Week 4 Blog-MedTech and Art

In this week's topic, professor Vesna bring me to a whole new concept of how medical technology can form art. I find it very interesting because I never think of any forms of art when I am taking medicine before. However, well-developed medical technology do help us to see our body more clearly , and thus help artist on their body drawing, skeleton and bone structure.

What surprised me was that professor Vesna used plastic surgery as an example to illustrate the connection between medical technology and art.

http://patpoh.fooyoh.com/entry/15336

The picture shows a famous Korean actress named Kim Taehee who has the perfect beauty of her face in golden ratio. 

http://thedailyomnivore.net/2012/05/10/orlan/

One more example 

is a woman from France called Orlan, who is fascinated by performing plastic surgery in total over 6 times! We can also see the perfect golden ratio on her face. From that I learn the perception of beauty is universal. Orlan even make her chin like Venus and forehead like Mona Lisa, which she likes combining facial features from the women in great artists' painting.

She is crazy!

When I see words "plastic surgery", I usually will think of Korean celebrities because the technology is very mature and this kind of "art performance" is very common and popular in Korean.

http://www.koreanbeacon.com/tag/plastic-surgery/

Those "Before" and "After"picture are three famous celebrities in Korean. The data shows that about 70% of women undergone plastic surgery during their  20's through 30's. Because Asian people like to be a "baby doll" looking as how European and American women have, Korean people get double eyelid surgery mostly. 

http://theartpour.com/2013/03/15/living-reincarnation/

However, the high technique of medical plastic surgery also brings negative effects. The swollen face after cosmetic surgery will put you in a long downtime to rest at home and incapable going to work or school. If you don't take care yourself well, the scar will stay on your face and you need to do another surgery to remove it. 

Moreover, some women are addicted to pursuing perfect beauty so that the plastic surgery are no longer performing beautiful "art"but ruin your face.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/3439638/Cosmetic-surgery-addict-injected-cooking-oil-into-her-own-face.html

This picture shows a Korean girl named Hang Mioku, who probably has psychological disorder due to her affection of doing plastic surgery. Overall, she has done hundreds of surgery in the past 20 years. Due to the over injection and surgery, her face becomes enlarged and disfigured. 

People can benefit from high medical technology but also can be ruined by overwhelming use. 

Besides what professor has presented during the lecture, I also search on Youtube and find how high medical technology help doctor to keep track on patient easier. The ViSi Mobile is like a bigger "watch" which can measure the heart rate, blood pressure, and etc. Hospital are now becoming safer with monitoring patients all the time even without nurses and doctors aside.

http://www.10news.com/news/device-could-help-space-travelers-stay-healthy
ViSi Mobile(new medical technology) helps to "draw" "heart rate lines"(art) on the screen.

http://www.journalmtm.com
"Augmented reality surgery using iPad." The surgery may look disgusting in reality but when present through iPad, the structure is shown in more artistic way.









Citations:
Vesna, Victoria. “Http://www.youtube.com/v/Ep0M2bOM9Tk.” Lecture. Medicine pt1 . Youtube, 21 Apr. 2012. Web. 25 Oct. 2012. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ep0M2bOM9Tk>.

Vesna, Victoria. “Http://www.youtube.com/v/FIX-9mXd3Y4.” Lecture. Medicine pt3. Youtube, 22 Apr. 2012. Web. 25 Oct. 2012. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FIX-9mXd3Y4>.

Vesna, Victoria. “Http://www.youtube.com/v/psjnQarHOqQ.” Lecture. Medicine pt2 . Youtube, 21 Apr. 2012. Web. 25 Oct. 2012. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=psjnQarHOqQ>.

