Week 4: Medicine, Technology, and Art

This week we explored medicine, technology, and art. At first, I found Professor Vesna’s lectures to be the most helpful for understanding the overall relationship between the three topics. I especially enjoyed the portion of the lecture when she talked about how plastic surgery. I had no idea that plastic surgery had been around for over 4,000 years and that it came from the Greek word plasticos, which means to give form to or to shape. I always thought of plastic surgery as a vain procedure that rich people in Beverly Hills get to make themselves feel better. However, after this lecture I now see the artistic side to it. Plastic surgeons are not only doctors but they are also artists. 

I found Orlan’s use of plastic surgery as an art medium to be a little off-putting at first. It upset me a little that she would choose to operate on herself just to entertain people. As I looked into her work more however, I learned that her goal through her work is to confront the social and cultural pressures that people are put under in todays society. I like how she questions these pressures by using not only art but science and medicine also.

Orlan’s work helped me understand the more artistic side of this weeks unit and learning about Professor Kevin Warwick’s work helped me understand the more scientific and medical side. Warwick is a Professor of Cybernetics and is first person to make major advances in becoming a cyborg himself. He has implanted a neuro-surgical chip into his arm that links his nervous system to a high tech computer that can allow him to do things without physically acting on them. With his neuro-surgical chip Warwick can maneuver a wheelchair and control an artificial hand all by using his brain. His advances in this type of technology have also helped identify “the onset of Parkinsonian tremors such that they can be stopped by means of a deep brain implant” (Warwick).

Another interesting art installation that I found helpful when exploring the artistic side of this unit was the gallery of Osmoboxes created by Eduardo Kac. Kac uses boxes that release a smell whenever an audience approaches. I enjoyed this installation because it focused on using a different sense than what we normally associated art with.

Work Cited

"Gallery For Orlan Surgery." Gallery For Orlan Surgery. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Apr. 2015. <http://imgarcade.com/1/orlan-surgery/>.

"Harold Gillles Plastic Surgery Archives from WWI | Findmypast.com."Harold Gillles Plastic Surgery Archives from WWI | Findmypast.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Apr. 2015. 

Kac, Eduardo. "OSMOBOXES." OSMOBOXES. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Apr. 2015. <http://www.ekac.org/osmobox.html>.

"Kevin Warwick - Home Page." Kevin Warwick - Home Page. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Apr. 2015. <http://www.kevinwarwick.org/>.

McClimans, Fred. "Is That a Chip in Your Shoulder, or Are You Just Happy to See Me?" CNN. Cable News Network, 2 Sept. 1998. Web. 26 Apr. 2015. <http://www.cnn.com/TECH/computing/9809/02/chippotent.idg/index.html>.

"ORLAN OFFICIAL WEBSITE / SITE OFFICIEL D'ORLAN."BIOGRAPHY/Biographie. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Apr. 2015. <http://www.orlan.eu/biography/>.

Week 3: Robotics and Art

There are two sides to robotics that we learned about this week. One side, the mass production aspect, was brought about by the industrial revolution in the mid 1800’s. The other side incoorperates more of an art aspect and therefore makes the robots more life-like. Two movies that I feel show an appropriate response that society has to industrialization and robotics are Metropolis (1927) and I, Robot (2004). The film Metropolis portrays industrialization as dangerous to the workers in society.

Scene from Metroplois when the machine that runs the city destructs and kills many workers.

Metropolis 1927

In todays world we rely heavily on robots and machines that mass produces things that we need in our everyday life. In an article from The Washington Post by Vivek Wadhwa he says that we are headed towards a jobless future. He continues to say "The technologies that make such abundance possible are allowing production of far more output using far fewer people."

Although the machines used today are not physically dangerous towards those who run them they are still dangerous in that they are taking away opportunites from those who need to find work.

I found the industrialization part of robotics to be interesting but I enjoyed learning about the art side of robotics more. One of my favorite scince-fiction movies is I, Robot so as soon as I started to read about robotics for this unit I immeditaly thought of it. Although some of the most innovative robots that have been created are not yet as sophisticated as those in I, Robot many people are not waiting to voice their concerns about more advance robotics. For example, Nicola Davis writes about the ethical issues brought about by robots saying that "artificial intelligence is poised to revolutionise our lives." Thinking about the artifical intelligence and life-like aspect of robotics made me wonder if further advancement in the field will be more helpful or harmful to the human race. In most robot movies, such as I, Robot, the robots turn against and attempt to take over the humans. I believe that this is just a popular science fiction plot and that robots could never actually take over the world. However, I do find advancements in robotics very exciting and we will just have to wait and see what happens with them in the future. For right now they are just learning how to walk and how to throw a ball so I think the human race is safe.

QRIO robots by Sony

Works Cited

Davis, Nicola. "Smart Robots, Driverless Cars Work – but They Bring Ethical Issues Too." The      Guardian. N.p., 19 Oct. 2013. Web. 20 Apr. 2015.

"Metropolis Photo: Metropolis." Metropolis. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Apr. 2015.

"Metropolis: All New Restoration." Metropolis: All New Restoration. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Apr. 2015.

