Space and Art

    This week we talked about space and art, which is a comprehensive topic that contains so many fields we have discussed before, such as nano tech, bio tech, mathematics and robotics. By going through this week's material, I'm impressed by the beauty of the space and human's effort in exploring the space.
    The video of "Powers of Ten" shows me the power of mathematics again. It depicts the relative scale of the universe according to an order of magnitude based on a factor of ten, first expanding out from the Earth until the entire universe is surveyed, then reducing inward until a single atom and its quarks are observed. From a field of view of 10^24 meters or the size of the observable universe to 10^-16 meters or quarks in a proton of a carbon, the scale of ten only cover a range of 40, but the scope has covered everything from the universe to the micro world. That's the magic power of mathematics! It reminds me of the wheat and chessboard problem: if a chessboard were to have wheat placed upon each square such that one grain were place on the first square, two on the second, four on the third, and so on (doubling the number of grains on each subsequent square), how many grains of wheat would be on the chessboard at the finish? Similarly, here we can find that even by just doubling or multiplying an insignificant number in your opinion, the result can be surprising. We all know that mathematics, art, and science are in juxtaposition. They are inseparable. Knowing math better can help us understand the universe better.
    The film not only gives me a general understanding of the scale of the universe, but also makes me think about the literature of Pale Blue Dot. Pale Blue Dot is a photograph of planet Earth taken by Voyager 1 space probe from a record distance of about 6 million kilometers. In the photo, Earth's apparent size is less that a pixel. The planet appears as a tiny dot against the vastness of space, among bands of sunlight scattered by the camera's optics. It's hard to believer that the world we live in is so tiny and even insignificant compared to the whole universe, but it is also amazing that all the life, all the people and things we love and care about is in this unique planet, so we should appreciate and treasure Earth more. Human put so much effort in exploring the space, the purpose is not only to understand our living environment in the universe, but also to reflect the truth that our planet is one of a kind. It is also a progress of understand ourselves in a better way.




work cited 

"Powers of ten." Youtube. Eames Office, 26 Aug 2010. Web. 29 May 2015. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0fKBhvDjuy0>

 Vensa, Victoria. "Space Exploration Plus Art." Youtube. Uconlineprogram, 29 Jul 2013. Web. 29 May 2015. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLZMDpoP-u0> 

 Vensa, Victoria. "Space Exploration Plus Art Intro." Youtube. Uconlineprogram, 29 Jul 2013. Web. 29 May 2015. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2dPAmpBiVHY> 

Sagan, Carl. "Pale Blue Dot." Youtube. CarlSaganPortal, 24 Mar 2009. Web. 29 May 2015. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2dPAmpBiVHY> 

"Earth Right Now." National Aeronautics and Space Administration. 13 Apr 2015. Web. 29 May 2015. <http://www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/overview/index.html>

Event 3: "Singular Spaces: From the Eccentric to the Extraordinary in Spanish Art Environments"

        I visited the exhibition of "Singular Space: From the Eccentric to the Extraordinary in Spanish Art Environments" in Fowler Museum at UCLA last week. It is a photographs exhibition by Jo Frab Hernandez, the director of the Thompson Art Gallery at San Jose State University and of the Spaces archives.  She document the monumental art environments of eight self taught artists from across Spain. After viewing all the photographs, I feel like I have been through an amazing trip to Spain. I not only get a chance to the enjoy the beautiful view of Spain but also learn about the art environment and atmosphere in Spain, from which I can compare the art environment of other cities that I have been to. 

        The exhibition is comprised of photos of idiosyncratic and intriguing sculptures, gardens, and building. These sites developed organically without formal architectural or engineering plans. Created and inspired by folk artists, they are usually highly fanciful and colorful. They are frequently characterized by incongruous juxtapositions. This is the result of the artists finding inspiration in their surroundings and making do with what is available. They show the infinite creativity of the local artists making best use of the nature. The process of these artists is always ongoing and improvisational, and the spaces they create are at once evolving and complete.

