Week 4: Medicine and Art

This weeks topic was very interesting to me. I enjoy how each week has built upon the last week, and this week's topic was no different. While reviewing MRI as Mirror and Portrait by Casini I came to the conclusion that without art, medicine would not be on the same level that it is at. For example, an MRI image gives a detailed breakdown layer by layer of a humans muscle or tendon. For a doctor to be able to come to an accurate conclusion on the diagnosis of the treatment as well as come to a conclusion on what is going on with the muscle or tendon, they must be able to have a clear view of this muscle or tendon. Without the advancement of art with incredible images from MRI's doctors would not be able to make an accurate diagnosis. Medicine as we know it would not be nearly as accurate and able as it is now. Doctors would not know whether a patient had a torn ACL (anterior cruciate ligament) without performing surgery on the patient and looking at the tendon. This is a huge risk and would be such a guessing game that the repair of torn tendons or muscles would not be possible. There are so many incidences of torn ligaments and to think that this would not be treatable would be incredibly difficult. Our society would be set back decades and maybe even half centuries. 

MRI of a torn ACL

  Another part of medicine and art that I think is unbelievable are ultrasounds. The ability to be able to take a live feed of a baby developing is remarkable. It is truly remarkable. The photographs and live feed are definitely something to behold and I think that this is the most remarkable connection between medicine and art. 

Ultrasound of a baby 12 weeks in

  X-rays and CAT scans are very interesting to me as well and I do believe that they demonstrate a clear correlation between medicine and art, but as I aforementioned, ultrasounds as well as MRI's are what sets apart art and medicine. 

X-ray Image of two hands

Works Cited:

Casini, Silvia. "Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) as Mirror and Portrait: MRI Configurations between Science and the Arts."Configurations 19.1 (2011): 73-99. Print.

“Magnetic Resonance Imaging" Wikipedia. Web. 25 Apr. 2015. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetic_resonance_imaging>.

“MRI Scan" Medicine Net. Web. 26 Apr. 2015. <http://www.medicinenet.com/mri_scan/article.htm>.

"What is an Ultrasound" Ultrasound Net. Web. 26 Apr. 2015. <http://www.ob-ultrasound.net/>.

“X-Ray." Wikipedia. Web. 25 Apr. 2015. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X-ray>.

Week 3 Art and Technology

This week I wanted to demonstrate the relationship between technology and art that we see in our society today. As technology continues to advance, we often ask ourselves where this technology will go in the future and to what extent it will have an influence in our lives. We wonder whether there will be robots taking the place of humans and if these robots or other form of technology will be leading our lives. These ideas are present in many of the TV shows and movies that are being directed today. 

One movie that caught my eye a few summers ago was Pacific Rim. This 2013 movie directed by Guillermo del Toro calls for humans to develop robots capable of destroying enemy aliens. The robots that are created are very futuristic and put into perspective perhaps the future of us on Earth. It can also be questioned whether this movie or art piece is attempting to mimic what we believe to be the future of technology, or whether technology will attempt to follow this art and our society will eventually create similar robots. Either way the creation and depiction of these giant robots is very impressive and something that is a direct reaction to the advancements in today's technology and where it might move in the future. 

The movie Pacific Rim with one of the robots that the humans developed to fight

A counterexample of Art and Technology meshing together

A quote by Bauhaus demonstrating his belief in the co-existence of Art and Technology

Relating this movie to Benjamin Walter's "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction" brings up other perspectives on the art and technology. Walter states "Even the most perfect reproduction of a work of art is lacking one element: its presence in time and space, its unique existence at the place where it happens to be". When reading this, we think about if art can really replicate technology. The movie Pacific Rim is certainly out of the right time and space. The technology present may never be available to us as humans and is certainly 100 or more years away. For this matter, I believe that attempting to combine technology and art is not a very fruitful or smart endeavor.

Finally, Douglas Davis shares this idea that art and technology are not on the same page. Davis believes that technology should not be reflected in art and makes artwork unoriginal. He could be speaking about mostly paintings and not so much movies or tv shows. 

Works Cited:

Benjamin, Walter. The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction. 1936. Print.

Davis, Douglas. “The Work of Art in the Age of Digital Reproduction.” The MIT Press, 1995. Web. 19 April. 2015.

"Pacific Rim (film)." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation. Web. 19 Apr. 2015                        <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacific_Rim_(film)>.

"The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction" Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation. Web. 19 Apr. 2015. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Work_of_Art_in_the_Age_of_Mechanical_Reproduction>.

Vesna, Victoria. "Robotics Pt1." YouTube. UC Online, 15 Apr. 2012. Web. 19 Apr. 2015.

