Week 4 MedTech + Art

Asclepius, Greek God of medicine;
healers would dress as deities like this to help
their patients heal more quickly 

It can certainly be argued that there is an art to medicine, and one doesn’t have to look hard to find artistic elements in medical procedures. Besides the fact that medicine has traditionally had an influence on art, such as the importance of human dissection in artists’ accurate representations of the body (Vesna), art has also inspired medicine for thousands of years. Ancient healers used natural remedies, repeated ‘healing’ incantations, and in some cases even dressed up as different deities to help patients believe that they were being healed ("Belief and the Healing Arts of Ancient Civilizations."). Since this ancient placebo effect of sorts, the healing powers of psychological belief have been adopted by modern medicine as well. Though doctors may no longer dress up in costume to convince their patients that they’re being taken care of, the relationship between mind and body has been explored and developed in modern medicine and it has been proven that feeling better psychologically can have a tremendous impact on one’s physical recovery (Arguriou).

            Medical technology and art are also intertwining in more modern ways as well—for instance, scientists are getting close to being able to project one’s thoughts and memories into a video format. They use fMRIs to decode brain waves after subjects watch a YouTube video, and use the resulting waves to reconstruct the images within the mind. Soon, the ideas one thinks and dreams could become a visual masterpiece (Diaz).

YouTube clip demonstrating how brain waves can be translated into images 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nsjDnYxJ0bo

            While it seems as though art and medicine have a positive relationship, sometimes their connection can go too far. This week’s video featuring the artist Orlan seemed more like a display of attention seeking instability rather than an artistic commentary (Orlan). Self-mutilation in pursuit of beauty is not art, in my opinion. This reminded me of the internet sensation surrounding the extensive plastic surgery performed on a young Russian girl, Valeria Lukyanova, in her attempt to attain the looks of the ultimate icon of beauty, Barbie. (Idov).

Valeria Lukyanova, the Human Barbie doll

It is well known that Barbie’s proportions are unrealistic and even unhealthy for a doll that girls see as a role model. It’s a bit disturbing that a medical procedure once used to restore warn-torn limbs (Vesna) is now being used to unnecessarily augment people’s bodies. I only hope that as medicine progresses, the artistic side of medical technology is used to further healing and innovation rather than propagate unhealthy body images.

Works Cited:

Arguriou, Peter. "The Placebo Effect - The Triumph of Mind over Body." Nexus Magazine. NexusMagazine, July 2007. Web. 25 Apr. 2015.

"Belief and the Healing Arts of Ancient Civilizations." WRF. World Research Foundation. Web. 25 Apr. 2015. 

Diaz, Jesus. "Scientists Reconstruct Brains' Visions Into Digital Video in Historic Experiment." Gizmodo. 22 Sept. 2011. Web. 26 Apr. 2015. 

Idov, Michael. "Valeria Lukyanova, the Human Barbie Doll." GQ. Condé Nast, Apr. 2014. Web. 27 Apr. 2015. 

Orlan -- Carnal Art (2001) Documentary. Dir. Stéphan Oriach. Perf. Orlan. N.d. Film. YouTube. Web. 27 Apr. 2015. 

Vesna, Victoria. "Medicine Parts 1-3." Lecture. Web. 23 Apr. 2015. 

Week Three: Robotics + Art

Mass Production & Art (or Lack Thereof)

In a world of rapid technological advancement, it makes sense that modern art would absorb and adapt to fit the mold of this progress. Art and robotics have had a mutually influential relationship since the birth of the latter concept during the Industrial Revolution. Walter Benjamin asserts that mass production takes away from the authenticity of a finished product—so while it may have once required a carpenter to spend hours of painstaking work building a rocking chair, a machine can now produce hundreds of them in an hour (Benjamin).

Craftsmanship & Art

I agree with this concept in terms of the construction of tangible pieces of artwork, such as an oil painting on canvas, or a handcrafted clay sculpture, as I think industrialized production of this kind takes away from the ingenuity of creation. When it comes to computer-generated and digital art, however, I think that mass-production and dissemination are actually a byproduct of the medium and don’t take away from the quality of the product. For example, someone renting a copy of Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1986) can expect to experience the film in nearly the same way as anyone else watching, because “popular culture “in the age of mechanical reproduction” is generally mass produced and ready for virtually identical mass consumption.” (Irwin, 42). 

Benign Robots & Art; 'Her'

            This concept is also relevant as we move into what Robert Manning calls the “Third Industrial Revolution”, or the rise in the importance of robotics in our modern life. Manning predicts that humankind sits on the threshold of a new technological era, where we will soon move from tools like Roombas and ATM machines to the use of self-driving cars and robotic personal assistants (Manning, 2). Hollywood has been foreshadowing this shift for years, as it continues to produce movies that feature robots intermingling with humans, and questions the role that these entities will assume.

Evil Robots & Art, 'The Terminator'

The robots in these movies take on different roles, whether they be sinister (Singleton), as with The Terminator (1984) or I, Robot (2004) or benevolent, like the movie Her (2013)—where not only do the robots get along with humans, but even have the capacity to love them (Meadows). Whether or not these artistic portrayals of robotic technology will ever become a reality remains to be seen. It is clear, however, that art and robotics will continue to influence one another in the future. 

Works Cited: 

Benjamin, Walter. "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction". 1936. PDF file. 