        The most impressive artist to me is Peter Buch from La Pobla de Benifassa, Castello. He found an end-of-the-road refuge in the mountains of Catellon and decided to try his hand at sculpture. Drawn to the rocky landscape, he started by creating small buildings with the rocks found on site, adding earth and small stones to set them and smooth out the shapes. Then he covered this infrastructure with concrete mortar, adding bits of broken tiles to ornament his structures. Buch never plans his work in advance, and he prefers to work spontaneously. As of summer 2014, he has created eight buildings and hundreds of animals and figures, population more than 8.6 acres with color, humor, and flash.

        His artwork reminds me of the Fremont Troll in Seattle that I visited during the spring break of last year. Fremont Troll is a mixed media colossal statue with 5.5m height and 6000kg weight located under the Aurora Bridge. The giant sculpture is clutching an actual Volkswagen Beetle. Similarly to the artwork of Peter Buch, the Troll was also sculpted by local artists in Seattle.

        These city sculptures created by local artists show the close relationship between art and city. They again prove the harmony of human and nature. Artists gain inspiration from the nature and their surrounding, and create arts that fit into the nature. These sculptures are usually interactive -- visitors are encourage to interact with them. For example, both of the monumental building in the shape of a head by Peter Buch and the Fremont Troll in Seattle encouraged visitor to clamber on. 

        Another inspiration to me after I visited this exhibition is about the author herself of the exhibition -- I really admire Jo Frab Hernandez. To make this exhibition, she crisscrossed Spain from 2000 to 2014, traveling tens of thousands of kilometers to meet and interview the artists and document their work. It is her enthusiasm to art and her love to Spain that motivate her to spend 14 years focusing on one field just to let people know more about the art environment in Spain. And her work is worthy, because after visiting this exhibition, I'm really fascinated to Spain and I want to travel to Spain one day by myself. In a nutshell, I really recommend my classmates to go to this event.

work cited 

 "Singular Spaces: From the Eccentric to the Extraordinary in Spanish Art Environments." Fowler Museum at UCLA. Regents of the University of California. Web. 28 May 2015.<http://fowler.ucla.edu/exhibitions/singular-spaces-eccentric-extraordinary-spanish-art-environments> 

 "The Fremont Troll." RoadsideAmerica. Web. 28 May 2015.<http://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/2236>  

Event 2: "Making Strange: Gagawaka + Postmortem"

    I visited the "Making Strange: Gagawaka + Postmortem" exhibition by Delhi-based contemporary artist Vivan Sundaram in Fowler museum last week. Just by looking at the name of the exhibition, I don't know what Vivan tries to express, but after I visited by myself, I found out that it is a really interesting exhibition. 
    The exhibition is combined by two bodies of work -- Gagawaka and it is presented in dialogue with Postmortem. Gagawaka is comprised of twenty-seven sculptural garments made from recycled materials and medical supplies to evoke a playful yet subversive relationship to fashion, haute couture, the runway, and the brand. My favorite work is the one called "ziparound" made in 2011. It is a red and green dress made by zippers and cotton fabric. It makes me think about the definition of fashion. Nowadays people are getting used to those delicate and well-made haute couture on T stage using expensive fabric such as fur and jewelry. In most people's opinion, the common definition of fashion of haute couture usually relates to their cost. For example, when actresses attend fashion week, they dress up with luxury and eye-catching apparel that usually customized from Louis Vuitton, Chanel, Burberry, etc., and that will be considered as the fashion of the year. However, people seldom think about that fashion can be also made from material in our daily life, just like the artwork from Vivan Sundaram. It is hard to make any connection between haute couture and our daily use material such as foam cups, surgical masks, x-ray-film, hospital bandages, foil pill wrappings, and more. But Vivan's own fictional brand and line of “strange” haute couture make use of recycled materials and medical supplies to make highly inventive garments. Gagawaka make me rethink about the definition of fashion and the use of our daily materials.
    Also, the way that Gagawaka is presented is thought-provoking too -- It is the theme of Postmortem, a collection of haunting sculptural objects comprised of mannequins, tailor's dummies, wooden props, and anatomical models. Postmortem questions the spectacle of Gagawaka with a wider set of commentaries about the human body and social concerns related to aging and illness. What's the relationship between fashion, model, aging, and illness. It reminds me of the plastic surgery we have talked about during our lecture. People always think flawlessness as beauty. When wrinkle appear, people are anxious and try everything to slow down aging, such as injecting Botox. But what people usually ignore is the beauty of natural growth of human body. The presentation of Postmortem make me think about beauty and illness, pleasure and pain, life and death.
    Bringing these two projects together expands their meanings and aesthetic effects. In Making Strange, Sundaram capture the inseparability of fashion, or clothing, and the human body. All in all, I recommend my classmates to go to this exhibition.

