Event 3: The Griffith Observatory

The third event I went was the show "Centered in the Universe" at the Griffith Observatory.

Let's first take a look at the beautiful night view at the Griffith Observatory. It is a very famous place at Los Angeles to look down the whole city view.

 

After entered the Griffith Observatory, the beautiful painting on the ceiling caught my eyes. Although the observatory is an astronomic exhibition hall, we can still see the artistic atmosphere here, which reminds me of the "two cultures".

The show was played at the Samuel Oschin Planetarium, where we sat down at an inclined seat so we could look up to see the screen that was on the ceiling. The show was an all dome digital animation which the 3D effect made us to observe the sky and the star like they were really up there. The show opened with a glorious sunset projected by the Digistar 3 digital laser projection system and transform into the most gorgeous and most accurate vault full of stars. The storyteller told us that people were always using their imagination to fill the sky with stories that explained the cycle of days and nights, the cycling of stars, and the wandering of planets. 

I was really fascinated by the astronomic animation and the 3D effect, which I felt I was traveling in the space. The show combined space, art, advanced 3D technology, and science that closely related our class topic. Compared to the glorious space, I felt myself very negligible, however, human's intelligence and braveness made us get closer and closer to the space. I really recommend my classmates to go and definitely watch the show "Centered in the Universe."

Citations:

"Centered in the Universe." Griffith Observatory. Web. 13 November 2013. http://www.griffithobservatory.org/buildingfiles/bcentered.html

 Vesna, Victoria. “Toward a Third Culture: Being in Between.” Leonardo 34.2 (2001): 121-25. Web. 13 November 2013.

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

 "Centered in the Universe." Web. http://www.griffithobservatory.org/exhibits/exhibitimages/centered1.jpg

 Sandquist, Eric. "Animations of Astronomy 101." Web. 13 November 2013.  http://mintaka.sdsu.edu/faculty/erics/teach/animations.html

Event 2: "The Saint of Fucked Up Karma" Musical

The second event that I attended this quarter was a musical called "The Saint of Fucked Up Karma" presented by professor Abramson at UCLA.

 
Professor Abramson worked in Psychology Department at UCLA, meanwhile, he was also a vocalist in his own rock band. He has dedicated his research on sexual abuse and this musical was also written based on a real sexual abuse happened in 20 years ago. The boy named Porter was only 13 years old, and he got a single mother who worked as a prostitute. Porter's father died of heroin abuse when he was very young.  A local policeman named Tully was asked to help this poor family but the story ends up as Porter was sexually abused by Tully. Professor Abramson has participated in this true story and he was trying to help out Porter using his Psychology knowledge.

Actually I can see the "two cultures" effect on professor Abramson himself. During weekdays, he was a professor who gave lecture to students and talked seriously about academic materials of Psychology. But during weekends, he was a musician, a singer, and a owner of rock band. This two jobs seemed very different and unrelated, however, professor Abramson used his creativity to write a musical to demonstrate a psychological story. Actually, as professor Vesna said during the lecture, neuroscience is a very important part in science, because everyone has the psychological urge to sexuality but our mind can control ourself to have sex in a right way, and "two cultures" brings music and psychology together to tell this poor story and draw people's attention to little boy Porter.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IDD6iwKoZFM
Here is a link of this musical.

I believe after people have watched this video, many experts in art, science, and psychology will pay more attention to human sexual abuse and to help out those victims. I highly recommend my peers to watch this and understand how art can tell a different story and how public can all help to stop doing this wrongful abuse.












Citations:
Donelan, Charles. "Review: The Saint of the Fucked Up Karma." Independent. Web. 10 September 2013. 22 November 2013. http://www.independent.com/news/2013/sep/10/review-saint-fucked-karma/
 Lee, Amy. "Punk Rock Musical Addresses Sexual Abuse." Daily Bruin. Web. 23 October 2013. 22 November 2013. http://dailybruin.com/2013/10/23/punk-rock-musical-addresses-sexual-abuse/
Snow, C. P. “Two Cultures and the Scientific Revolution.” Reading. 1959. New York: Cambridge UP, 1961. Print.
 Vesna, Victoria. “Toward a Third Culture: Being in Between.” Leonardo 34.2 (2001): 121-25. Web. 22 November 2013. 
Vesna, Victoria. Unit 7: Neuroscience+Art. UCLA, 2013. Film.

