EmmagDESMA9

Medicine and art are generally never thought of together. These are the competing fields with very different ideas about them. However, there are many connections between medicine and art and many of these connections are very important to the success and importance of medicine.   Personally for me, the first thing that I thought about when I saw that this week’s topic was plastic surgery. This seems like something that embodies both art and medicine to a very high degree. In her third lecture on medical technologies and art, Professor Vesna argues that plastic surgery can be seen as art in two different senses. First with the doctor being an artist to change someone’s looks. She also makes to point that the patient can be the artist as they can use the surgery to comment on culture’s notions about beauty. She uses the example of Orlan. She is a French performer who has had 9 cosmetic surgeries all directed as a live performance. She even has her body being transformed to ...

For my first event, I went to the UCLA Meteorite Gallery. This gallery is home to the largest meteorite collection on the West Coast and fifth largest in the United States. I really enjoyed my experience at this event. I thought that it was very interesting to look at meteorites as well as learn about them both in scientific aspects such as where these meteorites came from as well as the history of them such as where they were found and who found them. I also thought that the gallery was a great way of understanding how science can be displayed and understood as art. I think that this event can show topics or concepts in our class. There is the clear science aspect by looking at the physical composition of the meteorites as well as the terrestrial age projections or cosmic-ray-exposure-age distributions. But something that can be overlooked is the simple display of the meteorites. It is done in a way that suggests the meteorites are not something that are scientific disco...

When I think about robotics, I tend to think about Artificial Intelligence or at least very advanced robots and machines like the things you see in science fiction. It is something that is deep into the field of math, science, and engineering. I think that is a common conception that many people have, however there is so much more to robotics than just that. In Professor Vesna's first lecture, she discusses how influential industrialization and mass production is on art and how influential art is on robotics. According to Vesna, the idea of robots came out of theater and later film.  For there to be the platform for people to see things about robots and robotics through film, there was the need for mass production. It started with information. Jeremy Norman discusses the   history of information and recognizes the drastic change after the invention of the moveable type and printing press by Johannes Gutenberg. As things became mass produced there was the ability fo...

Mathematics and art are two fields that are often disconnected   with each other as people who are in one typically do not associate themselves with the other. However, it has become very clear that there is really a huge relationship between these two fields and that they can both influence each other. Professor Vesna’s lecture discusses the ways that mathematics have influenced art. One very important way that this has happened is through the use of computers and the influence of technology on art. Another source that provided insight to the influence of math on art is Marc Frantz’ “Vanishing Points and Looking at Art” where he discusses the mathematical idea of the vanishing point and how the elements of nature and reality can be manipulated in art. One final insight towards the relation of mathematics and art is Robert Lang’s origami. He says that “mathematics both describes and enables the creation of beautiful forms” which is something that can bee seen in his beautiful ...

South Campus vs. North Campus C.P. Snow in his essay “The Two Cultures and the   Scientific Revolution” is the first person to have really come forward with the idea that there are two cultures. These two realms are completely separate from each other. There is art and there is science. This idea is that if you are in science you cannot be in art and vice versa. C.P. Snow has the perspective that universities are the cause or at least the main perpetrator of the this separation. This argument is something very relatable and can be seen at UCLA with the obvious separation between art related majors and classes versus science related majors and   classes. There is the separation based on the type of degree you receive (B.A. or B.S) as well as the physical place on campus you go to class (South or North Campus).   Left Brain vs. Right Brain People Professor Vesna discusses the education system in “Two Cultures: Lecture Three” and says that the...