Week 4: Medicine, Technology and Art

I have not had much personal experience with medical technology but one thing that I instantly thought of when thinking about medicine and art is the creation of prosthetic body parts. This is a form of art in it own because each part is crafted very carefully to look as realistic as possible, but while also being comfortable for the user.

This is a combination of medicine and art because to make the prosthetic body parts look realistic you have to use art. People have the ability to choose what they want for their body part when being made. Prosthetic body parts give people a chance to do things they were not able to do before.

To help me better understand this weeks material I reviewed the topic from week 2 of math and art. That topic helped me better understand this weeks material because it helped me make a connection between two things that I had previously thought were not connected. 

Sources 

“The Arts and Medicine.” The Arts and Medicine | Harvard Medical School, hms.harvard.edu/news/arts-and-medicine.

Hajar, Rachel. “What Has Art to Do with Medicine?” Heart Views : the Official Journal of the Gulf Heart Association, Medknow Publications & Media Pvt Ltd, 2018, 

Possibilities, B. (2016, February 25). 5 Inspirational Athletes with Prosthetic Devices.

Prosthetics in the Developing World. (2015, August 24).

Seck, H. (n.d.). Military Amputees Are Using AI to Teach Their Prosthetics How to Move.

Week 3: Robotics and Art

The evolution of technology has been amazing and rapid. The Industrial Revolution sparked this with the invention of the printing press. After this many new inventions were made. Since then there have been many new inventions changing the way we communicate and do things. In inventions today the main thing people want to see is that the technology does everything for them.

Walter Benjamin talked about how mass production changed art. Today people prefer the less engaging type of art, film. This requires less engagement because scenes are changing so quickly, giving you barely anytime to analyze and think about what you are seeing. Today people can just look at artwork online rather then seeing it in person. 

The more industrialized the world becomes the more people begin to rely on technology to do everything for them. People want the most advanced things so they do not have to do as much. Industrialization is good for the world but it also makes people rely more on technology. Industrialization has also made society become less connected to each other. With the advancements in phones people never even have to see each other to communicate. As we become more advanced we become more reliant on technology and less connected with others. 

Sources

Benjamin, Walter. "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction." Stardom and Celebrity: A Reader (n.d.): 25-33. Web.

Slaughter, Jamie. "Invention of The Printing Press - Who Invented The Printing Press - InventionReaction." Invention Reaction. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Apr. 2017.

Davis, Douglas. “The Work of Art in the Age of Digital Reproduction (An Evolving Thesis: 1991-1995).” Leonardo, vol. 28, no. 5, 1995, pp. 381–386. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/1576221.

HistoryofInformation.com, www.historyofinformation.com/narrative/index.php.

Editors, History.com. “Industrial Revolution.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 29 Oct. 2009, www.history.com/topics/industrial-revolution/industrial-revolution.

Event 1 UCLA Meteorite Gallery

This past week I visited the Meteorite Gallery at the UCLA Geology Building. When visiting the gallery I saw first hand how science and art are related. The gallery helped me better understand how science and art are connected in different forms of art. In the gallery we were able to see many different meteorites that were all different textures, sizes, and shapes, which better helped us understand how art and science can be connected.

All of the meteorites had different textures to them, making them all unique. Each one is different from the next, much like how every piece of art work is different. One that I found the most interesting was the Old Women Iron Meteorite. This is the second largest meteorite from the USA Mass. I found this one interesting because of the smooth look to it. Most of the others in the gallery were very rough looking compared to this one.

I would recommend visiting the Meteorite Gallery because you can see science and art being connected in a different form. When visiting you get to see how science and art can be connected through natural things. This showed me that science and art can be connected through different forms.

By visiting the Meteorite Gallery I got to see how science can be made into art, while still highlighting the important details about the meteorites. After walking around the gallery I was able to learn new things about the meteorites. 

Week 2: Math + Art

After doing this weeks readings and watching the lectures, I have learned that math is used almost all the time in art pieces, in order to get the art work to look the way it does. Many artists and mathematicians wanted to show the fourth dimension and in order to do so they had to use both art and math. The use of math in art started around 200 B.C. with the use of zero and then in the 13th century when Giotto used linear perspective to create depth. Geometry is used all the time to create depth and perspective in art.

A piece of art that I found interesting was this drawing. I found this drawing interesting because the artist had to use geometry and the vanishing point theorem to make the picture seem as though the scene continues beyond the page. The artist had to use geometry to make it seem as though the trees and the road continue to go on through the page.

Artists use math, and in particular, geometry to show different perspectives and angles in their artwork. Artists can manipulate what people see by the math that they use to create the shapes or shadows in their artworks. Artists need to calculate the sizes of the shapes that they put into their artwork in order for it to be perfect. In the two images shown, the artist had to use code to get the lights to show up exactly how they wanted them to.


Works Cited 

Vesna, Victoria. "Mathematics Pt1." Mathematics Pt1. Online, Los Angeles. 9 Apr. 2016. Lecture.

“Flatland.” Flatland, by E. A. Abbott, 1884, www.ibiblio.org/eldritch/eaa/FL.HTM.

“Fine Artist Playing with Interactivity, Math, Code.” Nathan Selikoff, nathanselikoff.com/.


The Mathematical Art of M.C. Escher, platonicrealms.com/minitexts/Mathematical-Art-Of-M-C-Escher/.

Music and Computers, sites.music.columbia.edu/cmc/MusicAndComputers/.

Week 1:Two Cultures

After reading the articles and watching the lectures I began to think about all the times people have talked about the separation of art and science. The first thing that came to mind was people saying that if you are good at one then you can not be good at the other. This also made me think of how teachers would tell you that you are either right or left brained, meaning that you are either creative and good at art or you are more scientific minded and good at math. I think that there is no real separation between the two because you need both art and science to do things.

C.P. Snow said that the curriculum offered at schools is a big reason for the belief that science and art are separated. As I began to think about being taught science and art from elementary school to high school I began to agree more with Snow. Science was always a mandatory class while art was always an elective that people would take just to have an easy class. I took two art classes in high school and five science classes. I took the art classes just so that I could get an easy A and so that I could have a class with friends, while I took the sciences classes because I had to and to help get into college.

I have always thought of science and art as two completely separate things, but throughout the years I have learned that you need both to do things and that they are actually very closely linked. Growing up I believed that with science all you needed to know what the formulas and hard facts and that with art all you needed to know was how to draw, but I have learned that that is actually not true at all. You need to use both science and art to figure things out.

Dizikes, Peter. “Our Two Cultures.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 19 Mar. 2009, www.nytimes.com/2009/03/22/books/review/Dizikes-t.html.

Vesna, Victoria. "Toward a Third Culture: Being In Between." Leonardo. 34 (2001): 121-125. Print.

Snow, C. P. The Two Cultures and the Scientific Revolution. New York: Cambridge UP, 1959. Print.

Papacosta, Pangratios, and Ann Hanson. “Artistic Expressions in Science and Mathematics.” Journal of College Science Teaching, vol. 27, no. 4, 1998, pp. 250–252. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/42989975.

Richmond, Sheldon. “The Interaction of Art and Science.” Leonardo, vol. 17, no. 2, 1984, pp. 81–86. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/1574993.