Week 4: Medicine+Technology+Art

www.cctvcambridge.org

What I have learned from my four weeks in this course, and what has been reinforced with this weeks lecture material, is that art is far more expansive than most people realize. I would have never considered medicine a form of art, but when you break art down to its most simple components I realize that it is art. In its most basic respect, the act of surgery is an art requiring extreme precision.

It is much easier to see medicine’s relationship with art when looking at an art form such as plastic surgery. In this field doctors are directly affecting the human physical appearance and reshaping it to someone else’s desire. When this connection was first made I immediately remembered “The Lizard Man”, a man I had watched a documentary on who used plastic surgery and other body modifications to make himself look like a lizard. “Performance plastic surgery” was not an art form I had ever been exposed to, so at the time I didn’t think of his surgeries as art.

Lastly, I was surprised by the way medicine has influenced art outside of being an art form of its own. The invention of the MRI gave many artists a first look at the inside of a human body. Medicine has also had artistic influence as MRI and CAT Scans have been used in the creation of art. From brain-imaged self-portraits to VR experiences inside the human sternum, art has always been strongly influenced by medicine and medtech.  

            

Works Cited

Casini, Silvia. “Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) as Mirror and Portrait: MRI Configurations between Science and the Arts.” Configurations, vol. 19, no. 1, 2011, pp. 73–99., doi:10.1353/con.2011.0008. 

Herman, Joseph. “Medicine: the Science and the Art.” Medical Humanities, Institute of Medical Ethics, 1 June 2001, mh.bmj.com/content/27/1/42. 

“History, Present and Future of Medical Art.” Medical Art Through History | Vesalius, www.vesaliusfabrica.com/en/related-reading/karger-gazette/medical-art-through-history.html. 

Lecher, Colin. “Amazing Art Inspired By MRIs.” Popular Science, 5 June 2013, www.popsci.com/science/article/2013-06/amazing-art-inspired-mris. 

TEDxTalks. “Why Medicine Needs Art | Jill Sonke | TEDxUF.” YouTube, YouTube, 22 Apr. 2015, www.youtube.com/watch?v=23mve5S90Ws.

Casini, Silvia. “Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) as Mirror and Portrait: MRI Configurations between Science and the Arts.” Configurations, vol. 19, no. 1, 2011, pp. 73–99.

Herman, Joseph. “Medicine: the Science and the Art.” Medical Humanities, Institute of Medical Ethics, 1 June 2001

“History, Present and Future of Medical Art.” Medical Art Through History | Vesalius

Lecher, Colin. “Amazing Art Inspired By MRIs.” Popular Science, 5 June 2013

TEDxTalks. “Why Medicine Needs Art | Jill Sonke | TEDxUF.” YouTube, YouTube, 22 Apr. 2015

Casini, Silvia. “Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) as Mirror and Portrait: MRI Configurations between Science and the Arts.” Configurations, vol. 19, no. 1, 2011, pp. 73–99., doi:10.1353/con.2011.0008. 

Herman, Joseph. “Medicine: the Science and the Art.” Medical Humanities, Institute of Medical Ethics, 1 June 2001, mh.bmj.com/content/27/1/42. 

“History, Present and Future of Medical Art.” Medical Art Through History | Vesalius, www.vesaliusfabrica.com/en/related-reading/karger-gazette/medical-art-through-history.html. 

Lecher, Colin. “Amazing Art Inspired By MRIs.” Popular Science, 5 June 2013, www.popsci.com/science/article/2013-06/amazing-art-inspired-mris. 

TEDxTalks. “Why Medicine Needs Art | Jill Sonke | TEDxUF.” YouTube, YouTube, 22 Apr. 2015, www.youtube.com/watch?v=23mve5S90Ws.

Week 3: Robotics + Art

http://time.com/5183713/amazon-alexa-down-outage/

As we continue to advance technologically, robots are slowly creeping into our daily lives. One specific example which has been gaining popularity over the last year are smart speakers like the Amazon Alexa or Google Home. These speakers are voice controlled robots which you can talk to, give commands to, ask questions, or play games with. They’re basically like electronic personal assistants. And while they are popular, I think a lot of people take for granted the fact that they have an early form of artificial intelligence in their home as a companion.

While in-home technological advances, like smart speakers, are useful and fascinating, further robot development by companies like Boston Dynamics give us a glimpse into what our future with robots may look like. Boston Dynamics has released numerous videos over the last few years showing off their creations, mainly their four-legged and two-legged androids which look like dogs and humans respectively. Watching these machines move and complete tasks is eerie because they look alive, a trait which previously hasn’t been captured in robotics very often. As our technology continues to advance, it is not too far-fetched to think the tech like that from smart speakers and Boston Dynamics could combine to create humanoid robotic assistants or other sci-fi type creations.

This rapid progress may be startling or scary to some, but our society has been getting ready for it for years. It can be clearly seen in our cultural fascination with science fiction, such as in the movies I, Robot, Transformers, or Ready Player One. It seems as though people can’t wait to get their hands on future technology, and with our rate of advancement, they may not have to wait for very long.

References

Benjamin, Walter. The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction. Prism Key Press, 2010.

BostonDynamics. YouTube, YouTube, 12 Feb. 2018, www.youtube.com/watch?v=fUyU3lKzoio.

“Boston Dynamics.” Boston Dynamics Is Changing Your Idea of What Robots Can Do. | Boston Dynamics, www.bostondynamics.com/.

