Week 4: Media Technology and Art

This week’s topic of the incorporation of the human body, technological advancements, and art was very interesting to me. I thought the connections made between the three were very interesting because often times these are in opposite locations. The anti-artists will often claim that biology, human anatomy, and such will always be more important the colors and paintbrushes. However, through these week’s observations it is clear that in many times, one cannot coexist without one of these involved. The first thing that came to mind when studying the material for this week was how x-rays have been used in a form of art. As in my previous blogs, yet another TED Talk came to mind. In general, I have been an avid Ted Talk viewer, so I know that I may always include a Ted Talk video, but it has just been such a useful platform to share people’s ideas across the world. It is because of this that I have been able to learn so much and listen to many outstanding stories of talented individuals who find new solutions or new ways of creating something outstanding in life. So in terms of this week’s topic, the artist Arie van't Riet came to mind. In the video below, you can see the way in which a medical physicist, who worked for radiotherapy, radiology, and nuclear medicine, became an “artist.”

To me what is most beautiful and interesting about this week’s ideas is that when we force ourselves to combine these subjects and create something amazing that is when we truly make an impact. Take Arie for example, had he limited his imagination and his mind to just his job as a radiologist specialist, we would have been deprived from his beautiful creations of nature as seen below:

Arie claims to have wanted to reveal the beauty inside nature by showing the physical world and its color. According to this, not only do we get to admire a unique form of art, but also we open many doors for the future. Arie is thinking of ways to move forward with this idea and is in the process of creating 3D visualizations of these images and increasing the size of the creatures he wishes to capture, like flamingos. I think that this is the most beautiful thing about combining these ideas because we are able to teach others about what can be achieved if one surpasses limits and norms, and thus can be proven by new forms of art, technology, and overall life developments. A similar form of art is being created by Turvey calls who is also using x-ray technology to capture everyday life. Below you can see some of his work in combining all of these subjects:

 Images:

http://www.x-rays.nl/kat_e.htm

http://www.x-rays.nl/strilicia.htm

http://www.x-rays.nl/bollenveld_e.htm

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/x-ray-art-deeper-look-everyday-objects-180949540/?no-ist

Video: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qyYGRX_t8LU

Week 2 Math + Art

This week, I was intrigued to learn that one of my least favorite subjects in life, mathematics, could actually be more than a frustrating path of numbers. Through professor Vesna’s lecture, it became evident that talks symmetry as can be observed through mathematical topics such as geometry and optics could help create something unique and creative to the eye. In Flatland, it became clear to me how much like last week’s two cultures and worlds come together, so can the different meanings in these two worlds come together and make a different meaning from the single picture and frame.. Such thinking was also very evident in "The Fourth Dimension and Non-Euclidean Geometry in Modern Art: Conclusion." Here, Linda Henderson talks about how math and science together and make a new form of artistic beauty to the scholar’s eye.

            Personally, the way that this week’s concepts impacted me was in opening my eyes into accepting a form of mathematics. I am an art admirer who wished to have such a skill of painting or sculpting. This reminded me of a TedxEd lecture of the close analysis of Van Goh.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMerSm2ToFY

This is a form of math that I can admire, and I think that this is a good resolution. I think that these concepts can be embraced and accepted for education for those students who may not be such lovers of math, but who do have an open artistic math. I think that by combining these, there could be a better learning turnout. At least, I have a strong believe that such occurrence could have had happened with me. By appreciating its beauty as observed in nature and technology  one would be more appreciative as one is to nature life. 

Week One: The Two Cultures

I truly enjoyed the readings for this week, “Two Cultures and the Scientific Revolution” and “Toward a Third Culture: Being in Between.”. The concept of the two cultures that we analyzed this week composes my overall endeavors here at UCLA. I am a fourth year who will be completing a Bachelors degree in Applied Linguistics and a Bachelors degree in Spanish Community and Culture. However, I am also minoring in Digital Humanities and I am employed as a computer technician for UCLA’s IT Housing and Hospitality department. My minor and employment are constantly teaching me about new technological tools to improve the issues we encounter in our daily lives. However, my two majors, which are more on the humanities side, teach me to establish the basis of research on these different issues. However, before doing all of this, I felt suffocated by the idea of doing one thing for the rest of my life and ignoring my other passions and merely acknowledge them as hobbies. However, what allowed me to embrace these different subjects and decide to officially pursue them as I am now was hearing Emilie Wapnick’s TEDxBend’s talk on “multipotentialites.”

According to Wapnick, a multipotentialite is a person who uses three super powers to combine different ideas to create something unique. The super powers held by these multipotentialites are rapid learning, adaptability, and ideas synthesis. She states that one must embrace the desire to combine our different passions because only this way will we create things and come up with solutions that would not flourish otherwise. For example, Meshu shows the positive outcome in doing this. Meshu is a company that combines the passions of cartography, data visualization, travel, mathematics and design to create custom geographically-inspired jewelry. 

Wapnick states that through these different backgrounds, one is able to access a lot of these points of intersection. This correlates to Snow’s ideology in which “the clashing point of two subjects, two disciplines, two cultures… ought to create creative chances” (17). I can see such occurrence within my own different fields. For example, I’ve learned that in using technology I can fully study language through the analysis of spectrograms, or better understand Spanish historical landmarks through 3D visualizations. Due to the beautiful outcomes in bringing these two cultures together, I will personally continue to do so.

REFERENCES

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.

Emilie Wapnick TEDXBent Talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJORi5VO1F8

Original Meshu Design: https://meshu.io/make/facet

Meshu Homepage Image: https://meshu.io