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Week 9: Space + Art

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Human’s fascination for the universe is always so outstanding throughout history. Back to the times of ancient Greeks and Romans, people began to construe about the out world. The universe is given such romance that the stars are named after Gods. During the Renaissance and the Enlightenment, the heliocentric system was first introduced by Copernicus, contrary to the church’s belief at that time. Despite such a systematic mathematical formulation of the solar system, our knowledge about the universe was nothing but too little. Hence mankind started to think about going into the space, and this was achieved in the 20 th century. The most notable among the excursions to the space was made by Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin to the Moon. After that, the space has been extensively explored by the human race. The beauty and mystery of the space has inspired artists a lot. Back then to the 19 th century, Van Gogh created the famous masterpiece The Starry Night , which was an a
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Event 3: Leonardo Art Science Evening Rendezvous

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Last week I attended the Leonardo Art Science Evening Rendezvous and it was a mind-blowing experience. The event consists of several guests talking about their current projects and seeking cooperation among each other. Each of them is super brilliant and innovative, but one of them impressed me most. Her name is Behnaz Farahi. Behnaz Farahi Behnaz is an architect and interaction designer at USC working on enhancement of the relationship between human beings and the built environment. We, humans, react based on the surrounding environments. Behnaz, however, wants to go the other way around, by constructing something that reacts according to human movements. Next I will talk about her several ideas given in her presentation. Aurora The first one is called the “Aurora”, which is an interactive kinetic ceiling that responds to corporeal movements below it. In this way, a building is able to adjust its configuration by tracking bodily movements and is thus able to ad
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Week 8 Nanotech and Art

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Nanotechnology is a rising industry that is affecting our lives increasingly. I am always aware of its existence but have no idea what it really is. This week’s lectures gives me a refreshing introduction to nanotechnologies and this subject is truly amazing to me. One of the topics that strikes me most is the scanning tunneling microscopy. It is able to image surfaces at atomic level to a precision of 0.1 to 0.01 nanometers. This allows people to get rough images of molecules and atoms, which is inconceivable before. Another application of nanotechnology is in medical areas, in which case it can target specific tumors in human body and directly cure disease. This is more efficient and effective than the usual drug treatments in that it directly attacks the ill cells. Apart from scientific applications, there are possibilities of artistic practices. One of them is for stain glasses and glazing purposes as mentioned by Jim. Back in the Middle Ages, people had found ways
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Week 7 Neuroscience and Art

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Human mind has always been an intriguing subject throughout history. How we think determines how we percept the world, and then influences how we interpret the world. To me, art is about our interpretations and perceptions of the world. So understanding our own minds is crucial to the development of art. In particular, neuroscience is of great significance to art. Neuron Trees To begin with, the human mind itself is a great art piece. The neuron connection patterns discovered by Ramon y Cajal exhibit tree-like input and output structures. Such complicated and delicate patterns are inherent in each of us and it is hard to believe that they have no artistic purposes. Our imagination is a result of interactive activities between these neurons. Dreams The next thing that comes into mind is dream. Professor Vesna mentioned that although plenty of researches have been done, we still know little about dreams. Indeed, dreams are mysterious in the sense that even under th
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Week 6 Biotech+Art

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At the beginning of this week’s lecture, professor Vesna mentioned that biotechnology and art is a controversial area. After viewing all the lectures and readings, I found myself in the same situation. To me, biotechnology is a rising discipline that will probably be the leading industry in the 21 st century. Indeed, there have been great breakthroughs in curing diseases and increasing agricultural productivity, improving the quality of our life. However, when art is associated with biotechnology, I am not so confident that the same conclusion can be drawn. Biotechnology itself is a very controversial area due to its unforeseen consequences and the fact that most of the experiments are carried out on animals. It to some extent breaks the balance of nature by altering the original compositions of creatures. But science is about trial and error and if we accept this fact, biotechnology for scientific purposes is still probably legitimate. However, if the purposes for changing t
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Event 2 Mnemoawari

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This week I attended Eli Joteva’s art solo show-- -- Mnemoawari. Upon entering, I first encountered a refreshing projection on the wall (image below). It turns out that the image is a transcription of Eli’s roommate’s brain wave while sleeping. A cup of water was put aside her roommate and recollected to exhibit this result. This is quite exciting for me because I have been fascinated by the idea of human brain wave for a long time. If we can somehow collect and interpret these brain waves, we can communicate without speaking a word. This is very helpful for those who are suffering from aphasia and furthermore people speaking different languages may communicate without difficulty. Now it is amazing to see that a cup of water is able to capture these brain waves. Without our awareness, the fluctuations our brain waves have caused are permanently inscribed in the ambiance. And this seems to induce the main body of the show, which I will discuss next. As I stepped into the room,
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Week 5: Midterm

Here is the link to my midterm presentation. https://www.dropbox.com/s/dkn76jiffhqksoz/Ruiyi_Yang_Desma9_Midterm.pdf?dl=0
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