Irene. "Plastic Surgery:To Do or Not To Do....That is a question." 10 Jun.2010. Web. 23 Oct. 2013 <http://www.koreanbeacon.com/tag/plastic-surgery/>

Rex Feature. "Cosmetic Surgery addict injected cooking oil into her own face." 11 Nov.2008. Web. 23 Oct. 2013 <http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/3439638/Cosmetic-surgery-addict-injected-cooking-oil-into-her-own-face.html>
SoteraWirelessInc. "ViSi Mobile in Rock Center with Brain Williams." 30 Jan.2013. Web. 23 Oct. 2013. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-9r_uu5Vp0>
"Augmented Reality Surgery using iPad." 27 Aug. 2013. Web. 23 Oct. 2013. <http://www.journalmtm.com> 

Week 3 Blog about Robotics and Art

In this week's lecture, I found it very interesting and important to know about the connection between Robotics and Art. I learned that how technology and art can mutual benefit each other in many ways.
For example, like the guest speak professor Machico Kusahara mentioned in the video that how Japanese people love to create robotics and use innovation to let robots participate more in human being's life.

http://jasonblog.tw/2009/10/astro-boy-is-reborn-in-2009.html
The picture shows a famous cartoon movie show in Asian area, which Machico Kusahara mentioned in the video. The robot boy named Astro who is born to help weakness and fight with the evil. Even though Astro Boy is born in Japan, it was translated to many different languages. The Astro Boy also became one of my favorite cartoon movie in my childhood.
The artists draw each movement of Astro Boy by using the computer system to let a robot boy reborn in the television screen.
Moreover, the Astro Boy became a hero in many young children's mind.

http://www.people.com.cn/GB/channel1/15/20001129/331342.html
The first bipedal humanoid robot in China.















After Japan and America have started to develop the field of robotics, China wants to catch up with those developed countries as well. When the robotics was shown in the Expo '85 World Fair in Tsukuba, Japan, Chinese people get a better idea of creating a robot with their research since 1980s. On 2000, the first bipedal humanoid robot was born in China with nervous system, visual sensor, and synchronization. The robot is called "Xianxingzhe", which means "forerunner" in Chinese. It also open a new page of China's robotics field that bring up a robot craze in China.

 http://www.people.com.cn/GB/channel1/15/20001129/331342.html
Researchers from Chinese National University are working on programming the "Xianxingzhe".

Here is a short video about how robot can help people especially disable people and kids with autism. The happy face on the robot's facial expression influences those kids a lot, which brings them happiness as well. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lm3vE7YFsGM#t=21

Although robot do make contribution to society, some criticisms think with more developed technology, the robot will become smarter and more intelligent so that one day the robot will take control of human beings. This remind me of the movie called Terminator, where the computer system was destroyed and robot became conscious to control human beings and kill them. 

http://www.allouttabubblegum.com/main/?p=13848

Well-developed technology and art can mutual benefit each other, but also can destroy each other. As Walter Benjamin talks about in the reading this week, he criticizes that the mass reproduction of the artwork destroys the uniqueness and aura of art. He said "the presence of the original is the prerequisite to the concept of authenticity" that means painting work's aura has been lost with mass reproduction. 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2375270/Dafen-Oil-Painting-Village-thousands-artists-recreate-paintings-sale-overseas.html

Dafen Village in China, where "thousands of artists recreate paintings sale overseas".

Citations:

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

        Machiko Kusahara. Robotics MachikoKusahara 1. Web. 14 Apr 2012. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQZ_sy-mdEU>

       Wowen Wang. The First Robotics in China. Web. 29 Nov.2000. <http://www.people.com.cn/GB/channel1/15/20001129/331342.html>

      AldebaranRobotics. Robots teach communication to kids with autism. Web. 29 Apr.2013. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lm3vE7YFsGM#t=21>

     Damien Gayle. Inside the Chinese village where thousands of artists recreate iconic paintings for sale overseas. Web. 23 July.2013. <http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2375270/Dafen-Oil-Painting-Village-thousands-artists-recreate-paintings-sale-overseas.html>

