Event 3

This week I visited the birthplace of the internet here at UCLA! I honestly had no idea this place existed and I think it is so amazing that we have places like this at UCLA. More people definitely need to know about these places. When reading about this place I learned that it was actually used as an undergrad classroom until they did some research and nailed down the exact location to Boelter Hall 3420. 

Me in front of the room 

The exhibit has been named after Leonard Kleinrock who pioneered the mathematical theory of packed networks or said simpler one of the founding fathers of the internet. He was also the developer of Arpanet, which is what our internet has grown into today! Today it has developed into something unimaginable and to think it started right here at UCLA is definitely a claim. 

Charley Kline 

In 1969 the first message "LO" was sent which was sent by UCLA student Charles Kline who wanted to write "LOGIN", however, the message was not able to send because it crashed. I think it is really amazing to have so much history in one place at UCLA. Visiting this exhibit really made me realize how many technological advances we have had since that first message was sent. The internet is so important and we do everything based on the internet. In this class, we have talked a lot about innovation and technology and I believe the internet is the center of innovation. People at UCLA need to be more aware that we have cool places like this right in our 'backyard' and we should make more of an effort to go out and visit these places.







Andrews, Evan, "Who Invented the Internet" History. https://www.history.com/news/who-invented-the-internet

Zimmerman, Kim " Internet History Timeline", Live Science. https://www.livescience.com/20727-internet-history.html


Internet Hall of Fame, " Leonard Kleinrock". https://www.internethalloffame.org/inductees/leonard-kleinrock

Kudler, Adrien, "Here's the Room at UCLA where the Internet was Born" West LA. https://la.curbed.com/2011/4/11/10473182/heres-the-room-at-ucla-where-the-internet-was-born-it-tweets-1

Week 9- Space + Art

Space is one of the most fascinating things to think about. There are so many aspects of space that are still unknown but as science and technology are changing so are the ways things we are learning about space. Growing up my dad would always talk about space and all the unknowns, but as we are advancing so are those unknowns and now they are becoming the known.

Solar System and all the unknown

 When I think of a space mission I never really thought of it in a way of expressing a way of art, but thinking deeper it really is. The mere way that the spacecraft is constructed is a form of art and not to mention a huge scientific breakthrough.  As Professor Vesna mentioned in Part 4 of her lecture many spacecrafts haven't made it to space and blow up before they reach certain parts of the atmosphere. It is a challenging job and even harder to accept defeat when a spacecraft does not make it and lives are lost.

Failed Mission

 Interestingly and something I did not know is that now there are spacecraft that are trying to be more environmentally safe. As a science, technology, and our education are changing so are the ways we are thinking about our planet. Creating something that is environmentally friendly is a hard task but it is something our planet really needs especially as we begin to go to space more and more. Just looking at the NASA website we can see how advanced space technology has become and all the missions that are going on. The fact that we constantly have people in space learning new things everyday shows how much potential there is in our solar system. Soon we will be able to take trips to the moon which is something I thought would never happen, but shows what the opportunities are when combining science, technology, and developing something that is capable of doing what we before would have thought was impossible.

The potential of space travel 

Morris, Dean "Astronomy; Watching the Sun" https://slideplayer.com/slide/6300517/ 4 June 2019


Yoshio Itagaki. "Tourist on the Moon" http://www.yoshioitagaki.com/2008/tom/index.html 2002

Chow, Dennis. " Space Shuttle Challenger Disaster: What Went Wrong" 25 Jan 2011 https://www.space.com/10677-challenger-tragedy-overview.html

Vesna, Victoria. “8 Space pt4 ” YouTube, 29 July 2013, youtu.be/4WOqt_C55Mk.

Vesna, Victoria. “8 Space pt5 .” YouTube, 29 July 2013, youtu.be/4WOqt_C55Mk.

Unit 8: NanoTech + Art

Before this week the term Nanotechnology was very unfamiliar to me. After watching the lectures for this week I can see just how important nanotechnology is and how it surrounds everything we do in our everyday lives. Art surrounds everything we do, are, feel, etc and can be seen even on the smallest scales that make the true beauty of something stand out. As professor Vesna said in her introduction to this weeks material " Nanotechnology and art are introducing a whole new area in our lives and is going beyond the unknown".

