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Event 3: Undergraduate Design Media Arts Exhibition

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 On Thursday, June 6th, I attended the Undergraduate Design Media Art Exhibition at the Broad Arts Center on campus. I found this exhibit very moving as the second you entered the exhibition room, it was silent (different from the past Broad Arts Center exhibitions I have attended). As you entered the space, the walls were filled with several white pieces of paper with information on the Palestine protests. As I continued reading each sign, the artist made it clear she decided to use this platform not to share her art but to share the stories of our classmates and professors who took a stand against UCLA and met brutal realities. While this individual piece was truly inspiring and moving, the piece that I found most related to this course was Katherine Clark's Voyeur. Voyeur by Katherine Clark perfectly intertwined art with technology in a truly fascinating way. At first glance, Clark's work is deceptively simple; a large screen, a video, and a window frame. However, the piece
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Week 9: Space + Art

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 The interplay between art and space is an exciting topic for me. Throughout this week, I learned much about our "cosmic ocean" and the explorations humanity has undertaken throughout history ( Vesna ). What interested me the most is how we transitioned from an intense space race between the USA and USSR during the Cold War to the collaborative efforts exemplified by the international space station.  What kicked off the space race between the two countries was the launch of Sputnik in 1957. Sputnik was a "...shiny steel sphere of about 23 in across with four antennas trailing behind it" and sent "meaningless signals back to earth" ( Vesna ). Yet, this had a huge effect on society during that time creating a sense of anxiety amongst Americans. However, as time progressed, we have found ways to work together creating a more diverse and intelligent understanding of space together.  Furthermore, on July 15, 1975 "Apollo-Soyuz mission brought together two
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Week 8: Nanotechnology and Art

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 Nanotech is truly a fascinating category of science that I was not familiar with. The term "nano" is derived from the Greek word dwarf. However, in scientific terms, nano can be defined as a billionth of a meter (Gimzewski). Nanotec technology has numerous practical applications including the fabrics used in sports apparel to prevent odor, "stay fresh bags" for food longevity, self-cleaning glass, and many other examples (Gimzewski). In addition, Professor Vesna shares that nanotechnology will introduce "...a whole new area into our lives"... "going beyond everything we have known" ( Vesna ). While these examples are extremely fascinating I was most interested in how nanotechnology is incorporated in geckos' ability to walk on walls and ceilings.  Geckos' remarkable ability to scale verticle surfaces and even ceilings is a prime example of nature's nanotechnological at work. Furthermore, scientists found that this ability is attribut
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Event 2 Blog

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     On Wednesday, May 16th, I attended the UCLA DMA 2024 Masters of Fine Arts Exhibition Opening called Love Machines. Not only was each piece tremendously unique and thought-provoking but they were also installations unlike anything I'd ever seen before. As you enter the exhibition, you are welcomed with sounds, lights, and people greeting you. The first installation that caught my eye was Jules Johnston's "Touch(ing) Screen Workshop." Johnston's installation highlights the ideas of phone usage and how iPhones can assist and disadvantage society.       While all the installation pieces tie into our class in one way or another, the art piece that not only caught my attention the most but also got me thinking about topics we talked about in class was Chung Xu's "Wet Floor" exhibit. Xu's installation featured four caution wet floor signs connected to wheels, equipped with little squirt guns that periodically squirt the floor. As I talked to Xu, he
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Week 7: The Unconscious Creative Mind

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       Exploring the unconscious mind has been a subject of fascination and investigation for psychologists and scholars throughout history, with remarkable figures such as Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung making significant contributions to understanding this phenomenon. While Fued and Jung joined forces for a time, "...this relationship and collaboration began to deteriorate as the years went on" (Vesna). Furthermore, as an analytical and educated individual, Jung formulated his own ideas of the human psyche. He reached a divergent conclusion, contending that Freud's notion of the unconscious mind was "limited and overly negative." In contrast, Jung believed that the "unconscious could also be a source of creativity" (Vesna). Furthermore, in an essay about the creativity of the unconscious mind, Caragh Medlicott poses the idea that "our conscious mind can only hold a very small amount of information at a time" (Medlicott) proving that when we ne
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Week 4: Medicine + Technology + Art

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      "Time Capsule" by Edwardo Kac remains a groundbreaking exploration of the convergence of art, medicine, and technology, challenging traditional understandings of identity and embodiment. Kac's installation blurs the boundaries between technology and art, presenting a thought-provoking analysis of the evolution of humans and digital culture.      At its core, "Time Capsule" revolves around the implantation of a microchip, that is typically used for animals into Kac's own body ( Herrera ). This act serves as a symbolic gesture highlighting the growing intimate emergence of technology into the human experience. By registering himself into a database originally designed for animals, Kac prompts introspection into the shifting boundaries of the future of technology. Kac was beyond his time with this installation and gives a "preamble of what is to come" in the future ( Vesna ).      As I researched more on Kac, I found that he conducted another co
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Event 1 Blog

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       On April 10th at 6:00pm, I attended Hannah Landacker and Patricia Olynyk's Zoom presentation where they dissected the intersection between biology, industrialization, and consumerism. By analyzing multiple newspaper ads and propaganda, the audience was introduced to the pervasive influence of chemicals and pesticides in our foods and daily supplies.  Just as we explored the intersection between robots and art in Week 3, industrialization continues to revolutionize the way we produce goods. Much like Ford's assembly line talked about in Week 3 lecture 1, our food production system has evolved into an assembly line of its own, driven by the quest for efficiency (Vesna). However, this efficiency comes with costs, as pesticides are used to streamline processes but introduce new consequences. In "Assessing the impact of pesticides: An Overview," C.A. Jawale and others, state "Pesticide uses has raised serious concern not only of the potential effect on human he
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