work cited

 "Making Strange: Gagawaka Postmortem by Vivan Sundaram." Fowler Museum at UCLA. Regents of the University of California. Web. 28 May 2015.<http://www.fowler.ucla.edu/exhibitions/making-strange-gagawaka-postmortem-vivan-sundaram>

Vensa, Victoria. "Human Body and Medical Technology: Part 3." Youtube. Uconlineprogram, 22 Apr. 2012. Web. 28 May 2015. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FIX-9mXd3Y4>.

Event1: “Provocations: The Architecture and Design of Heatherwick Studio”

        I visited the exhibition of “Provocations: The Architecture and Design of Heatherwick Studio” at Hammer museum this weekend. The studio is started by a famous British designer Thomas Heatherwick, a genius for the uniquely creative nature of his work including large public and private architectural projects around the world, and small products such as handbag with design concepts.

       In the exhibition, I saw a lot of inventive design of architectures that impressed me a lot. I really like how the Heatherwick Studio combines practical concepts with natural factors when they design all the architectures. The designers endow their spirits of the harmony of man and nature into the building for the blend of the ancient and the iron-and-cement-made metropolis. For example, how can a traditional Chinese moon bridge meet today’s standards of accessibility? The Heatherwick studio adapted the elegant S-curves of historical Chinese moon bridges, but unlike a conventional drawbridge, this bridge is crossable in any position – up, down, or in between – visually accentuate the bridge’s transformative movement. This is allowed by a unique mechanized structure that rolls up into a circular snail-like form. The bridge is as beautiful when spanning the channel as when raised for water traffic.

        Also the Al Fayah Park built in 2010 in Abu Dhabi. The project evolved as a series of cracked pieces of the desert surface raised on columns to form a gentle dome across the site. If view from the top, it looks like huge pieces of earth cracks from the heat of the sun which embraced the idea of celebrating the beauty of the desert that the city is built on and its distinct surrounding landscape. These elevated pieces create a perforated canopy of partial shade under which a lush garden can grow, protected from the harsh excesses of the hot desert sun. It is a good place for families to gather and picnic, as well as a place for learning and festivals. Again, the Al Fayah Park fully embodies the idea of the harmony between man and nature.

        Engaging in a collaborative iterative design process, the studio asks questions, poses provocations, tests ideas, and makes models and prototypes to arrive at the best solution. As Thomas Heatherwick says, “people touch, experience, and live in the world”. In a nutshell, I highly recommend my classmates to go to this exhibition!

       

works cited 

 "Provocations: The Architecture and Design of Heatherwick Studio." HAMMER, 20 Feb. 2015. Web. 20 May 2015. <http://hammer.ucla.edu/exhibitions/2015/provocations-the-architecture-and-design-of-heatherwick-studio/> 

 "Al Fayah Park." Heatherwick Studio. Web. 21 May 2015. <http://www.heatherwick.com/al-fayah-park/> 

NanoTech and Art

    This week we talk about nanotechnology and art. Before, I barely make any connection of nanotechnology with my daily life because I can't see things in a nano scale, but actually we are all exposed to the nano world, which is also a world of art. After this week's lecture, I'm surprised by the beauty of the nano world.