NanoTech in a nutshell 

By looking at the John Curtin Art Gallery exhibits I could see just how far nanotechnology and art have come and how it is making people see things in a new light. One exhibit that stood out to me was the bone audio speaker. In order for it to work the bone needs to vibrate and thus be looked at the smallest scale and nothing that our human body can sense on its own. I think it is truly amazing how far we are able to take things and how our future is continuing to change with the development of science and technology.

Art exhibit 

In his TED talk, Ray Kurzweil talks about information technology has the ability to change humanity. As technology is changing so is the way we are thinking about changing the world and humanity. Yes, it will be complicated but we are learning more and more data on a daily basis that is fueling an increase in productivity. For instance, we are doubling the amount of solar energy we are using every 2 years and that is thanks to the nanotechnology that we are applying.





Kurzweil, Ray. “A University for the Coming Singularity.” TED, Feb. 2009, www.ted.com/talks/ray_kurzweil_announces_singularity_university.

“art in the age of nanotechnology.” Art.Base, art.base.co/event/2104-art-in-the-age-of-nanotechnology#13.

Online, UC, director. YouTube. YouTube, YouTube, 21 May 2012, www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7jM6-iqzzE.

Houim, Travis, " 10 Facts about Solar Energy that Might Surprise You. The Motley Fool https://www.fool.com/investing/2017/11/26/10-facts-about-solar-energy-that-might-surprise-yo.aspx

Varona P, Sacha G, "Artifical Intelligance in Nanotechnology. "UCLA library. https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/0957-4484/24/45/452002

Event 2

This past week I had an opportunity to visit a different kind of science and technology museum. I am currently taking this class from abroad in Copenhagen, Denmark so I went to the French Institute where they had several exhibits involving science/art/technology.

Me in front of the museum 

Flyer from the museum

The building was four stories which each floor having several different exhibits. The art was sent in from people all around the world and the best ones being displayed. Most of the exhibits showcased organisms under a microscope so you could see what it really looks like up close. I found it really fascinating that something that is sometimes perceived as gross can actually be rather beautiful and really be a true form of art. Also as we are beginning to see these things better and better our knowledge about them are getting better.



One of the exhibits that really stood out to me as being beautiful scientifically and artistically was the "beauty in seawater". This electron is usually found in the deep ocean and can be seen on the rope, floating buoys, etc. I would never think for it to be something beautiful but taking a closer look at it under a microscope really changed my perspective. The colors are a mix of green and blue and purple; something I the naked eye does not see when they see these things floating in the water. This reminds me of everything we have talked about this quarter and how things that we typically may not think are art forms are actually really beautiful and can speak their own story.

The beauty in the sea 

The last exhibit is something I found really fun. When the mind thinks of E-coli it usually involves a gross thought and something that can not be thought of in an artistic way. However, at this museum young children were able to showcase their artistic ability by 'drawing' with E-coli.  I thought it was really fun and showed just how far art and science can go and how the possibilities are endless.

Kids having fun and drawing with E-coli 

Week 7: Bio-Tech and Art (switched week 6 & 7)

In this weeks lecture Bio-Tech and art, we discussed one of the most controversial and interesting topics I think we have covered. Bio Art can be defined in several ways with some believing you have to be working with the cells hands on while others do not believe that is the case. With all these developments and science and technology we must question whether everything going on is even ethical. For me personally, I think that animals and humans should be left alone when it comes to trying scientific experiments on them like the Laugh Rat process that professor Vesna described in her lecture. Even though rats are very similar to the way the human body works and could be important for the development of science I still believe it is better if they are left in peace.



In addition in Part 5 of the lecture, I found the experiments of adding a third ear on the arm. I think with all these advanced procedures we are putting ourselves at risk and becoming something that we really are not. All these procedures do not seem healthy and in the long term, there will be consequences for changing our body to be something we want it to be. As Professor Vesna described many of these procedures are just giving us the shock value.







While the science and art behind these procedures may be astonishing and amazing and go to show just how advanced we have the ability to become I still do not believe it is something we should be doing. When I was going through the resources for this week the Mc'Donalds clip I came across was something I had seen before but it still shocked me. The fact that a meal kept for so many years could look exactly the same scares me about what I am consuming. While I do not eat McDonalds everyday it isn't just the food at McDonalds that looks this way and I'm sure most of the food we consume on a daily basis have the same chemicals in them.