Event 1: The Cardiac dance

My first event was The Cardiac Dance, The Spiral of Life presented by Dr. Gerald Buckberg. It was a great pleasure to see a dance performance that combined science and art perfectly and also related our class topic closely.

The poster of the event.

Dr. Gerald Buckberg, an experienced and prominent cardiologist, has used his creativity into this cardiac dance for educational and health purposes. He is always dedicated to inspire other scientist to use art to explain science to public.

 
The cardiac dance consists of three parts. The first one showed a harmonic movement of cardiac system and told us briefly how the heart functions work, the second part showed specifically what the heart movement looked like when a heart attack happened, and the third part showed the reconstruction of heart after surgery. All the dancers moved accordingly and twisted to present the heart movement. I really enjoy the dance performance because the dancers let science reborn in an artistic way. If Dr. Buckberg just gave the presentation through his oral, then I believed most of students will easily get bored. However, the dance and the music attracted our attention to it.

After I have attended this event, I understand the topic of two culture deeper. Science and Art are never be apart, instead they are closely tied with each other. I really recommend my peers to look at this video online to enjoy the juxtaposition of science(reality) and art(creativity).









Me, my peers, and Dr. Buckberg.

Resources:
Image by self at event. Oct 9. 2013
Image by peers at event. Oct 9. 2013
Merkowitz, Jennifer Bernard. "The Cardiac Dance-The Spirals of Life." 2007. Web. Nov 24. 2013. <https://etd.ohiolink.edu/ap:10:0::NO:10:P10_ETD_SUBID:81726>
Katie Pence. "College of Medicine Alumnus Develops 'Arttistic' Way to Teach About Heart Function." July 2007. Web. Nov 24. 2013. <http://healthnews.uc.edu/publications/findings/?/5109/5110/>
“Viewfinder – Cardiac Dance – The Spirals of Life.” cetConnect. PBS, 8 Feb. 2010. Web. 3 Nov. 2013. <http://www.cetconnect.org/video/viewfinder-cardiac-dance-%E2%80%93-spirals-life>.

Week 9 Space and Art

"Eventually, everything connects."----Charles Eames
Finally, we are in the last topic in this class (the relationship of space and art) that sum up all the topic we have covered so far. I am really fascinated by the sky, the star, and the planet while professor is presenting the lecture. First of all, professor give us a brief clue of how the history of astronomy has developed under Copernicus's theory of central model in solar system.

http://forums.gametrailers.com/viewtopic.php?f=289&t=1114616
In Copernicus' theory, sun is the central of solar system. Although this theory has been proven wrong later, Copernicus is still an outstanding astronomer throughout the history.

http://www.vitodibari.com/en/bradley-edwards-space-elevator-send-man-space.html
Human's eagerness to explore the space never stops. Professor has mentioned during the lecture that nanotechnology is playing a key role in exploring the space.
The picture shows the Space Elevator first invented by Arthur C. Clarke. People always dreamed of reaching the star. However, the Space Elevator could not sent men to the space but robot climber.  The nanotube from earth to space can help robot climbers to the earth orbit to achieve human being's dream. Let's see a short video about it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xdr6zXXrTbg

Then we move to the history of atomic bomb, the bomb race and the space race afterwards.
The space race and the bomb race between United States and Soviet Union are a long time debate throughout the history.  In 1957, Spuntnik was the world's first satellite sent to space by Soviet Union, which was also the staring point of the space race.

The Space Race has changed educational system, both U.S and Soviet Union government started to put more money into math and science education. The idea of space entered popular culture, and people's imagination about space brings a new trend of entertainment in public.





http://bashapedia.pbworks.com/w/page/13961343/Sputnik

http://wortraub.com/?p=1941

http://freshome.com/2013/03/22/what-you-can-learn-from-the-jetsons-about-home-automation/













Movie like E.T and The Jetsons both describe the story about space with writer's imagination. This kind of entertainment became more and more popular and people enjoyed the way how artist has performed the space story in their own way.                          

http://www.wallcoo.net/cartoon/space_image_space_and_satellite_02_widescreen/html/wallpaper14.html Look at the picture above, I would like to say the astronomical art is amazing!