Week 2 Blog---Math and Art

In this week's topic, Professor talked about the close relationship between Math and Art, and how these "two cultures" affected each other in different ways. During the lecture, Professor mentioned the Golden Ratio, which many artist and architect have proportioned their work to approach the golden ratio. The golden ratio can be defined as the ratio of longer side to shorter side as  1：0.618, which can be found everywhere in Math, Architecture, Art, and Nature.

http://www.mathsisfun.com/numbers/golden-ratio.html
For example, the Parthenon in Greek contains the Golden Ratio in it, which the longer part divided by the height of the building is the Golden Ratio. Architect found the building that has the Golden Ratio in it will look more harmonic from their perspectives.

http://fineartamerica.com/featured/golden-ratio-spiral-maya.html

http://thirdlifeby18.wordpress.com/2013/01/31/the-golden-ratio/
When I search on the internet, I can find a lot of painting using the Golden Ratio in it. Like the Spiral shown above, when you draw some extra lines that separate the spiral into several squares, you can see the Golden Ratio inside.
After I learned this lecture, I observe that Golden Ratio can be found in our real life. For instance, the logo of my car that I'm driving everyday to school is also made with the Golden Ratio.

http://www.banskt.com/blog/golden-ratio-in-logo-designs/
The logo of TOYOTO consists of three ellipses that has the relationship of Golden Ratio inside.






Moreover, facial beauty also has a connection with the Golden Ratio.

http://www.goldennumber.net/facial-beauty-new-golden-ratio/
The plastic surgeon says that women whose facial features that contains the Golden Ratio in it will be more attractive to other people.











I found a short but nice video on Youtube that show the relationship between the Golden Ratio and nature.

Another thing I am interested in after I have learned this lecture is the vanishing point. Vanishing point is made because people can observe the nearer objects to be bigger and the farer objects tend to be smaller.

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

The vanishing point is shown at the end of a people mover at Frankfurt International Airport.
By using the vanishing point, two parallel lines tends to approach each other and vanish at the same ending point, which makes painting and photograph more real and in three-dementional perspective.






I have learned piano for 8 years, and I remembered when I was very young, my piano teacher told me:"You will be good at math if you work hard on your piano practice." At that time, I didn't understand how could math can relate to music? Because Music is something very emotional, but Math is abstract and rational. However, after I have learned this lecture, I know music and math have intimate connection that music theorem is just like a math problem. About 500 years ago, an ancient Greek philosopher Pythagoras went for a walk. When he passed by a blacksmith store, he found the sound of iron was more loud and clear than other blacksmith stores. He walked into that store and measured that size of the hammer, and he found a proportion between the volume of the hammer and the vocal sound of the iron casting. Pythagoras was the first person who found the connection between Math and Music. Also by doing the research, scientists found children who listen to music more often will have a better idea of how to solve a mathematics problem.

 http://www.mathopenref.com/pythagoras.html

During this week's lecture and research, I have expanded my definition of "two cultures". The beauty of Art is amazing and mathematics help us to understand art in a deeper perspective. Art is not only related to Science but also connected to Math. The "two cultures" of math and art seems to two extremes but actually there is an invisible line that connects them in everywhere.

Citations:
Vesna, Victoria. “Mathematics-pt1-ZeroPerspectiveGoldenMean.mov.” Cole UC online. Youtube, 9 April 2012. Web. 11 Oct. 2012. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mMmq5B1LKDg&feature=player_embedded>

Cristobal Vila. "Nature by Numbers." Youtube, 11 March 2010. Web.13 Oct 2013. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kkGeOWYOFoA#t=67>

Charlene, Douglass. "Biography of Pythagoras." 2005. Web.13 Oct 2013.<http://www.mathopenref.com/pythagoras.html>.