"Art Professor Grows Third Ear on His Arm" 18 August 2015. https://www.news24.com/You/Archive/art-professor-grows-a-third-ear-on-his-arm-20170728


"Physicians Clinic" Animal Testing and Alternatives https://www.pcrm.org/ethical-science/animal-testing-and-alternatives

"Mcdonalds Food Experiment" Youtube. UC Online. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6us9kHHSNwk

Vesna, Victoria. “5 BioArt pt3.” YouTube, UC Online, 17 May 2012, www.youtube.com/watch?list=PL9DBF43664EAC8BC7&v=3EpD3np1S2

Vesna, Victoria. "5bioart pt2" YouTube, UC Online, 17 May 2019

https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PL9DBF43664EAC8BC7&time_continue=329&v=MdSt-Hjyi2I. 

Unit 7 Biotech and Art

Some of the archetypes

I found this week's material especially interesting. We have been around for centuries and centuries yet many of the questions posed in this weeks material are still being researched today. I think the part I found the most interesting was lecture 2 about dreams. This state of being conscious or unconscious is thought about in several different ways and yet with all the research done about it is still impossible to really know what is going on just like with science. The part that resonated with me and made me think of this neuroscience as an art form was when professor Vesna talked about the 5 most common archetypes in the context of collective conscious and how they manifest through images and through all religions and cultures. It is not something we can be educated on, but rather something we are born with.

According to Roger Penrose, the conscious is something that may not be beyond physics, but it is just something we do not know yet. In a world and society in which we think we almost know everything, it is amazing to see that the mind is something that there is still so much to learn about. The mind is a truly amazing part of our body.




Another part of the lectures that I found interesting and never really thought of a "form of art" was Part 3 when professor Vesna talked about drugs and how they are essentially altering our perspective. With LSD Hoffman explained the experience as something like in a "dreamlike state with pictures and shapes with extraordinary color". Interestingly another time he took LSD he had a terrible dreamlike state in which he thought he was possessed by demons and everyone around him was a witch. I've always thought of drugs as bad so the form so the art that is within them has kind of always been overshadowed but I did really enjoy learning about the true form that these drugs take on.




Vesna, V. (2019). Art and Biotechnology Part II. [Video Lecture]. Retrieved from https://cole2.uconline.edu/courses/1067208/pages/unit-2-view?module_item_id=26086622.


Vesna, V. (2019). Art and Biotechnology Part III. [Video Lecture]. Retrieved from https://cole2.uconline.edu/courses/1067208/pages/unit-2-view?module_item_id=26086622.

Penrose, Roger. "Consciousness Involves Noncomputable Ingredients". Chapter 14. Retrieved from https://www.edge.org/documents/ThirdCulture/v-Ch.14.html

Hartney, Elizabeth. " The five bad acid trips stories". https://www.verywellmind.com/five-bad-acid-trip-stories-22096. 5 May 2019

Cherry, Kendra. " What are Jungs 4 major archetypes. https://www.verywellmind.com/what-are-jungs-4-major-archetypes-2795439. 2 April 2019

The Mind Fit Series for Brain Health https://lajollabythesea.com/event/the-mind-fit-series-for-brain-health-2/

Midterm Project

Here is my midterm project :)

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1VED6q_EmjHLW-aok-tyDwQ5gMGvi_ucu/view?usp=sharing

Week 4: MedTechArt

Robot-Assisted Surgery 

Before this week my knowledge on Medicine-Art-Technology was very limited. Like many things discussed in this class thus far I was surprised by the connection. I remember having a conversation with someone in my friend circle one time and learning that her brother worked for a company that sold a tool that essentially did the surgery for one. It was known as robot-assisted surgery and nowadays it is seen as the future of medicine. Professor Vesna in her lecture part 2 described how technology in hospitals was only brought about more recently in the 20th century starting with a microscope and has evolved to state of the art x-rays and what not and will continue to take off.



While watching the lecture videos something else that came to my mind was the prosthetic leg. These are a perfect example of something that has been designed as having a function and also being a form of art and expression for one's self. Prosthetic legs can have various different functions and are made for various events such as running and casual. Again as technology has gotten better so have these and they will only continue to be more and more functional.

