Week 4: Medtech and Art

At first glance medical technology and art is irrelevant to each other, but I am totally impressed by influence of medical technology on art after viewing this week’s video lecture, in which Professor Vesna talks about impact from medical technology such as anatomy, plastic surgery, X-ray and MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging).  

 Last week’s topic tells us that humans can produce complex robots and machines. But we haven’t realized that the human body itself is one of the most complex machines in this world. For instance, you need more than 200 muscles to work together in order to walk one step and this is more complicated than many machines. Medical technology gives us more chances to explore our complex body structure. For example, long time ago people could only use dissection to see our body structure, but now some advanced technology such as X rays and MRI enable people to see themselves clearly without dissection or surgery. Both of them are safer and more efficient for medical examination.

Medical technology is  close to our lives because it not only helps us for medical examination but also helps people to pursue beauty. People can use X rays or other medical devices to exam their body fat percentage and distribution so that they can track their fitness result and have a more precise view of their own bodies. And plastic surgery is a more direct way to alter what you look like. From lecture we know plastic surgery is created by Indian to treat severe injuries in war. Nowadays more and more people are willing to take plastic surgery to become more beautiful even though it's still controversial that if people should change their appearance by plastic surgery.

In addition to improving people's lives, medical technology can also create artistic beauty. Body World, the anatomical exhibition of real human body, perfectly combines the medical technology with art. Body World is created by Gunther von Hagens who is an anatomist and the inventor of Plastination. Plastination is a technique that replaces body water and fat by certain kinds of plastic, making human body to retain most properties of original sample after death. Body World not only shows us the anatomical beauty of the human body but also gives people an opportunity to better understand how it functions and what our anatomical structures are.

 Medical technology is related to art like many other scientific fields. I believe with further development of medical technology, the connection between them will get closer and closer.

Work Cited

Vesna, Victoria. Unit 4 Lecture Medtech+Art. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ep0M2bOM9Tk> 

Bassanese, Paola. "What muscles do you use for walking?." . N.p., Online Posting to Energya. Web. 27 Oct. 2013. <http://www.energyanaturalfacelift.com/2012/02/what-muscles-do-you-use-for-walking/>.

Garcia, Julio. "So What is Used to Perform Plastic Surgery?." . N.p., Online Posting to Las Vegas Plastic Surgery Blog. Web. 27 Oct. 2013. <http://www.lasvegasplasticsurgeryblog.com/>.

Pfiester, Bonnie. . N.p., Online Posting to PFIT Blog. Web. 27 Oct. 2013. <http://pfitblog.com/>.

Von Hagens, Gunther. "The life in science." . N.p., Online Posting to Body world. E-mail. <http://www.bodyworlds.com/en/gunther_von_hagens/life_in_science.html>.

"Magnetic resonance imaging." . Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, E-mail. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetic_resonance_imaging>.

Week 3: Robotics and Art

This week we continue to explore how art is not only related to math and science, but is also influenced by industrialization and Robotics. Industrial Revolution, one of the most studied periods in the history, transformed human society from an agrarian society to an industrial one and facilitated the development of human. The society responds to industrialization in both positive ways and negative ways. In aspect of art, Professor Vesna mentions in lecture that artists are influenced by mass production, and Lane, Jim states that “It brought a new clientele to the painting market and a new awareness of the daily lives”. However, Walter Benjamin expressed his concern, "Even the most perfect reproduction of a work of art is lacking in one element: its presence in time and space, its unique existence at the place where it happens to be”. There's still no clear answer for this question.

Printing press facilitates spread of artistic work

http://yesteryearsnews.files.wordpress.com/2009/03/r-hoe-hand-stop-cylinder-printer-18741.jpg

Modern Times is a 1936 comedy written and directed by Charles Chaplin. Modern Times portrays Chaplin as a factory worker, struggles to survive in a modern and industrialized world. The film describes the desperate employment and fiscal condition many people faced in the industrialized world and expresses people’s concern about industrialization. I think the social environment and living conditions portrayed in Modern Times make artistic creation more difficult since people struggle to survive.

Chaplin in "Modern Times"

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/1/11/Charlie_Chaplin_-_Modern_Times_%28mechanics_scene%29.jpg

Guggenham in Spain

http://www.toms-travels.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/bilbao.jpg

However, industrialization facilitates the development of technology, which greatly improves designing and expression of artistic work today. One famous example is Guggenham Museum in Spain. This extraordinary building can’t be done without modern technology for deigning and efficiency of industrialized world. From this example we see industrialization does provide with more possibilities for art.

In my point of view, industrialization and mass production have generally positive influence for art because mass production and industrialization facilitate the information spreading and development of technology. Although most perfect reproductions still lack some elements, artists’ work are known rapidly by more people and artists themselves also have new perception of world. Also, industrialization creates more possibilities for art.