Wadhwa, Vivek. "We're Heading into a Jobless Future, No Matter What the Government Does." Washington Post. The Washington Post, 21 July 2014. Web. 20 Apr. 2015.

Winterstein, Daniel. "Searching for Intelligence in Edinburgh." • The Register. N.p., 5 Aug. 2005. Web. 20 Apr. 2015.

Week 2: Math and Art

Growing up I was one of the kids that Professor Vesna talked about in her video lecture that had a bad math teacher that lead me away from excelling in math. However, I always enjoyed art and had many good art teachers that I learned a lot from. One thing that I always struggled with when drawing though was perspective. One of the first artists to record how to correctly portray perspective was Albretcht Durer. Not only did he use geometric processes to figure out how to properly create perspective he also "illustrated his book with a set of woodcut showing practical tools for accurate perspective drawing" (Anamorphic Art). Below is an example of a piece of work done by Durer that shows appropriate perspective. He used the tools that he mentioned in his book to create this piece of artwork.

Painting showing the use of lines and geometric shapes to help show perspective.

The reading Flatland, by Edwin A. Abbott gave another interesting look on perspective that I had not considered prior by using all three dimensions that are apart of our universe. This reading gave a precise and simple example of how perspective changes by using geometric shapes. The example Flatland gives is explained as followed: "Fig. 1 represents the Tradesman as you would see him while you were bending over him from above; figs. 2 and 3 represent the Tradesman, as you would see him if your eye were close to the level, or all but on the level of the table; and if your eye were quite on the level of the table (and that is how we see him in Flatland) you would see nothing but a straight line" (Abbott).

Although I admire those early artists who first began to use perspective in their artwork, this week I became very intrigued by mathematical origami of Robert J. Lang. He and other origami artist do not only make extremely detailed, beautiful sculptures by using paper, their medium also "can be (and have been) pressed into service to solve technological problems ranging from consumer products to the space program" (Lang). 

                 

Not only is origami a super cool form of art but it also requires a very deep understanding of mathematical geometric methods. These methods create beautiful and complex works of art and these same mathematical methods can be used in more scientific areas of the world. To me origami represented the relationship between art and math perfectly.

Works Cited

 "Amazing Examples of PAPER ORIGAMI." Amazingpunch. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Apr. 2015.

"Anamorphic Art." Anamorphic Art. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Apr. 2015.

"Flatland A Romance of Many Dimensions." Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Apr. 2015.

"Origami Curler Ball." By Pecatrix on DeviantArt. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Apr. 2015.

"Robert J. Lang Origami." Robert J. Lang Origami. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Apr. 2015.

Week 1: Art and Science

I found the readings interesting and enjoyed reading about each authors opinion ion the topic. In his article “The Two Cultures”, C.P. Snow writes “Literary intellectuals at one pole— at the other scientists (Snow 4).” to express how completely opposite the two subjects are usually seen. I found his opinion on the matter intriguing, that the more the gap between the two subjects can be bridged will lead to larger advances in society. Not only is it important to close the gap between art and science to help advance society, it is also important to begin to bridge the gap between the general public and science so that they may have a better understanding of one another. For instance, this video of former Illinois Congressman John Porter, in which he explains why he believes that the science community and the general public should have a better relationship. He uses the polio epidemic as an example of how if science had done a better job advocating for the vaccination that public would have been more keen on receiving it. He then talks about his main point that if the general public had a better understanding of science and vice versa then political topics such as policy making would be much easier.

Video:
http://www.nyas.org/Media.aspx?cid=7ccaf6aa-5aa2-455c-a2e3-3d7e9b97a636

In the reading "Towards a Third Culture: Being in between" that we read this week I found the part about creating a bridge between art, science, and technology to be the most thought provoking. The line “Scientist-artists originally conceived and designed bridges (Vesna 121).” made me think of a literal bridging of a gap instead of the figurative example that I had talked about in the previous paragraph. This then made me start to think about Leonardo Da Vinci and how he is the perfect "middleman" that John Brockman says is needed to successfully bridge the gap between art and science (Vesna 122).

The Vitruvian Man by Leonardo Da Vinci to me is the best example of bridging art and science. It shows that during the renaissance this type of extremely realistic art work was popular. Da Vinci was also an inventor/scientist as well as a artist.

A more modern example of linking art and science is the installation "Cloud in a room". By understanding the science behind clouds and then manipulating the atmosphere within the room Berndnaut Smilde has discovered how to create a cloud in the middle of a room.

Works Cited

Berndnaut Smilde "Cloud in a room", http://indulgd.com/cloud-in-room-by-berndnaut-smilde/

Leonardo Da Vinci, http://www.leonardo-da-vinci-biography.com/leonardo-da-vinci-inventions.html

Leonardo Da Vinci "Vitruvian Man", http://aaleenshafaat.blogspot.com/2011/09/my-favorite-sketch-is-vitruvian-man-by.html

Snow, C. P. The two cultures and the scientific revolution. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1959. Print.

Vesna, Victoria. “Toward a Third Culture: Being in Between.” Leonardo 34.2 (2001): 121-125. Web.

Williams, Christopher. "A Dangerous Divide | The New York Academy of Sciences." The New York Academy of Sciences. 24 July 2009. Web. 3 Oct.