Citations:
Vito Di Bari. "Bradley Edwards' Space Elevator may send Man Into Space." Sep 27. 2010. Web. Nov 20. 2013. <http://www.vitodibari.com/en/bradley-edwards-space-elevator-send-man-space.html>
Vito Di Bari. "A Video of the Space Elevator." Sep 27. 2010. Web. Nov 20. 2013. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HB5lcrTwRqM&feature=player_embedded>
Cplai. "Arthur C. Clarke's Space Elevator." Oct 16. 2012. Web. Nov 20. 2013. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xdr6zXXrTbg>
Vesna Victoria. "Unit 9 Lecture-Space and Art." Jul 29.2013. Web. Nov 20. 2013. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ZIqTR332l8>
B.E. Hill. "Sputnik." Nov 20. 2011. Web. Nov 20. 2013. <http://bashapedia.pbworks.com/w/page/13961343/Sputnik>

Week 8 NanoTech and Art

This week's topic shifts to the relationship of Nanotechnology and Art, which is quiet interesting! Professor James K. Gimzewski's lecture brings me to a new world of Nanotechnology. I can never image that nanotechnology can represent us in a new perspective that is actually invisible in reality. By using nanotechnology, scientists uses little balls to represent chemical atoms.

http://www.zyvex.com/nanotech/visuals.html
Using Scanning Tunneling Microscope invented by Gerd and Heini, chemical materials can be enlarge in billion times like the picture shown. Isn't that truly art as well?













When I hear the word "nanotechnology", I will classified as very premium technique that used in some advanced scientific product. However, Professor Gimzewski mentions that nanotechnology product is actually very common in our daily life through a long time.
Even in the period of Renaissance, we can see the nano particles in ancient materials in pottery(as mentioned during the lecture.)

http://www.azonano.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=3080
Here I found another Ruby Glass that contains gold nano particles inside. This ruby glass was made in 19th century, and the pigment with nano particles inside create the red color as we see now.
It is a piece of art work also!







Moreover, nano products exist in food and cosmetics.

http://csglobe.com/nanoparticles-in-food-vitamins-could-harm-human-health/
Many food sold in supermarket contains nano particles, which coloring the food and make them become more tasty. However, some of the nano particles can harm human health if manufacturer over use them.

http://www.rodalenews.com/nanoparticles-and-cosmetics
The same issue happened in cosmetics product. The safety check disclosures some products with nano particles inside will not only damage people's skin but also the aquatic ecosystems. When you wash off the products of your skin, and the water goes into the drain, they will damage the microorganisms which normally keep the health watersheds.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PVBJ61sm7FA

Check this out! A short cartoon clip that talks about the harm that nano particles bring in cosmetics product.
We should make full use of nanotechnology to improve and benefit people's daily but also should avoid to use it improperly to create new problems and increase risk.

Citations:
"Nanoparticles in food, vitamins could harm human health." Mar 22. 2013. Web. Nov 19. 2013. <http://csglobe.com/nanoparticles-in-food-vitamins-could-harm-human-health/>
Leah Zerbe. "Your Makeup Could Have an Ugly Effect on Your Health." May 17. 2010. Web. Nov 19. 2013. <http://www.rodalenews.com/nanoparticles-and-cosmetics>
B2Bwhiteboard. "Nano materials, sunscreens and cosmetics." Feb 10. 2010. Web. Nov 19. 2013. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PVBJ61sm7FA>
James K. Gimzewski. Unit 8 Lecture NanoTech and Art. Part 2. UCLA. Web. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HEp6t0v-v9c>
James K. Gimezewski. Unit 8 Lecture NanoTech and Art. Part 6. UCLA. Web. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oKlViSKkPd0&list=PL9DBF43664EAC8BC7>

Week 7 Neuroscience and Art

This week's topic is about the relationship of Neuroscience and Art, which I never think of their innate connection before. Professor introduced two outstanding psychologists named Carl Jung and Sigmund Freud, who have been dedicated into psychology field throughout their lives to helps us understand how brain perceives art and how art can affect human being's brain.

http://www.crystalinks.com/jung.html
What interests me more is how Jung emphasized understanding the psyche through exploring the worlds of dreams, art, symbols, religions, and mythology.

http://www.fanpop.com/clubs/inception-2010/images/14355477/title/inception-wallpaper
This reminds me of a well-known movie called "Inception", which the main character was trapped into several dreams due to a "dream stealer". And he had to separate the truth and the dreams. If our dreams really show how our brain is thinking and working(subconsciousness), then we should catch our dreams to understand more our brain.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8hP9D6kZseM

Inception Official Trailer 

Check this out! It is really amazing how a thief steal people's subconsciousness to implant other people's idea into it.