Irwin, William. Philosophy and the Interpretation of Pop Culture. Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield, 2007. 42. Print. 

Manning, Robert A. "Rising Robotics and the Third Industrial Revolution." Strategic Foresight Initiative. Atlantic Council, 2013. Web. 19 Apr. 2015.

Meadows, Mark Stephen. "Robot Love: Spike Jonze's New Sci-fi Film 'Her' May Be Closer to Reality than You Think." Robohub. 28 Jan. 2014. Web. 17 Apr. 2015. 

Singleton, Malik. "80 Years of Robots in Hollywood." TIME. TIME Magazine, 29 June 2007. Web. 18 Apr. 2015. 

Week 2: Math + Art

“YOU, WHO are blessed with shade as well as light, you, who are gifted with two eyes, endowed with a knowledge of perspective, and charmed with the enjoyment of various colours…” –Edwin A. Abbott

Before this week’s lesson, I hadn’t given much thought to the connection between math and art. Of course on some level I always knew they were related—how could computer graphics or architectural design exist without the coalescence of art and math? But I had never before given it serious thought, nor had I thought about how beautiful the combination of the two could be. The above quote, along with the lecture, inspired me to reflect on this concept.

Delving into the specifics of how big a role math played in creating such prominent works of art as the pyramids, Leonardo da Vinci’s Virtruvian Man (using the Golden Ratio concept based on Fibonacci Numbers) or Mondrian’s use of simple geometric ‘golden rectangles’ in his more modern artwork, made me realize just how much math and art have always been intertwined. 

Edwin A. Abbott’s book, Flatland, also provides a literary illustration of how art and math come together. His clever use of the personification of geometric shapes and lines gives the reader a unique perspective about dimensions. From the above examples, I learned that while being an artist requires skill, a great deal of precision comes from the math used to help construct a beautiful work of art.

         

My friend, who is an aspiring architect, uses math frequently to dream up beautiful buildings that wouldn’t be considered anything less than art, though she doesn’t think of herself as an artist. I would definitely consider the architect who constructed the mausoleum pictured on the right to be an artist as well. A theme in this class seems to be challenging the idea that people who study art are usually totally separate from the world of math/science, and vice versa. As the examples above suggest, this couldn’t be further from the truth, and I'm grateful to have learned that. 

Works Cited

Abbott, Edwin A. Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions. New York: Barnes & Noble, 1963. Web. 9 Apr. 2015. 

Bourne, M. "The Math Behind the Beauty." Intmathcom RSS. Web. 9 Apr. 2015. 

Parveen, Nikhat. "Mathematics and Art." Web. 10 Apr. 2015.

"Pattern Lesson 5 Math Part." Mathematics Across the Curriculum at Dartmouth. Trustees of Dartmouth College. Web. 10 Apr. 2015. 

Vesna, Victoria. “Mathematics Pt1-Zero Perspective Golden Mean.” Online video. Youtube. UC Online, 9 April 2012. Web. 10 April 2015.

Week One: Two Cultures

This week's topic, focusing on the two cultures referenced in C. P. Snow's "Two Cultures and Scientific Revolution", really struck a chord with me as a UCLA North campus major. Snow talks about how the worlds of art and science seem to operate in separate spheres, with scientists and artists having opinions of one another that disparage the value of each other's subject. 

North Campus
https://lifeabsorbed.files.wordpress.com/2011/12/img_7012.jpg

South Campus
https://www.localresearch.com/site_media/media/uploads/img/2012/Feb/24/cssc3_1.jpg

Although my major is Communication Studies, which is slightly outside the realm of art and science, I can definitely relate to the divide between North and South campus and the reputation that each direction of our campus has. I work at the Trader Joe's in Westwood, and last quarter I was cashing out a customer who told me she was a professor of science at UCLA. When she asked what I was studying and I told her my major, she asked, "Isn't that known as a cop-out major? A lot of those North campus majors seem to be." I couldn't believe that an educator such as herself would diminish the academic value of the arts simply because the discipline is different than her own, and use her opinions to perpetuate the stereotype that North campus majors work less hard and get by more easily, as demonstrated by the attitudes of the picture below. 

http://i.imgur.com/TGYPSNM.jpg

That being said, I don't know much about South campus myself. I rarely ever venture to that side of school, and my South campus roommates tell me they hardly ever make their way to the North. In the end, I think everyone could do with recognizing the value that both art and science offer, especially when the two come together. I am looking forward to learning about this collaboration, and also more about the emerging third culture, described affectionately by Kevin Kelly as 'nerd culture' that incorporates the increasing importance of technological advances in our society as well as art and science. A cool example of all three is included in this video: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0r_QAFI3Ixw

Works Cited: 

 C. P. Snow, The Two Cultures and the Scientific Revolution(Cambridge Univ. Press, New York, 1959).

Kelly, Kevin. "The Third Culture." Science Magazine. 13 Feb. 1998. Web. 01 Apr. 2015. 

"LA Walk #6 UCLA." LifeAbsorbed. 6 Dec. 2011. Web. 06 Apr. 2015. 

"Science vs. Engineering vs. Liberal Arts." Reddit. Aug. 2014. Web. 06 Apr. 2015. 

"The Verge, Year One: 365 Days of Art, Culture, Science, and Technology." Youtube, 12 Dec. 2012. Web. 01 April 2015. 

Victoria Reed