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Event 2/3 Event: Design Media Arts graduate solo show Artist: Jonathan Moore Location: Broad Arts, EDA Date: 25 April 2017 Time: 5:00 - 7:00pm I attended another solo exhibit put on by Jonathan Moore titled “Under Construct,” in which everything was built by the artist himself. The exhibit was an interactive take on the process of going through security at the airport in that the audience participants begin the exhibit in an extremely slow-moving line (not unlike in reality) to have their IDs checked by a stoic-faced TSA-like agent (dressed in uniform also created by the artist) who stares at the ID, stares at your face, stares back at the ID (and this continues for a while), and asks questions. After you get your ID checked, you walk under a metal detector, put your bag in a basket and send it through a scanner, get scanned by another agent with another metal detector, and get some arbitrary sticker placed on either your person or your bag. You are then sent into a da...

Week 4: MedTech + Art April 25, 2017 Vesalius and the Body Metaphor Mankind has come so far from previously archaic ways of studying the body (i.e. from slicing cadavers and hand-drawings) to some of the most amazing and technologically sophisticated and advanced ways of observing the body for the betterment of the physical human condition (i.e. x-ray imaging). Now we are able to create extremely advanced prosthetics for amputees, we have manipulated energy forms to allow us to see inside the body without cutting it open, and we have extremely delicate and advanced tools for surgery. When I think of the combination of medicine, technology, and art, the first thing that comes to mind is 3-D printing. But not just any 3-D printing - 3-D printing organs, veins, and other body parts for the purposes of surgery. This mental rendering is influenced in part by my avid viewership of the medical TV series/drama, Grey’s Anatomy . To me, this show does an excellent job of intertwin...

Week 3: Robotics + Art  April 20, 2017 With respect to robotics and the concept of artificial intelligence, there seems to be two polar ends of the spectrum of attitudes towards modern technology’s progression toward creating more intelligent and mechanized apparatuses to assist humans with various types of production. On the one end, there seems to be an innate curiosity as to how far we can take robots and artificial intelligence, and how robots and technology can continue to improve the human condition. On the other end of the spectrum, humans seem to fear robots - they fear that robots will take over menial jobs and they fear the artificial intelligence will become too intelligent and take over the world. In Professor Machiko Kusahara’s brief lecture on Japanese robotics, she discusses the cultural divide in how many Western versus Japanese cultures have viewed robots historically. To generalize, she states that while many Western countries typically “employ robo...

Week 2: Math + Art April 16, 2017 In the lecture given by Professor Vesna, she commented on a fact that seems like it should be common sense, but nonetheless is not always immediately realized. She discussed the fact that, especially in today’s day and age, art, science, and technology - and the math behind science and technology - are inextricably linked. Today, many artists must make use of math - whether or not they are aware of it - when they use digital programs, design shapes, or sculpt dimensions. Da Vinci's Vitruvian Man http://blog.world-mysteries.com/wp-content/uploads/ 2011/01/vitruvian_man_mixed.jpg The history of how artists began thinking about art through a more mathematical lense can be seen by artists such as Da Vinci in his “Mona Lisa” and in the “Vitruvian Man.” Mathematics help artists provide perspective and allow them to create dimensions within their visual works. Furthering this point is Frantz’s lecture on vanishing points in art. Given th...

Week 1: Two Cultures  April 9, 2017  Another common theme dividing the left and right brains. Creativity vs. Science http://station1.highcliffe.dorset.sch.uk/autosite/images /PUBHOMEPAGE/StemFocus_Oct14.jpg The concept that art and science exist in two mutually exclusive spheres has been a pervasive theme not only in society in general; and yet, the opposite is actually true both in a broader context but also in my own experiences. While I have seen the symbiotic relationship between the two, I personally didn’t recognize that the two are inextricably linked until more recently, when I began my time at university and began to think more critically about the world and how things work in relation to each other. Author CP Snow addresses society’s perception of the existence of a divide in the intellectual atmosphere of society - that between science and art, the “two cultures.” Up until I began studying at UCLA, I too held this belief that the two were separate from each ...

Event: Design Media Arts graduate solo show Artist: Sarah Brady Location: Broad Arts, EDA Date: 4 April 2017 Time: 5:00 - 7:00pm Event link: https://dma.ucla.edu/events/calendar/?ID=1002 I attended a solo show by artist Sarah Brady, titled “Material Reiteration.” Upon entering the space, I was immediately drawn to, but also taken aback by the sounds of a machine droning on perpetually and rather loudly. The first object that draws the eyes and ears is her piece, “Rise,” which consists of many small, black, imported rocks atop a graphite and wood machine. A motor runs around in circles (see video) and displaces the rocks as it turns. The second piece, “Reiteration,” consists of two rusty looking graphite and wood pillars (which, interestingly, conjured up an image of the Twin Towers for me) which emanated more noise from “binaural field recordings” that contributed to the overall sound of running machinery in the art space. The third piece, “Rebuild,” finished off her a...