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/12/04/art-and-the-limits-of-neuroscience/?_r=0

 So why our brain can make sense of lines, colors, and even art? I found an explanation on CNN News. Our brain can understand the arts based on what we have perceived in our daily life, such as people, animals, plants, food or places. And several elements of art that we take for granted trick out brains into interpreting meaning from the arbitrary. Perhaps we can never know how our consciousness and unconsciousness work together, what we perceive is not what other person perceive, and what we think of beauty may not fit other person's beauty standard. 

Citations:

"Carl Jung's Biography." Web. Nov 17. 2013. <http://www.crystalinks.com/jung.html>

Elizabeth Landau. "What the brain draws from: Art and Neuroscience." Sep 15. 2012. Web. Nov 17. 2013. <http://www.cnn.com/2012/09/15/health/art-brain-mind/>

Alva Noe. " Arts and the limit of Neuroscience" Dec 4. 2011. Web. Nov 17. 2013. <http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/12/04/art-and-the-limits-of-neuroscience/?_r=0>

Boxofficesmashers. "Inception-Official Trailer" Jan 12. 2010. Web. Nov 17. 2013. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8hP9D6kZseM>

Vesna Victoria. "Neuroscience+Art Lecture " May 17. 2012. Web. Nov 17. 2013. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TFv4owX4MZo>

Week 6 BioArt

This week's topic is very interesting but controversy. After I have taken this class, I found many "unrelated" fields can be connected. I never think of artist and scientist can work in the same laboratory to produce art work using bio technology.  BioAct brings many possibilities that can be seen everywhere. For example, the genetically modified food with various artistic shape and color.

 http://www.dreamstime.com/stock-images-different-genetically-modified-food-image1274
Different color let strawberry reborn as an amazing artwork!

http://panacea-bocaf.org/geneticallymodifiedfood.htm
Genetically modified food is using the technology that inject a specific gene of one kind of organism into another unrelated organism.  
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jAP6ZtfP9ZQ

http://decryptedmatrix.com/live/gmo-alert-top-10-genetically-modified-foods-to-avoid-eating/
You can never image when you buy an orange from super market and cut it off, then you actually see a kiwi inside!
However, this combination is only for art show but not good for eating.
Statistic shows that eating a lot of genetically modified food will link to many strange disease that is truly harmful for your health.



Back to Professor's lecture, what attracted me most was the example of Joe Davis and Eduardo Kac.

http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/culturelab/2012/03/the-mad-scientist-of-mit.html
Joe Davis, the pioneer who connected Bio and Art, wanted to create a "info-gene" for translating human being genes into meaning. He questioned what is life and how we manipulate life, and his famous quote:" The most absurd things are connected in very absurd ways." leaded a crazy trend that many BioArt performance occurred.

http://hqinfo.blogspot.com/2011/03/bioart.html
Another outstanding BioArt work was created by Eduardo Kac named Alba, a green fluorescent bunny. It is not only a scientific pet which is inserted jellyfish's fluorescent protein, but also a transgenic artwork that when you turn off the lights to switch on the ultra violet lamps, and it will become a GFP Bunny.









overall, the use of biotechnology and art helps human being survive better and improves our life.

Citations:
AbbyMediaRoots. "What is Genetically Modified Food?" Dec 16. 2009. Web. Nov 10. 2013. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jAP6ZtfP9ZQ>
John May. BioArt. Mar 06. 2011. Web. Nov 10. 2013. <http://hqinfo.blogspot.com/2011/03/bioart.html>
Web. Nov 10. 2013. <http://panacea-bocaf.org/geneticallymodifiedfood.htm>

Phil Mckenna. "Joe Davis: The mad scientist of MIT?" Mar 23. 2012. Web. Nov 10. 2013. <http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/culturelab/2012/03/the-mad-scientist-of-mit.html>
Vesna, Victoria. Unit 6 Lecture BioTech+Art. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PaThVnA1kyg#t=157>