art_appreciation/art_movements/dadaism.htm

Citations:

Benjamin, Walter. The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction. London: Penguin, 2008. Print.

"Dadaism." ARTYFACTORY. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Apr. 2015. <http://www.artyfactory.com/art_appreciation/art_movements/dadaism.htm>.

Davis, Douglas. “The Work of Art in the Age of Digital Reproduction.” The MIT Press, 1995. Web. 19 Oct. 2012. <http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/1576221?uid=3739560&uid=2&uid=4&uid=3739256&sid=21101286048881>.

Helena E. Wright, IA. The Journal of the Society for Industrial Archeology Vol. 12, No. 2, IA IN ART (1986), pp. 5-18

Oliver Twist. Dir. Roman Polanski. Youtube. N.p., 7 Aug. 2013. Web. 19 Apr. 2015. <https://youtu.be/4aUGLJicck8>.

Vesna, Victoria. “Lecutre Part 2.” Robotics + Art. 19 Apr. 2015. Lecture.

Math + Art (Week 2)

Math and Art sounds like the most two extremely different concepts. However, in fact, math and art is quite relevant especially regarding to the geometry, symmetry, optic, and golden ratio. Based on these mathematical ideas and natural patterns, the more realistic drawing and artworks would be created no matter what the artist intended or not. From Henderson's article, she mentions the emergence of the fourth dimension by Einstein's Relative Theory. Motivated a lot by his theory, many artistic stereotype was completely broken that let them depart from visual reality and reject the one-point perspective system. How this is great can be seen in the novel, Flatland, that it's almost impossible for the dwellers in the flatland to imagine three-dimensional and additional world but trapped in their own second dimension. Art tries to cooperate with math to comprehend higher dimensions to liberate themselves.

In a similar way, professor Vesna said a study of mathematical forms and its signs is very critical for art as well. She picks Leonardo Da Vinci as one of the prominent figure who put the math and the art on the same line as a single concept. His drawings are mathematically well organized.

The Last Supper 

Vitruvian Man

This mathematical pattern is everywhere you go. The movie, Pi, claims the natural features of mathematics. In this regard, you can see tons of mathematical patterns everywhere. All the things you see can be represented as a number and patterns in nature. Ancient architectures such as Parthenon in Athene and Egyptian Pyramid are both built based on a certain mathematical rule of golden ratio; the vertical lines and dimensional patterns of this structure contains aesthetic value;

http://www.goldennumber.net/parthenon-phi-golden-ratio/

Today, you also can fine a collaboration of math and art. One of the example you can find out is "Mathematical Origami." This is just regarded to be a fun thing to do with a small sheet of paper. But, it also has its own mathematical patterns. Dr. Robert Lang, Mathematical Origami artist, argues that Origami used to be an folding paper before, but now, beyond what it used to be, it is mathematically more valuable. Origami's crease patterns could be an underlying blueprint for its figure: 2-colorability, any interior vertex: M - V = 2, alternate angles around the vertex, and no self-intersection at overlaps. Several math rules with folding one sheet of paper without cutting can lead to aesthetic beauty.

https://youtu.be/NYKcOFQCeno

Black Forest Cuckoo Clock.

The video, Origami Moment, additionally helps understanding of folding Origami and narrator highlights, "A wonderful aspects of Origami is that it brings together art and science." Here, the modular work of Origami eventually comes together to the polyhedron feature.

https://youtu.be/tVMgjIyBAPo

It was all interesting to connect math and art on the same line that helped me understand the art as a large patterns of nature. Without a mathematics, art wouldn't have had that complete form of beauty. In conclusion, mathematic, science, and art is all relevant in a certain way that contains a pattern no matter what in its expression. With a mathematical infrastructure, science can be emerged and develops several techniques, and other way, artistic aesthetics can be created through artworks. 

Citation:

Abbott, Edwin. “Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions.” N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Oct. 2012. <https://cole.uconline.edu/content>.

An Origami Moment. Youtube. KCET Online, 5 Sept. 2012. Web. 12 Apr. 2015. <https://youtu.be/tVMgjIyBAPo>.

Henderson, Linda. “The Fourth Dimension and Non-Euclidean Geometry in Modern Art.” N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Oct. 2012. <https://cole.uconline.edu/content>.