Running prosthetic leg

In addition, something I found interesting was the work of Kevin Warwick. His ideas and work essentially made sci-fi movies come to life and make me look at life from a different perspective and how advanced we are capable of becoming. He talked about in the Project Cyborg having an implant that would be able to access personal information about yourself which is fascinating. It is scary to think about what us as humans are capable of doing.

Chip Implant in body 

"Women with Prosthetic leg". Envato Market.  https://photodune.net/item/close-up-of-athlete-woman-with-prosthetic-leg-running/22333851

Chip Implant https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FmFeXC_b-Uk

"Robot-Assisted Surgery". Franciscan Health. https://www.franciscanhealth.org/health-care-services/robotic-assisted-surgery-334

Warwick, Kevin. "Project Cyborg 1.0" Kevin Warwick, 1998. 

Vesna, Victoria. “Human Body & Medical Technologies.” Cole UC online. YouTube, 21 Apr. 2012. Web. 27 Apr. 2019.

This past week I visited the Meteorite Collection in the Geology building at UCLA. In my four years here at UCLA I have never been there, but I was very happy that I was able to go there and really see exhibits I had never seen anything like before. Even more, fascinating is that it is the 5th largest exhibit in the United States and most people have no idea that it even resides at UCLA.

Me at the exhibit (unfortunately no one was working today)

When thinking of this in terms of what we have learned here at UCLA. One of the exhibits that really stood out to me was the Esquel pallasite piece which was found in 1951 in Argentina. The colors of this mass are beautiful and you can study it in a way where you are thinking about the science and the artistic features at the same time just how we have been in this class. There is a link to everything not just being about the science but how everything is also a form and expression of art.

My favorite 

In addition, NASA, who are the ones who are finding things like this are just as much artistic as they are scientific. They are capturing images and turning it into something that us on earth can relate to and really read into. As times are changing so is what NASA is doing and they will continue to be using those links between science and art.

Photos that NASA has captured 

When thinking about an exhibit like this I never would have looked at in an artistic way, but that just goes to prove how much my perceptions have changed since starting this class. I would highly recommend visiting this fascinating exhibit.

Robots are something that have been talked about for decades now and have often been a topic that I have talked with my family about. When I think of a robot I usually think of a non-living human who can do actions just as if they were human, but I have learned that after this week I am way off on that assumption. I never knew where they really came about until now. In the lecture Pt. 2 Professor Vissin, discusses how the printing press and the assembly line were the beginning of this idea of "separating actions into pieces."



                              (Then)

https://sites.tufts.edu/benmichelenp61/2018/02/21/ergonomics-of-assembly-lines/

(Robot Version)

https://www.123rf.com/photo_88133619_3d-rendering-cyborg-control-robot-assembly-line-in-car-factory.html

The word robot in itself derives from the Czech term robota which means "self labor" coined by author Karl Capek in the play "Rossums Universal Robots". Since the beginning of the term, the evolution of the robot has only taken off. We can see just how much it has taken off by looking at artists such as Ken Fiengold and his creation of "If/Then" in 2001. The robot heads that he created look almost on par with what a real human head should look like and it was made out of material such as "silicone, pigments, and fiberglass" which is not something you typically think a robot can be made out of.


In no time robots will be invading our everyday lives and that is something Rodney Brooks talks about in his TED talk. He discusses how we are "on the border of being invaded by robots and in no time at all we will be surrounded by them". We have already seen our childhood toys being turned into robot-like things with moving eyes and what not and as David Hanson described in his TED talk, "robots will think and act as you by making expressions, making eye contact" so its only a matter of time before we see what is next and what robots will be capable of. In some ways, I think a robot evolution will be cool, but in other ways, I think it will also take a lot away from other people like jobs.

https://www.wnycstudios.org/story/robot-babies-may-increase-teen-birth-rate-says-new-study

Online, UC. “Robotics pt2.” YouTube, YouTube, 15 Apr. 2012, www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=255&v=oAZ8bo9T_Pk.

- Hanson, David. “Robots That ‘Show Emotion.’” TED, www.ted.com/talks/david_hanson_robots_that_relate_to_you/up-next.