Brooks, Rodney. “Robots Will Invade Our Lives.” TED2003. TED2003.

“Echo & Alexa Devices.” Robot Check, www.amazon.com/Amazon-Echo-And-Alexa-Devices/b?ie=UTF8&node=9818047011.

Event Blog 1

For my first event I attended The Hammer Museum in Westwood. It was my first time visiting so I was happy to be able to try and associate the lessons learned thus far in class with the art I saw. The very first exhibit we saw, the Lawrence Abu Hamden Exhibit, very clearly reflected ideas from our Math + Art section. Hamden spoke with survivors of a prison in Syria where all prisoners were kept in complete silence, but the structure of the building allowed them to hear others being tortured or entering/leaving the building. Hamden used the sounds they had heard to draw sketches of what the prison may have looked like. The precision needed to construct these architectural images, especially using only sounds and memories, requires delicate attention to angles and math.

The next exhibit I visited was similar in its use of technology and science in creating an environment that will effect viewers. Pictured below, this exhibit counted down to zero while beautiful images of sunsets and oceans played in the background. When the timer reached zero the screen abruptly changed to drag queens dancing and singing. What struck me most about this exhibit as well as the aforementioned one was the use of technology. As I walked around The Hammer I noticed how many artists are incorporating science into their pieces. This seems to mirror a trend in society that is constantly moving more towards digitization and hi-tech.

References

Tyson, Peter. “Describing Nature With Math.” PBS, Public Broadcasting Service, 10 Nov. 2011, www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/physics/describing-nature-math.html.

Vesna, Victoria. “Toward a Third Culture: Being in Between.” Leonardo 34.2 (2001): 121-25. Web.

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

Week 2: Math + Art

https://www.artsy.net/article/

Math and art are viewed as two of the most disparate fields from one another. Before this weeks lecture, I had never given much thought to their intersection and had never been intellectually challenged to find where the two processes coalesce. The most interesting facet of this weeks discussion was the history behind math and art. Hundreds of years before today artists were meticulously studying the relations and geometries of life to perfect their work. "Most realistic art aims to depict a three-dimensional world on a two-dimensional canvas. The geometry of the situation becomes clear if we think of the canvas as a plane and the artist’s eye as a point..." (Math and Art: The Good, the Bad, and the Pretty). Today, we see artists who have successfully captured life in their work, but we dont consider the complex mathematical relationships exist in nature and must be recreated. As a kid I would spend hours looking through my grandma's book of M.C. Escher's greatest works. I was in awe of the optical illusions, but the intricate mathematics required to create such a piece never occured to me. 

https://www.goldennumber.net/face/

Similar to the way we have disconnected art and math, we have disconnected math and nature. Math is so engrained in art because math is engrained in nature. All things can be described with math. Even the human face's composition is dictated by the golden ratio. 

References

Lemle, Natalie. “How M.C. Escher Transfixed the World with His Mind-Bending Works.” Artsy, 21 Mar. 2018, www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-mc-eschear-transfixed-mind-bending-works.

    “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.

    Meisner, Gary. “The Human Face and the Golden Ratio.” Goldennumber.net, 31 May 2012, www.goldennumber.net/face/.

    “Nature by Numbers (Fibonacci Sequence & The Golden Ratio).” YouTube, YouTube, 5 Oct. 2010, www.youtube.com/watch?v=aB_KstBiou4.

    Tyson, Peter. “Describing Nature With Math.” PBS, Public Broadcasting Service, 10 Nov. 2011, www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/physics/describing-nature-math.html.

Week 1: Two Cultures

The writings "Toward a Third Culture" and "Two Cultures and the Scientific Revolution" struck a very relevant chord with me. Something I have been giving much thought to recently was my own lack of arts education. In the past years I have grown more dedicated to my pursuits of health and mindfulnesses, and my path keeps finding its way back to art. Lately, I have used art as a creative outlet, a calming activity, and a source for inspiration. My late understanding into how beneficial art can be in progress and growth drove me to this question, "why didn't I learn this sooner?". As I've learned through these readings and other materials used for this lecture, the main factor is the separation of science and art into disparate fields at opposition with one another.

http://artofmiami.com/2012/

To be completely honest, until

http://www.universitytimes.ie/2013/10/

http://www.danpink.com/books/whole-new-mind/

reading Vesna's "Toward a Third Culture" I did not know there was ever a time when science and art were considered similar. I was shocked to read that the divide had its "beginnings in the Romantic Period, at the turn of the nineteenth century" (Vesna, 121). My modern education led me to believe science and art were fields as far apart as two could be. My education also engrained in my mind that scientific knowledge was better than creative knowledge. In class, the student who performs well academically succeeds, there isn't even a metric to test a students creative abilities. Sixteen years into my education and I find myself with a wealth of knowledge but a distinct lack of creativity and artistic ability. This lack of creativity deprives my academic pursuits when I can only look for solutions in places I have been. I was taught it was because I was not a creative; I even read a book entitled "Why Right Brainers Will Rule the Future" which explained how creatives will run the future but I do not control whether I am a "right-brained, creative". I am slowly unlearning this logic and utilize all aspects of my intelligence to succeed. As C.P. Snow highlighted, the future is a culture between the literary and scientific intellectuals, and that cultural bridge is art.

References:

Pink, Daniel H. A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future. MC, Marshall Cavendish, 2012.

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.

Vesna, Victoria. “Toward a Third Culture: Being in Between.” Leonardo 34.2 (2001): 121-25. Web.

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