Citation:

Vesna, Vectoria “Robotics + Art Lecture” <https://cole2.uconline.edu/courses/63226/wiki/unit-3-view?module_item_id=970429>

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

Jim, Lane. "The Industrial Revolution's Affect on Art." 25 Jan 1998. N.p., Online Posting to HumanitiesWeb.org. Web. 20 Oct. 2013. <http://www.humanitiesweb.org/spa/gai/ID/92>.

Guggenheim Museum N.d.02 September 2002. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guggenheim_Museum_Bilbao>

“Modern Times (film)” Wikepedia, The Free Encyclopedia, Wikipedia Foundation, Inc. September 17, 2013

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modern_Times_(film)>

Week 2: Math and Art

The topic of this week is math and art. As a math major student, I believe that math, as a basic tool, can be used in Finance, Physics, chemistry and other scientific area. But I never thought math also has extensive use in art area before I take this class. This week’s study tells me we can combine math and art well and also study both of them well. In this week’s lecture, Professor Vesna talked about many applications of mathematical technique in art such as perspectives, golden ratio and vanishing point. People also easily believe that if one do math well, he or she won’t also study art well. But professor Vesna said according to her experience that is not true and R. Buckminster Fuller also states “Everyone is bone a genius, but the processing of living de-geniuses them”. Math and art have divergence but it doesn't mean that you will lose talent for art if you study in math and vice versa. You just never explore your talent for another field.

The most famous example of perfect combination of art and math must be Leonardo da Vinci. He is considered to be one of the greatest painter and also a mathematician. He proved that art and math are not against each other at all. As I mentioned in my last blog, golden ratio is widely used for design and Leonardo da Vinci also applied it in Mona Lisa and Last Supper.

Another good example is Andy Gilmore, a designer who is famous for using geometric elements in his work. Most of Andy’s works are quite simple: He use only simple geometric graph to create mysterious and illusive pictures. From the following pictures, we can obviously feel strong visual impact from these geometric combinations.

Leonardo da Vinci used golden ratio and Andy Gilmore used geometric combination. They shows us that math and art are not against each other and you can combine them well. So it seems at first glance to be true that Math and Art have more divergence than convergence, but when we go further in this topic and find more good examples of their combinations, we will learn juxtaposition of art, math and science are more important than we though. Art contains math and math can create art.

Sources:

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

Fuller, R. Buckminster. "Education Automation."  Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press.  1962.

Da Vinci, Leonardo. wikipedia,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonardo_da_Vinci

The Golden ratio and the Mona Lisa.

http://www.coastal-style.com/mona-lisa.html

Phi and the Golden ratio in Art.

http://www.goldennumber.net/art-composition-design/

The Andy Gilmore's collection

http://crowquills.com/

Week1: Two Cultures

The topic of relationship between art and science has been controversial for so many years. However, there will never be a correct answer for that. Some people would like to divide into two totally different parts, as C.P Snow points out in his “Two cultures and scientific revolution” that two cultures are isolated from each other like two poles. Some science students around me are unwilling to, or even resist studying art related courses. UCLA also divides campus into North part for art major and south part for science major. We can feel obvious difference between two parts from architectural style and course type.

Royce Hall, North campus

Boelter Hall, South campus

Compared with point of C.P Snow, D.Bohm’s view impresses me more. In “On Creativity”, he states that “all feel a fundamental need to discover and create something new that is whole and total, harmonious and beautiful”. Bohm emphasizes the importance of oneness and totality in nature. As a math major student, I thought that art was useless for me before. But when I get further in my path I realize art and science can’t be isolate entirely from each other. In some specific circumstance, art need science and science can also create beauty. Golden ratio is very famous in mathematical field and it is also applied in architecture, drawing and even as a standard for body beauty.

Art and science do have differences but there are no needs to isolate them from each other. Just like we can't isolate either north or south campus from UCLA, our nature is complete and beautiful only when art and science exist there together.

Sources:

D. Bohm,"On Creativity",Leonardo, Vol. 1, No. 2. (Apr., 1968), pp. 137-149

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

The Gold Ratio: Use of perfect ratio

http://info.biotech-calendar.com/bid/67480/The-Golden-Apple-Use-of-the-Perfect-Ratio

Gold ratio in art and architecture

http://britton.disted.camosun.bc.ca/goldslide/jbgoldslide.htm

Ucla Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UCLA_Henry_Samueli_School_of_Engineering_and_Applied_Science

Does your face fir the golden ratio?

http://forums.soompi.com/discussion/220166/does-your-face-fit-the-golden-ratio/p5