Week 4 Assignment

Week 4 Assignment

     When I saw this weeks blog assignment, the first thing that I noticed throughout the pictures and artwork was the impression of body modification. This can range from small modifications like earrings or rings attached to the body, all the way to more extreme cases like breast augmentation or full body tattoos. This combination of medicine, technology, and art is a prime example of how all three different skills can come together. 

     Another feature that is more prominent in my life is a Virtual Reality headset. This piece of technology allows people to feel as if they are actually experiencing in real life what is going on in their headset. By using artistic graphic design and the use of brand new technology, this new style of gaming is going to be extremely popular in the near future. 

     A type of medical procedure that is mentioned in lecture that I have taken part in is an MRI. I have had about 2 MRIs on my back and 1 on my shoulder. This process seemed very simple as I lied down in the MRI tube, but after I was finished the doctor showed me all of the scans that were taken of my body. I did not realize how intricate each part of the machine was and how much of an impact it had on the rendering of the MRI images.

 

Works Cited

“Art.” Virgil Wong,

“The Future of Medical Technology.” YouTube, 15 Oct. 2017,

Greenwald, Will. “The Best VR (Virtual Reality) Headsets of 2018.” PCMAG, 5 Dec. 2017, 

Radiological Society of North America, et al. “Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) - Body.”

Howard, Jacqueline. “WATCH: Blind Men See Again After Getting Experimental Implant.” The Huffington Post, TheHuffingtonPost.com, 7 Dec. 2017,  

Week 3 Assignment

Week 3 Assignment

     When we think of the word robot we immediately think of a human like figure made of metal that is capable of doing human like activities. But the first time that robots came into place was technically during the Industrial Revolution. Although they do not seem like the robots we think about today, machines like the printing press or the sewing machine were the first of its kind and could have been classified as "robots". 

     In Rodney Brooks' TED Talk, he says that "In the next 50 years or so, we will have to accept the fact that robots can have their own emotions." This seems like a very scary concept to have to think about, thinking that a piece of metal can have it own emotions is something that no one would have ever believe even a decade ago. An example of this concept is shown in the TV series Westworld, where robots are able to create their own emotions. Although this is entirely fictional, it could be an example of something that Brooks might be trying to explain. 

       More on the technical side of robotics, Dennis Hong shows off his latest robotic creations in his TED Talk. He talks about how difficult it is to create a fully functioning robot past the level of hobbyist robotics. He says that studying and researching robotics is the only way to get good with robots and be able to make the highly technical ones like he can. From rock climbing robots made by Dennis Hong to room cleaning robots by Rodney Brooks, these robots all have a place in our world but in the next coming years it is up to us to decide where and how we can get these robots into our world without "taking over".

Works Cited

Hong, Dennis. “My Seven Species of Robot -- and How We Created Them.” TED: Ideas 

Brooks, Rodney. “Robots Will Invade Our Lives.” TED: Ideas Worth Spreading, 

Hanson, David. "Robots that "show emotion"." David Hanson: Robots that "show emotion" | TED Talk | TED.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Apr. 2017

Lipson, Hod. "Building "self-aware" robots." Hod Lipson: Building "self-aware" robots | TED Talk | TED.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Apr. 2017. 

Vesna, V. (2012, April 15). Robotics pt1.

Event #1

Event #1

     For Event #1 I visited the Hammer Museum in Westwood with my friend Zach Sweeney. We met a wonderful guide named Gabrielle that helped us to understand every bit of artwork that was on display. After looking at the artwork that the museum had to offer, it helped me to realize how much the concepts we have been discussing in lecture apply to these works of modern art. The amount of mathematics that goes into these works of art is truly stunning. 

     The art shown below is a piece by Darren Bader. He took a piece of art from Louise Lawler and drained it of color and any figures to leave a black and white sketch looking work of art. The work of art looks like it has been carefully measure out and drawn perfectly to scale to the brick wall and other drawings inside.