    Let's first look at the spherical fullerene which is also called buckyball because it resembles soccer. It has a cage-like fused-ring structure. The amazing structure contains 32 faces with 20 hexagons and 12 pentagons that satisfies isolated pentagon rule in mathematic aspect. On the other hand, the sophisticated structure is in a nano scale which is the scale of 10^-9 meters! We can see the relationship between nano scale and normal scale in reality with geodesic dome structure popularized by architect Richard Buckminster Fuller. It is extremely strong for its weight and has the largest volume with the least surface area. The geodesic dome is also envisioned to be used in all types of structure like houses, cars and museums. Once again, nano structure is not only closely related to mathematics but also to art.
 
    In addition, I'm impressed by how particle's properties will change in a nano scale. Nanoscale gold illustrates the unique properties that occur at the nanoscale. Nanoscale gold particles are not the yellow color which we are familiar but appear to be red or purple. Such property is shown even in some ancient materials such as the British Lycurgus cup, which changes color from the opaque green cup to a glowing translucent red when light is shone through it. Also, the size and optical properties can be put to practical use. For instance, the nanoscale gold particles selectively accumulate in tumors where they can enable both precise imaging and targeted laser destruction of the tumor by means that avoid harming healthy cells. This nanotechnology reminds me that the topic of "MedTech and Art" several weeks ago.  
     Nanoscale world is an amazing field that is worth to be explored further, and nanotechnology not only appears anywhere in our daily life but also inspires people on artworks.

Work Cited

Gimzewski. James K. "Introduction to Nanotechnology for Artists" Youtube. Uconlineprogram, 21 May 2012. Web. 21 May 2015. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7jM6-iqzzE>

Gimzewski. James K. "Introduction to Nanotechnology for Artists Part2" Youtube. Uconlineprogram, 21 May 2012. Web. 21 May 2015. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HEp6t0v-v9c>

"Programmable Bio-Nano-Chip as Medical Diagnostic Tool." Nanowiki. Tiddlywiki, 20 Feb. 2011. Web. 21 May 2015.
<http://nanowiki.info/#%5B%5BProgrammable%20Bio-Nano Chip%20as%20Medical%20Diagnostic%20Tool%5D%5D>

Gimzewski. James K. "Introduction to Nanotechnology for Artists Part4" Youtube. Uconlineprogram, 21 May 2012. Web. 21 May 2015. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHCuZetAIhk>

"New nano particles make blood clots visible." Nanowiki. Tiddlywiki, 07 Feb. 2011. Web. 21 May 2015.<http://nanowiki.info/#%5B%5BNew%20nanoparticles%20make%20blood%20clots%20visible%5D%5D>

Neuroscience + Art

    I am really interested about this week's topic of neuroscience and art, because neuroscience look into the mind and discover the relationship between consciousness and unconsciousness. Also it studies the powerful field of mind control. It is amazing to think about that the nanoscale neurons in your brain actually have optimized tree-shape to communicate with each other and that's how govern your mind and therefore your body, so study of neuron can explain every human activity, personality and behavior in the world.

  

    I'm impressed by the technique of Brainbow which visualizes individual neuron by using fluorescent proteins. The resulting image is really striking and colorful. It is a great piece of artwork. Like what Santiago Ramon y Cajal, a great scientist and artist who draw so many iconic pictures of neuron that still used in textbooks nowadays, says that "only artists are attractive to science and originally want to be an artist", science is the source of inspiration of art. The study of neuroscience allows artists to create artworks like Brainbow that help people understand nervous system better in return. Once again we can see how closely art and science are related. 

    I'm also interested in the study of dream. Dream is a way to travel through time and space, and it represents human's unlimited power of imagination.The unconscious mind can be seen as the source of dreams. Unlike other skills that people gain during school or from society, dream is a psychic archetype that endowed with everybody since the birth. A great deal of complex cognitive processing occurs at the unconscious level and affects how humans behave, think, and feel. This reminds me of the movie Inception: the characters in the movie can change people's mind by idea implantation.  Therefore we can see the relationship between consciousness and unconsciousness. To study the boundary between them leads to a lots of research related to neuroscience which is a board and promising field.

