Kaushik_Naresh_DESMA9

Out of the topics we have covered so far, I was surprised to see how medicine and art can work together, since I feel like prior to going over this week’s content, I would have never expected medicine and art to have much to do with one another. What stood out to me the most from this week was the idea of tensegrity models being used to model cells, which Donald E. Ingber mentioned in “The Architecture of Life”. Additionally, it was interesting to read about the mechanical and architectural comparisons with bodily functions and design.  Tensegrity Model of Cell Further, the influx of technology, art, and medicine that Professor Vesna talked about in lecture, particularly with reference to Eduardo Kac and Kevin Warwick provided an insight into how the human body can serve as a vessel for technology based artistic exploration. This is something that is reflected in popular media as well, for instance with RoboCop, which takes these ideas to the next level, by exploring a hypothetical...

I attended the Alchemy + Art event by Ann McCoy on the 14th of April. Going into the event, the only prior knowledge I had about alchemy was that it was a pseudoscience that believed that commonly found metals could be turned into rare metals such as gold and silver. Attending this event gave me a deeper insight into alchemy, and its connection with thought, consciousness and art. My registration confirmation for the event As the Getty Research Institute states, alchemy was about more than just attempting to transform metals, rather it was a process that tried to “bend” nature to human imagination. Additionally, philosophers, scientists, and artists looked to it as an answer to the secrets of human creativity. This was reflected in the talk by Ann McCoy as she talked about the role of the subconscious in the creative process, and how the subconscious has impacts on our day to day life that are not always obvious. Additionally, Ann McCoy talked about some of her own art, and the way in ...

Concept cars, which always look much better than their on-road counterparts are the first thing that popped into my head when thinking of the overlap between industrialization and art. The futuristic and forward thinking design of these cars reflects the artistic interpretations of industrial and technological progress. Something similar is the way in which robots and technology are portrayed as dangerous and evil, for example in The Terminator series where the main antagonist is essentially an algorithm. Professor Machiko Kusahar mentioned in lecture, and highlighted the difference in perceptions of robots in the west and Japan, where shows such as Astro Boy portrayed robots in the opposite way. Cadillac's Concept Car called the Elmiraj It was interesting to see Benjamin Walter’s comments on painting being presented as a “simultaneous collective experience”, which he believes is wrong. Especially since today paintings being displayed in exhibitions is the norm, it was interesting ...

As an applied math major, I have always appreciated the ways in which math presents itself across all realms. Whether it is physics, or programming, or music, math is always present. This week's content delved deeper into this idea, and I learnt a lot more about how math shaped certain aspects of art, for instance, in the lecture video, Professor Vesna mentioned how artists such as Leonardo Da Vinci, who looked at painting as a science, utilized mathematical concepts to make their artistic pieces.  It was interesting to see how artists interpreted and utilized the concept of the fourth dimension, as these are different from the scientific and mathematic interpretations of the fourth dimension. For instance, Linda Henderson quotes the Manifeste Dimensioniste which described the different ways different art forms interpreted the fourth dimension. This is of course different from the scientific interpretation of the fourth dimension (usually as time). This provided an insight into th...

C.P. Snow talks about how the education system in England helped propel the separation between the two cultures. This resonated with me since growing up in India, the education system was similar to what Snow described, with people having to make a choice between the sciences and humanities/arts in high school, helping enforce the two culture system. I was exposed to technology at a young age and this led to me being interested in science, and I chose to major in Mathematics of Computation here at UCLA.  The traditional "streams" of study in India, separated into Science, Humanities (also called Arts), and Commerce (Economics/Business) Parallel to being interested in the sciences academically, I gained an interest in music and music production, particularly modern hip-hop/rap. This allowed me to be involved in both the sciences and the creative arts. As I started to learn more about music production, I noticed that a parallel could be drawn between music production and comput...