- Brooks, Rodney. “Robots Will Invade Our Lives.” TED, www.ted.com/talks/rodney_brooks_on_robots/up-next

Feingold, Ken "If/Then". (2001) http://www.kenfeingold.com/

Capek, Karl "Rossums Universal Robots." 25 Jan. 1921.

When I hear the words Math, Science, and Art, my mind instantly drifts to three different categories. To me, these things have always been separate. For instance, in school, we always took these classes as three separate subjects so there never really seemed to be any correlation between the three of them. After watching this weeks lecture and readings I can see just how much my vision has been skewed and there really are many similarities between the three and for one of them to happen there the other category must be present.


A point in the lecture that the professor made that really stuck to me was when she spoke about the mathematical rules about vanishing points and perspective. Perspective is so important for a painting to come to life and make it at all possible. This has always been the case for artists since the day they began painting, we just never thought of it like that. An artist is just as much a mathematician as they are artists.

In addition, when looking at Robert Langs Mathematical Origami, we can see just how much math plays into what he is creating. I found it interesting how he had his own design tools in creating these pieces when most people just think of origami as folding paper and nothing really that special to it. By having math and science incorporated it really brings these pieces to life.
















Finally, one last area that I found was the concept of music and computers and especially the part about sound. When I think of music I do not think about the connection of physics and perception like the reading did. Sound is represented by soundwaves and has their own mathematical term "function" surround them. Whether we see it or not math, science, and art are all around us and surround everything we do in our everyday life. A scientist is just as much an artists and mathematician.









Vesna, Victoria. “Mathematics-pt1-ZeroPerspectiveGoldenMean.mov” YouTube. 9 April 2012. Web. 14 April 2019.

Frantz, Mark. “Lesson 3: Vanishing Points and Looking at Art.” Vanishing Points, UCSF, 2000, www.cs.ucf.edu/courses/cap6938-02/refs/VanishingPoints.pdf.

Lang, Robert. “The Math and Magic of Origami.” TED, www.ted.com/talks/robert_lang_folds_way_new_origami.

Burk, Phil. "Music and Sound." Lesson 1: Sound "http://sites.music.columbia.edu/cmc/MusicAndComputers/chapter1/01_01.php"

Unit 1: Two Cultures

In the article by " The Two Cultures and the Scientific Revolution," the author CP Snow argues how there are two separate cultures present in our society today with that begin the literary and scientific. To put it in my own words their is an art and a science and they are completely separate from each other. Not only are these two completely separate but they represent different lifestyles for people and communities and thus leading to stereotypes as discussed in Week 1 lecture.



Here at UCLA, I have noticed that yes there is a clear divide between the arts and the science majors but they are beginning to become more and more intertwined. For instance, many science majors are challenging this idea by picking up a minor in the arts such as film, or desma. Back in the day, it was more common for you to pick one path and stick to that path, but today it is more common to not just take one path but to mix it up and it is ok to not know what you want to do.

In the article "Toward a Third Culture" something I found interesting is how the author describes how the artistic abilities are somewhat a science now with "many similarities between their "creative processes." I feel like I can really see this idea play out today. My dad is an engineer which is considered a science, but at the same time, he is designing things for his company to use and in some sense that could be considered an art. Both science and art are required for many professions to be able to thrive in today's day and age. 

I think by UCLA having us take many classes across the science and art department we are able to really figure out what we are doing or what we want to do. We do not have to limit ourselves to one thing and can branch out which I know some other countries do not allow. For instance, in Europe, most degree programs are limited to three years and you choose a path before you even begin so if you do not like the path you start on it becomes very difficult to change over and start something new, which we can at UCLA. 

Snow, C. P. The Two Cultures and the Scientific Revolution. New York, New York, Cambridge University Press, 1959. Print

Vesna, Victoria. "Toward a Third Culture: Being In Between." Leonardo. 34 (2001): 121-125. Print

Forrester, Sumarie. "Modeling Art vs Science Part II." Analytics One. Retrieved from http://www.analyticalones.com/modeling-art-vs-science-what-is-a-model-part-ii/

Abrams, Michael. "The Intersection of Art and Engineering." ASME. Retrieved https://www.asme.org/engineering-topics/articles/construction-and-building/intersection-of-art-and-engineering

Deviant Art. "North vs South Campus UCLA." Retrieved https://www.deviantart.com/silverwing1310/art/North-vs-South-Campus-UCLA-199654234.