Meisner, Gary. "The Parthenon and Phi, the Golden Ratio." Phi 1618 The Golden Number. N.p., 20 Jan. 2013. Web. 13 Apr. 2015. <http://www.goldennumber.net/parthenon-phi-golden-ratio/>.

Pi Movie Trailer. Youtube. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Apr. 2015. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=oQ1sZSCz47w>.

Robert Lang: The Math and Magic of Origami. Perf. Robert Lang. Youtube. N.p., 31 July 2008. Web. 12 Apr. 2015. <https://youtu.be/NYKcOFQCeno>.

Vesna, Victoria. “Mathematics.” Lecture. CoLE DESMA 9. Web. <https://cole.uconline.edu/~UCLA-201209-12F-DESMA-9-1#l=Week-2-Assignment/id4287887>.

Two Cultures (Week 1)

As a Korean international student, I feel that the culture of the United States is pretty different from that of my homeland, (South) Korea. However, since I have been experienced American culture around for three years, even though still there were some parts that are still hard to adjust, I know that I gradually have become a part of this culture.

https://sites.google.com/a/ncsu.edu/alyssa-williams-sinn/french-culture

When it comes to the two culture, according to the Dr. Snow's article, there is a severance of the science culture and the humanity culture because of the lack of communication between the two. Each side of the intellectuals do not even try to understand the other and that is enlarging the gap. This disparity between one extreme literary intellectual and the opposite extreme science intellectual is quite influential to this society. 

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=387k_zunwME

The most of you might feel the same way as mine, the most distinctive "two culture" paradigm is to be shown in our UCLA campus. Our campus is mainly divided into North -- Humanities/Letters majors and South -- Science/ Engineering majors. No humanity classes are lectured on South campus and No science classes on North campus. As a political science major student, I've never visited South campus and didn't even need to. Learning an academic political strategies and theories (highly humanitarian parts), natural science is far from my interest and studies. UCLA campus shows this disparity very well. 

North Campus -- Humanities/ Art 

                    

                                        South Campus -- Natural Science/Engineering/Math

Star Wars Movie Scene

However, today, the clear disparity between two culture is closing, which is called, "The Third Culture." This new paradigm represents the literary scientists, or the art with technologies in the contemporary pop culture. In these days, many artistic culture is coming from technologies. Even though the two cultures were separate for a long time excluding each other in their fields. For example, a lot of sci-fi movies such as Star Wars or Transformer. They are definitely an artistic work but most of the content and basis is from science technologies. Also, Video art could be another typical combination of technology and the art. Utilizing diverse camerawork, it makes great masterpieces today. Nam June Paik, who is the Korean video artist, left outstanding video artworks before he passed away. 

Nam June Paik - Global Groove, 1973

https://youtu.be/7UXwhIQsYXY

Now I think that the concept of two culture has been already penetrated into the way of my thoughts. I naturally separated the humanities/art from the science regarding totally different two genres like oil and water. Furthermore, I realized that even if they were thought to be opposite in some ways, they also had been collaborated each other since before, which is good. By doing so, we could more diversely understand two culture separately and together as well. It can broaden my perspective to see my own studies of Political Science. From now on, I would try not to differentiate one from another that I used to do, but think them collaboratively so as "Consilience" to illuminate unique aspects of every each academic field. 

Citations

Snow, C. P. The Two Cultures and the Scientific Revolution. New York: Cambridge UP, 1959. Print.

Kelly, Kevin. "The Third Culture." The Third Culture. N.p., n.d. Web. Feb. 1998.

Humanities vs Science: Does One Score over the Other? Youtube. N.p., 16 Mar. 2015. Web. 5 Apr. 2015. <https://youtu.be/387k_zunwME>.

Global Groove, 1973. Dir. Nam J. Paik. Youtube. N.p., 1 Sept. 2010. Web. 5 Apr. 2015. <https://youtu.be/7UXwhIQsYXY>.

"South Korean VS American Culture - Alyssa Williams-Sinn." South Korean VS American Culture - Alyssa Williams-Sinn. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Apr. 2015. <https://sites.google.com/a/ncsu.edu/alyssa-williams-sinn/french-culture>.