helenahudesma9

As I don't have much of an interest in space, this week's lecture material was a way for me to discover why artists enjoy space and why it is often such a popular center for art, especially in more contemporary pieces. The introduction of space as an art form, much like nanotechnology, can be traced back to ancient times. More specifically, Roman art depicts discoveries of planets and the Sun as the center of the universe. However, these artworks were highly controversial due to conflicting views with the church, which dictated daily life, beliefs, and ultimately art during this time. Moving on to more contemporary art, I took away from this week's lectures that space is highly influential in art, particularly because of all the phenomena that are considered highly abstract. Additionally, the concept of stars, planets, and other occurrences in the skies and space are ones with great color and texture, creating a highly inviting selection of source material for art. Addition...

Nanotechnology can best be described as involving which structures, devices, and systems with novel properties and functions due to the arrangement of their atoms on the 1–100 nm scale. After viewing this week's materials, I found myself most fascinated by the concept of nanoparticles in art, primarily in ancient art. It gives an understanding that although there was no research done on it at the time, these concepts still existed in early art forms.  Much of early art features nanoparticles to enhance color and other visuals, especially in artwork like ceramics and dishes. Primarily, nanoparticles were used in glazes to add metallic sparkle; copper and silver nano particles were envisioned in Renaissance era paintings, and the Roman Lycurgus Cup utilized gold nanoparticles to enhance the red color of the goblet. There is much science behind artistic concepts that have existed for centuries, even before there was an explanation or term for the processes used in ancient art.  N...

For my second event, I attended the 2024 MFA exhibition, Love Machines, in New Wight Gallery in the Broad Art Center. It was a gallery showcasing the work of UCLA MFA students focusing around the intersection of technology, machines, and art. There were a few pieces I found fascinating, though the entire exhibition was incredible.  One of the pieces that stood out to me was Grace and I dancing separately together by Wantong Yao. The piece was about how machines learn and unlearn a three-legged race.  The exhibition uses a machine learning technique, reinforcement learning, which  mimics the trial-and-error learning process that humans use to achieve their goals . I was most intrigued by this piece because the idea of using reinforcement learning is almost metaphorical in the sense that the young character in her piece was attempting to detach herself from the older one, which represented people in older generations of her family by unlearning it's previous behaviors....

This week's material discusses the intersection between biotechnology and art, primarily the use of health technology, the human body, animals, tissue cultures, and other scientific experimental items in art. One of the artists discussed in the lecture material was Orlan, who was a French artist who became widely known for her series of surgical operations as a form of art expression.  In total, she underwent 9 different surgeries as a part of her art. She coined the term carnal art, or self-portraiture in the classical sense but made by means of today's technology. The disfiguration and then reconfiguration of the human body using surgery and medical technology showcases biotechnology as a form of self expression. Learning about Orlan makes me wonder how her art has blossomed more into a reality in today's society, although maybe not as exaggerated. Plastic surgery has become increasingly more and more normalized, and it made me wonder the purpose of Orlan's work. Prim...