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