   
     As we were leaving the museum, we saw this chair that was on display and thought that it was just amazing. To get this chair to work properly I am sure that it took a lot of measuring and testing to get this chair to work. It is my favorite work of art from the museum and I think it is great for showing how math needs to be used when trying to make a work of art.

     In my 2nd blog post I talked about how mathematics and art work together and how no artist can avoid using math in their artistic career. These works of art and many of the other ones that I saw on exhibition are examples of that.

 When I saw the prompt for the week 2 response, I had so many ideas about how math and art related to each other. Professor Vesna said, " The influence of mathematics on art was quite obvious when considering the use of computers to create digital art, animation, and 3D renderings, among others." This is something that heavily relates to my life, seeing as I use a computer heavily every day of my life. As many people might know, video games are becoming increasingly popular in the world, but many people do not realize how hard it is to make a game. Just the amount of math and algorithms and coding that goes into making a simple 3D structure is overwhelming. 












     In the lecture video, "Fibonacci, Fractals, and Financial Markets," it talks about how Leonardo Da Vinci used the
"golden ratio" when drawing the picture of the Vitruvian Man. This ratio is used on a larger scale
and can be seen in other works of art like buildings and monuments.





















Another example of the connection between math and art is Robert Lang's origami. Lang
mentions that he believes that a simple piece of art such as origami can be important for engineers
when working on larger pieces of art like sculptures. This makes a lot of sense to me because when
you are making a sculpture, it really is just a large origami art.All you need to do is just scale the numbers
up so that the piece of art is larger than a normal piece of origami.

I think that no great artist has been able to avoid using math in their artwork throughout their careers.

Whether it is computer graphic design, or sculpting a banzai garden, there are always going to be

numbers involved. Professor Vesna's lecture was very eye opening as to how math and art work together to make something totally new and unique.

Works Cited:

Leonardo Da Vinci,Vitruvian Man

Robert Lang, Origami

Witcher 3 Artwork

Vesna, Victoria. “Mathematics-pt1-ZeroPerspectiveGoldenMean.mov.” Cole UC online. Youtube, 9 April 2012. Web. 11 Oct. 2012. 

Lang, Robert J. “Origami Mathematics.” Origami Mathematics. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Oct. 2012.

 
Week 1 Assignment



   I knew after reading "The Two Cultures and The Scientific Revolution" by C.P. Snow, I  knew that there were plenty of concepts that I could relate to personally. The relationship between art and science is something that I take note of every time I walk into the Wasserman Football Facility. The athletic training tables, which are scientifically designed to be perfect for doing any kind of treatment on, also looks very luxurious with high quality leather and top of the line maple legs.

      This perspective of art being featured in objects influenced by science made me realize that art can give gloomy things an brighter side as if they light up the room. In terms of technology, you see computers in almost every workplace and home and most of the time they all are the same computers and look fairly simple. I think that a prime example of art being influenced in scientific innovation is in personal computers. The customization options that a computer owner has is incredible and can add a whole new positive view to the idea of having to spend time on your computer to get work done.













     In Professor Vesna's article, "Toward a Third Culture: Being In Between", she mentions that literary individuals and scientists still have a, "very fragile bridge" between them. I do not think that any college student will have a good idea what a scientist is talking about if they use their own scientific terms, which is what I think is what Vesna is alluding to, but I do believe that it is important to keep trying to build that bridge so that both parties can understand what is being said. An example of this would be a medical checkup, or maybe a contractor to work on your home.

Sources:

Fox, Alex. “25 Amazing PC Gaming Battlestations.” ForeverGeek, 18 May 2017, 
Esposito, Lisa. “Here's Why Your Doctor Seems Pressured.” U.S. News & World Report, U.S. News & World Report,
UCLA Club, 2015, Physical Training Table
Snow, C. P., and Stefan Collini. The Two Cultures. Cambridge University Press, 2014.
Vesna, Victoria. "Toward a Third Culture: Being In Between"