ALEXANDRACDESMA9

BIOART TALK: WE'RE ALL LIVING IN AN ESTROWORLD For my first event, I attended the BioTalk Series: We’re all living in an Estroworld by Mary Maggic. Prior to my attendance, I was not sure what to expect, despite the fact that Maggie’s topics seemed very intriguing. Maggic is a very involved and accomplished person in the world of ‘biohacking’ and is diving deep into the world of how our bodies “queer at the molecular level” (Maggic).   Maggic, Mary. “We're All Living in the Estroworld - Sanctuary for Independent Media.”  The Sanctuary For Independent Media , www.mediasanctuary.org/event/were-all-living-in-the-estroworld/. I thought this was an extremely interesting application to the gender roles and norms we see today, but also a great addition to the material learned in class this week. This week we learning about the intersection between art and medical technology. For example, Professor Vesna discussed how plastic surgery and prosthetics emerged from injuries obtained in wa...

MEDICAL TECHNOLOGY + ART When Professor Vesna first introduced the topic of the intersection of medical technology and art, the first thoughts that came to mind were about the creation of prosthetics and the world of plastic surgery. We learned in lectures this week a brief history of how plastic surgery emerged, and also how both prosthesis and plastic surgeries are becoming increasingly more prevalent in our modernizing society (Vesna).   Macrovector. “Download Medical Technology Isometric Icons Vector Illustration for Free.” Vecteezy , Vecteezy, 11 May 2021, www.vecteezy.com/vector-art/2415755-medical-technology-isometric-icons-vector-illustration. Plastic surgery is the epitome of the merging of medical technology and art. According to Professor Vesna, the beginnings of plastic surgery were results of war, dating back to about 4000 years ago (Vesna). The facial and head injuries resulting from chemical and physical destructive powers during WWI paved the way for the further ...

ROBOTICS + ART The world we live in today is immensely controlled by technology, and we have reached a point where “technological innovations have become necessary” but also “culture, ideals and aspirations of human societies have shaped how those civilizations have created, benefited from, and been impeded by, technology” (Wardynski). The content from this week highlighted the evolution of perception of technology and industrialization (when combined with art). I found it fascinating to learn about how we have evolved from a society where technology was not seen in a   positive manner to encouraging new innovations everyday — for example, robots and artificial intelligence are now becoming more normalized into our society where they were considered to be unusual or weird before.   “Is Your Perception of Technology Holding You Back?” Les Olson Company , 13 May 2021, lesolson.com/blog/is-your-perception-of-technology-holding-your-business-back/. One person that was highlighted ...

MATH + ART The lessons from this week shed light onto the relationship between mathematics and art. Similar to the diverging relationship of science and art in our society today, we learned that math and art follow a similar suit.   The relationship between math and art comes and is shown in many forms, however, one that was highlighted in Professor Vesna’s lecture was the “golden ratio”(Vesna). Professor Vesna refers to this as the “ultimate connection” between the two disciplines that many people associate as opposites (Vesna). The “golden ratio,” also known as divine proportion, is a mathematical expression “ratio of two sums whereby their ratio is equal to the larger of the two quantities” (Palmer). This divine proportion however is and has been heavily used in art — now and in the past.   One artist in our history who is often referenced when talking about the golden ratio is Leonardo DaVinci, as it became a “critical instrument in the matter of accurate proportionality” ...

TWO CULTURES   The perspectives on the topic of “two cultures,” also known as the disciplines of art and science, is the idea that these two topics are very much divided. Charles Snow, the first person to contribute commentary on the separation of the two disciplines speaks on how “literary intellectuals [are] at one pole […] at the other [are] scientists, […] and [both] have a curious distorted image of each other” (Snow, 4). However, the perspective of Vesna in Third Culture, offers an interesting idea in the linkage of the two topics, more or less a build to Snow’s ideas of “two cultures”. Vesna suggests that the bridge between the two disciplines are artists who utilize technology — they “delicate[ly] bridge” arts and sciences together to create “a new, mutant third culture” (Vesna,122).   Like Professor Vesna mentioned in lecture, this split of disciplines is very apparent in several universities across the United States. On the UCLA campus, we can see the North side of c...