Saikat Banerjee. "Golden Ratio in logo designs." 29 July.2011. Web. 13 Oct 2013.<http://www.banskt.com/blog/golden-ratio-in-logo-designs/>

Pamela M. Pallett, Stephen Link,and Kang Lee. "Facial Beauty and the "New" Golden Ratio." 13 Mar 2013. Web. 13 Oct 2013. <http://www.goldennumber.net/facial-beauty-new-golden-ratio/>

Week 1 Blog

This is my first blog in DESMA9 online class. In this week, I have learned the idea of two cultures by C.P Snow.

www.scientificamerican.com

colleendilen.com -

    In the reading, C.P Snow said that the disconnection between science and art created an chaos in solving problems at that period. Scientists don't read Shakespeare's great work, and artists have no idea about what does Second Law of the Thermodynamics really means, because they never interact with each other. As C.P Snow mentioned in his book, "the president, acting as a social emollient, said:"Oh those are mathematicians! We never talk to them"(Page 4, Snow) Moreover, C.P Snow discuss how the quality of education has been declined. In the video of Changing Education Paradigms also, I know our education system is just like a production line, teachers and parents don't think about what students really like to do. They don't take it serious to guide students to follow their interest and passion but just finish tons of academic work as a robot. Later in the reading, C.P Snow talks about how two cultures brings to the huge gap between the rich and the poor. He found that "the industrialized countries are getting richer but the non-industrialised countries are at best standing still" (Page 43, Snow)

http://bestreviewsnarticles.blogspot.com/2012/04/rich-and-poor-poem.html

Back to my daily life, the idea of two cultures can be seen everywhere. On UCLA campus, there are generally two parts: the south campus and the north campus. Being a student of Economics major, I spent most of my school life in north campus, where I can see many artistic sculpture. However, when I have my math class in south campus, the different architectural style makes me feel more rigorous.

UCLA south campus-Math and Science building   http://m.ucla.edu/tour/view.php?l=3&no_server_init

UCLA north campus-Sculpture Garden  www.fowler.ucla.edu

What's more, the idea of two cultures can also reflected on myself. I'm originally from China, but I came to US since high school. In America, I am considered as "Asian", who speaking Chinese as first language, however, when I back to China, my family and friends think I'm an international student who speak English everyday. Even though I'm from China, I can live in US very well by myself. I can accept the American cultures, eat burgers, drink soda, watch football game( which Chinese people don't play football), and listen to the Hip-Hop song. When I mentioned burger before, I think of a fast food restaurant that is very popular in China called KFC.

www. tasty.lk

In America, KFC's offer different styles of fired chicken and other fast food.

http://walltrue.com/kfc-chicken/

However, KFC in china brings a totally different menu, which mixes two cultures of America and China. In China, the KFC makes nice porridge in the morning, lunch bento box in lunch, and chinese style cuisine in dinner. Therefore, KFC is no longer a just "fired chicken" restaurant, which becomes very popular in China for people can have food from two counties in one place. And it's also the reason why people in China love KFC more than McDonald's. The decision of marketing department plays an essential role that turns KFC into Chinese tastes.  

 Chinese donut news.spos.com.cn

 Traditional style burgers www.5ikfc.com

 Pork cutlet with steamed rice at dinner q.chinasspp.com

Chicken porridge  kfc.xixik.com

Last but not least, I want to discover The Third Culture, which the color is not just black and white, the love is not just between men and women, but all different colors make the world fantastic, and love can be shared by both homosex and heterosex.

Citations:

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

Changing Education Paradigms. Perf. Sir Ken Robinson. YouTube. Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce, 14 Oct. 2010. Web. <http://youtu.be/zDZFcDGpL4U>.

Justin "KFC's not so KFC menu." 30th Sep.2012. Web. <http://sites.davidson.edu/shanghai/2012/09/kfcs-not-so-kfc-men >

Maggie Starvish "KFC's Explosive Growth in China." 17 Jun.2011. Web <http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/6704.html>

Snow, C. P. “Two Cultures.” Leonardo 23.2/3 (1990): 169-73. Print.

Aaron Hotfelder. "Why does China love KFC more than McDonald's." 5th Jun. 2010. Web.<http://www.gadling.com/2010/06/05/why-does-china-love-kfc-more-than-mcdonalds/>