Event 3

As for my last event, I visited a location where artistic displays were free to access. This time around, I visited our own backyard, UCLA's sculpture garden. While not often visited by a majority of students, the sculptures in the garden are all important artistic pieces in their own right. In fact, the sculpture garden is an extension of Hammer museum, indicating the significance of the works displayed there.

I have been consistently intrigued by the mathematics behind my art.  I must confess that I have always thought art to be "abstract" and perhaps even "formless". However, with concepts of ratios and calculations that were explained by Dr. Vesna, I can now focus on the mathematical angles and lines in the artwork that I see.

For this particular artwork, T.E. UCLA, the way the steel pieces are bent seems almost as complex and beautiful as a calculus parabolic graph. Not only is the shape intriguingly beautiful, but the choice of material (weathered steel) shows the depth of artistic thought placed into the making of this project.

What makes this sculpture truly worthwhile is the "open space" that people can enter. When you are in the middle of the sculpture, it is as if you can feel the metallic embrace of the structure. Perhaps, I can even say I feel "at peace" or "protected".

Therefore, I feel like for students who haven't visited this particular structure, I highly encourage them to do so. It is an unique experience that all UCLA student should enjoy at least once. Perhaps after finals week or even during the hectic chaos of finals, students can come here to feel the same "peace" I felt. This sculpture definitely allowed me to enjoy the math behind art and I wish my peers could feel the same way as well.

Event 2: San Diego Museum of Contemporary Art

I paid a visit to the San Diego Museum of Contemporary Art last weekend, and luckily Korean sculptor and installation artist Do Ho Suh was having his solo exhibition. Through his works, Suh challenges common conception for space and boundaries. He’s best known for intricate sculptures that defy conventional notions of scale and site-specificity. 

The museum displayed his Specimen Series. Suh replicated appliances and fixtures from his NYC apartment in translucent colored fabric. Installed in illuminated vitrines, these ordinary objects glow from within, appearing luminous, alien, and captured for study. 

I was mesmerized by this installation. How was he able to produce such a big piece of fabric that manages to hold itself together? Yet the attention to detail is incredible; toilets, ventilation pipes, lights, and even doorknobs all resemble real life objects, except made in fabric.  

This exhibition shows Do Ho Suh’s careful planning of the dimension and aesthetics of the piece strengthens my understanding of the connection between art and science. Do Ho Suh obviously has the ability in art to create aesthetically pleasing installations and sculptors, but if he hadn’t carefully chosen his materials and did the math, this big piece of fabric, although enforced by thin wire, wouldn’t have been able to support itself. 

Art and Medical Technology (WEEK 4 BLOG)

Art and Medical Technology (WEEK 4 BLOG)

Initially, art and medicine may not appear to be related to one another at all. However, after this week's lecture about the creation and development of the MRI, the origins of plastic surgery, and Ingber's discovery about the architecture of life, Professor Vesna convinced me of the overwhelming presence of art in medicine. 

To me, the technological leap that humans have made from human dissections to the MRI really astounds me. We normally do not stop to think of all the complicated metabolic processes that allow humans to breathe or eat, or how a MRI machine works; we take it for granted. However, the MRI does not have to do with science and medicine alone; it is also a form of art. Silvia Cassini's paper about the MRI really brought my attention to the relationship between medicine, technology and art. I agree with how he states that the MRI has the same "look" that a portrait has; it has the capacity to be performative, and using the MRI actually takes quite a bit of artistic skills. It seems that medicine and technology has opened up many possibilities to create art. Below are a few examples of the use of MRI to make art: 

Or, if you check out this website, you will see many examples of MRI and art: http://www.radiologyart.com/

On the other hand, I had never thought about plastic surgery as an "art"; merely a procedure to enhance one's appearance for future selfish career goals (Michael Jackson and many K-pop stars). Therefore, it stunned me to learn that plastic surgery actually originated 4000 years ago, and has since developed, until recently, as a way to "give form to" brave and scarred soldiers coming back from war. Before today's cutting edge technology in medicine, I could only imagine the challenges that injured soldiers returning from war would have to face in their every day lives. With the development of prosthetics and plastic surgery, however, soldiers can be skillfully "recreated" and can acclimate back to society. 

It is quite exciting to imagine the development of art, science, and technology in the future. I feel that only now, humans are beginning to discover the relationship between art and medicine/technnology. We can now alter our bodily image in so many ways, and we can also see, down to the microscopic level, of all our cells. For instance, Ingber in his "Architecture of Life" paper proves that the universal set of building rules based on tensegrity architecture guides the design of the organic structure. In other words, this kind of architecture forms the basis of everything, even things we cannot see cells. Shown below is the comparison of the brain cell and the universe, and how similar they are.

I had never stopped to think about the relationship between art and science. Now that I think about it, this week's lesson has taught me the close relationship between science, technology, and art, and how the advancement of one will open infinite possibilities for other fields. 

Citations:

Casini, Silvia. “Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) as Mirror and Portrait: MRI
Configurations Between Science and Arts.” The John Hopkins University Press
and the Society for Literature and Science. (2011): 19:73-99. PDF File.

Furness, Hannah. "Pioneering plastic surgery records from First World War published." The Telegraph. Telegraph Media Group, 13 July 2012. Web. 27 Oct. 2013. <http://www.telegraph.co.uk/history/9396435/Pioneering-plastic-surgery-records-from-First-World-War-published.html>.

Miller, Mark. Brain Structure Mirrors the Universe. 2007. Virgo Consortium for Cosmological Supercomputer Simulations, Brandeis. Exohuman. Web. 13 Aug. 2008.

"Radiology Art: x-ray art." Radiology Art: x-ray art. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Oct. 2010. <http://www.radiologyart.com/>.

Vesna, Victoria. “Lecture 1.” Youtube. 22 Apr. 2012. Web. 24 Oct. 2013.
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ep0M2bOM9Tk>

Vesna, Victoria. “Lecture 2.” Youtube. 22 Apr. 2012. Web. 24 Oct. 2013.
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=psjnQarHOqQ>

Vesna, Victoria. “Lecture 3.” Youtube. 22 Apr. 2012. Web. 24 Oct. 2013.
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FIX-9mXd3Y4>