Work Cited

 Vensa, Victoria. "Consciousness/Memory." Youtube. Uconlineprogram, 17 May 2012. Web. 15 May 2015. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TzXjNbKDkYI>

 Vensa, Victoria. "Unconscious Mind and Drean" Youtube. Uconlineprogram, 17 May 2012. Web. 16 May 2015. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TFv4owX3MZo> 

 Berlin, Heather A. "The Neural Basis of the Dynamic Unconscious." Neuropsychoanalysis. Nyu, 13 Jan. 2011. Web. 15 May 2015.<http://www.nyu.edu/gsas/dept/philo/faculty/block/papers/BerlinTreatment.pdf> 

 Vensa, Victoria. "Neuroscience and Art" Youtube. Uconlineprogram, 16 May 2012. Web. 17 May 2015. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E5EX75xoBJ0> 

 DeCharms, Christopher. "A Look inside the Brain in Real Time." TED. TED Conference, 1 Feb. 2008. Web. 17 May 2015. <http://www.ted.com/talks/christopher_decharms_scans_the_brain_in_real_time?language=en> 

BioTech + Art

    This week we talked about biotechnology and art. It is amazing to see how closely biotechnology is related to art. Such as Joe David's work in the field of "space art", if we look at the printing technology when it is first invented and then to the application of publishing and finally to the application of genetic engineering that go out of the space, we will be surprised of the development of bioart.
    The use of transgenics, mutilation, mutation, recombinant or selective breeding as an artistic technique inspires people to think about the relationship between biotechnology and art, and therefore help people to better understand cultural ideas around scientific knowledge and inform critique of the ethical and cultural issues of life manipulation. The SymbioticA, which is an artistic research lab founded in 2000, impressed me a lot. It offers a new means of artistic inquiry where artists actively use the tools and technologies of science, not just to comment about them but also to explore their possibilities. Like the fish and chips project which later evolved into MEART - the semi living artist. This project also combines robotics and art: It uses neurons from goldfish as 'wetware' to control a robotic drawing arm. The project focuses on creating the artist instead of the artwork. It leads us to think about what is creativity and what creates value in art. The eeaning inherent in the use of biotech as an artistic technique.

    Human's creativity is limitless. With the aid of our newly acquired knowledge of life processes,  such as the ability to cut and paste genes from different organisms, the possibility of coercing living functional tissue (outside of an organism) to grow and behave according to human determined plans, and the prospect of designing artificial genes, artists are now exploring the new knowledge and tools offered by modern biology to manipulate and create living and semi-living works of art.
    Although there is some debate about bioart as creating living beings and practicing in the life sciences brings about ethical, social, and aesthetic inquiry, bioart- which is often shocking or humorous- is leading us to discover more overlap between art and biotechnology. The embodiment of biology and the machine creativity emerging from a semi-living entity shows the meaning inherent in the use of biotech as an artistic technique. From an historical context, artist always concerned about imitating life and giving life qualities to non-living entities. Technology especially the biotech has joined forces with art forms to create more sophisticated types of artificial life systems.

work citation

 Vensa, Victoria. "Biotechnology and Art." Youtube. Uconlineprogram, 18 Sept. 2013. Web. 9 May 2015. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PaThVnA1kyg>

 Vensa, Victoria. "Biotechnology and Art Part 2." Youtube. Uconlineprogram, 17 May 2012. Web. 9 May 2015. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MdSt-Hjyi2I&list=PL9DBF43664EAC8BC7> 

 "Joe David: Genesthetics." Design|Media Art: Genetics and Culture. Viewingspace. Web. 8 May 2015.<http://www.viewingspace.com/genetics_culture/pages_genetics_culture/gc_w03/davis_joe.htm>

Vensa, Victoria. "Biotechnology and Art Part 4." Youtube. Uconlineprogram, 17 May. 2012. Web. 9 May<https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PL9DBF43664EAC8BC7&v=2qSc72u9KhI#t=121>

 Schuler, Barry. "Barry Schuler: Genomics 101." TED. TED Conference, 1 June 2008. Web. 8 May 2015. <http://www.ted.com/talks/barry_schuler_genomics_101?language=en#t-1131907>