Friday, June 8, 2018

Event Post 3

My friend's project
Wider view of showcase.
For my final event post I went to an event that was far more impactful than I realized it would be. I attended the UCLA Design and Media Arts Senior Showcase at the Broad building on campus. I was attending specifically to see a close friends project (pictured right), but also stayed to see the other students work. It was absolutely astonishing to see the powerful art that other students, the same age as me, were creating.
            The first thing that stood out to me at this showcase was the prevalence of technology in every project. This was the first time I had been surrounded by so much art created solely by members of my generation, so it was interesting to see the way that technology has woven itself into every facet of our lives. Students used cellphones, televisions, projectors, and even brainwave scanners to tie their piece together.
Bracelets from Kenya that were
part of my friends project.
Quotes from the book below.
More on that last piece of tech; a small girl sat in a chair with one chair across from her. Overhead were many paper lanterns hanging in a way that they nearly enclosed the two chairs. Every lantern had a single light inside, and the girl had a band around her head. This band could detect different brainwaves and would trigger a light to go off in one lantern based on the brainwave received. The girl documented her dreams over the last six years, and she would read you one of her dreams so you can see what type of neural response that emitted. All I could think of while participating was the potential that technology such as this can have on both art but society in general. The ability to understand, and potentially replicate, human brainwaves could be integral for progress with artificial intelligence.
I saw one other exhibit at the showcase that immediately reminded me of the Math + Art unit of this class. This exhibit was a replica of a mundane work station: a desk, chair, computer, a few cabinets, a calendar and little to no décor. There was one projector aimed at the work station, and the projection perfectly enveloped the space. Using projection mapping technology this artist was able to project different animals on different portions of the space, all using one projector. The cabinets, the desk, the calendar, even the sticky notes on the cabinets, all had their own perfectly sized projection. I spoke with the artist about the tech used to make this project a reality, and they spoke primarily about the difficulty with perfecting every angle to make the projection appear correctly. The math needed to account for the angle of the projector and angle of the props was challenging but rewarding according to the artist.

This event was more impactful than I expected it to be because I too am a graduating senior. It was genuinely awe-inspiring to see the work that students were creating and to be able to relate my knowledge from this class to something so intertwined with my own student experience.

References

“Math and Art: The Good, the Bad, and the Pretty.” Math and Art: The Good, the Bad, and the Pretty | Mathematical Association of America.

Wilson, Stephen D. “Myths and Confusions in Thinking about Art/Science/Technology.” College Art Association Meetings. New York, New York, 2000. Print

“Math and Art: The Good, the Bad, and the Pretty.” Math and Art: The Good, the Bad, and the Pretty | Mathematical Association of America, www.maa.org/meetings/calendar-events/math-and-art-the-good-the-bad-and-the-pretty.

Sunday, June 3, 2018

Week 9: Space + Art

Space has always been a source of intrigue and fear. Space is humanities last great unknown. Space is a point of infatuation for present day entertainment media. Black Mirror and Cosmos are just two examples of shows that entirely revolve around space and technology. While space is infused in modern artwork, there is also a level of artistry to the engineering that goes into exploring space. Take for example the work of Elon Musk. His company, SpaceX, is currently working on creating the first passenger spaceships capable of flying to mars. The team has found ways to hollow portions of the 157 foot body piece to keep the crafts weight low. Preparation for launch also requires artistic precision. Astronomers and scientists work tirelessly to determine the exact time to launch to catch gravitational orbits and “slingshot” the rocket. This method will be vital in creating ships that can reach planets as far as mars or even beyond in a reasonable amount of time.
            The way space has permeated pop culture has made it very interesting to see the disparities between artistic interpretations of future technologies and the actual progression of those technologies. Surprisingly, many predictions of space and the technologies that will propel us there. One example is Konstantin Tsiolkovsky who predicted societies ability to leave Earth’s orbit long before it was a scientific possibility. He also predicted the “overview effect” which increases astronauts global awareness after seeing Earth from space.


References

Amos, Jonathan. “Elon Musk's Falcon Heavy Rocket Launches Successfully.” BBC News, BBC, 7 Feb. 2018.

“Getting Rockets into Space.” Science Learning Hub.

Gorman, Alice. “Looking up a Century Ago, a Vision of the Future of Space Exploration.” The Conversation, The Conversation, 5 June 2018.

“Gravitational Slingshot.” Huygens' Principle.

Wall, Mike. “Elon Musk Shows Off 'Tool' for Mars-Colonizing Spaceship (Photo).” Space.com, Space.com, 9 Apr. 2018.



Sunday, May 13, 2018

Event Blog 2



For this event post I visited the Fowler Museum on UCLA’s own campus. The central theme of Fowler’s many exhibits was culture and how culture is infused into all artwork. A parallel I continually found myself making as I walked the halls of the Fowler related to our topic of the two cultures: art and science. Art serves as a form of expression for culture but is also a unifying factor across cultures. As I was walking around I couldn’t stop thinking about how art succeeds in uniting so many diverse cultures, but is so disparate from the culture of science. Until revisiting the first weeks material I was forgetting that at a time science and art were united fields, inseparable from one another. Then I realized that science and art are not two opposing cultures in practice, only in view. The world has stopped viewing science as a form of art, but that does not make the divide legitimate. If this class has taught me one thing it is that art is infused into everything we see and everything we do. Art is where you choose to see it. The precision of a doctors scalpel, the stroke of a paintbrush, the creation of a microchip, it is all art.
            The next thing that struck me in the Fowler related to technology and its interaction with art. Not exactly in the way that technology is art, but in the way that it enhances our ability to learn experience art. One exhibit in Fowler had disposable earphones that you could wear to be guided through the exhibit, learning about the artists intentions and all the intricate details about the art itself. There were also many exhibits that had a small silver telephone that you could hold to your ear to hear audio that was specifically created to accompany the art. In this way technology is allowing artists to expand the reach of their artwork. They can invoke more emotion by incorporating all of your senses while you interact with their works. Technology also helps the public to understand art. While it is important for every person to develop their own opinions and interpretations of artwork, it is very useful to hear the artist or a professional describe the background of a piece. Many studies have proven the important of arts education, an technology is directly influencing an improvement in the publics art education.

Works Cited

Charney, Noah. “The Art of Learning: Why Art History Might Be the Most Important Subject You Could Study Today.” Salon, Salon.com, 16 Jan. 2017



Snow, C. P. “Two Cultures and the Scientific Revolution.” Reading. 1959. New York: Cambridge UP, 1961. 

Print.

Snow, C.P. The Two Cultures: And a Second Look. N.p.: n.p., 1963. Print.

Robertson, Katrin Oddleifson. “How the Arts Can Help Struggling Learners.” PBS, Public Broadcasting Service, 25 May 2012.