Week 2: Math and Art

WEEK 2: Math and Art

Prior to any of the readings or informational material I figured that there was some relationship between art and math, but not to what extent. One of my friends had switched from being an electrical engineer to a DJ recently. I asked him why make such a large transition and why now? He answered saying that music is really just different sound wave lengths that can be measured and looked at in mathematical terms. From electrical sound waves to painting a circle as close to perfect as possible I saw the connection between math and art but these readings furthered my knowledge of the subject.

Musical Construction

 I found it very interesting when they were discussing fractals in the module. Fractals have always been intriguing to be as they are different that most every other concrete shape and idea. When we thing of shapes that construct the world around as we know it, we think of simple triangles, squares and circles, but fractals bring a whole new idea into the situation and this sparks my interest in math relating it to art. Finally, the discussion of the fourth or higher dimension in Flatland sparked my interest as well. I do think that there is an alternate dimension that we are just not aware of yet. This will come in time and I believe that it will have a very profound impact and influence on art as we know it and as we move forward. This will truly be a leap for the connection between art and math as we definitely need math to be able to understand this dimension and the knowledge will eventually trickle into the art world. 

Hypothetical 4th dimension

 Essentially this week I learned that artists use math a lot more than one would think in their art. We may perceive artists as very naturally talented and creative, but they also are very structured and use basic geometric shapes to help their art maintain form. Dr. Vesna harped on this point in her discussion, and I completely agree with her now that I am aware of the mathematical use in art.

Shapes in Art

I believe that the juxtaposition of math, art and science is not random. I think that math and science lead to art and that at the foundation of art is math and science. Furthermore, I believe that art is an easy way to express math and science. Science and math are two very difficult and deep concepts to understand and art is an excellent way to demonstrate their complexity to the world.

Abbot, Edwin A. Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions. N.p.: Seely, 1884. Print.

Ableton. (2009, January 1). Retrieved April 1, 2015, from https://i.ytimg.com/vi/g90FwcTLQiA            /hqdefault.jpg

 Fractals YouTube. 17 June 2006. Web. 10 Apr. 2015. <https://www.youtube.com                                      /watch?feature=player_embedded&v=ivRQDbAduoM>.



Henderson, Linda. "The Fourth Dimension and Non-Euclidean Geometry in Modern Art:                           Conclusion." Leonardo 17.3 (1984): 205-10. J Stor. The MIT Press. Web. 14 Apr. 2015.                       <http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0024-094X(1984)17:32.0.CO;2-1>. 

Vesna, Victoria. “Mathematics-pt1-ZeroPerspectiveGoldenMean.mov.” Cole UC online. Youtube,         April 2012. Web. 11 Oct. 2012. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mMmq5B1LKDg&             feature=player_embedded>

Two cultures

           Hi my name is Markus Raimondi and I am a senior Econ student with a minor in Scandinavian here at UCLA. I definitely feel as if there is a difference between the two cultures of North campus and South campus. Having taken some math classes on south campus and Scandinavian classes on north campus I feel the difference. I must say, the south campus classes I have taken are much more difficult for me and students in those classes are definitely more studious. Not to take anything away from north campus majors like myself, but you are using a much different skill set when taking these classes. I can see the disparity between art and science here as well. Hopefully I am able to come to a better understanding of this difference as we progress through the class as I am eager to learn.

           I am very fascinated by the idea of redesigning education. As mentioned by the RSA Animate and C.P. Snow, education may have a fundamental flaw. That flaw would be how students are educated based on age rather than intellect. I do see the advantage of educating students based on ability and perhaps this would advance the way that we learn, but doesn't this occur already? When I was in high school or even middle school, there were students in my classes, specifically math classes, who were younger than myself. They had shown a clear understanding of the material and were placed into classes where they were more challenged. The problem that I foresee with separating students based off intellectual ability rather than age is that now we are prioritizing learning over the development of students socially. I believe that when you younger there is a very important time of fostering ones growth socially. Students who may be younger in a class with students who are older and are of the same intellectual ability may have there social learning capacity stunted as they may be intimidated by older students and therefore not expressing themselves. Having students in the same classes by age allows students to grow and go through development together with their peers. I acknowledge that at some age, it doesn't really matter who is in your class age wise, you can bond with them, but do we want to make this separation at a very young age is the question.

the dividing line between North Campus and South Campus

Peer groups in a class

Local beach in La Jolla

Pinker, Steven. "SEEDMAGAZINE.COM Two Cultures Steven Pinker."YouTube. YouTube, n.d. Web. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1BUbVc7qVpg>.



"RSA Animate - Changing Education Paradigms." YouTube. YouTube, n.d. Web. 20. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDZFcDGpL4U>.

Snow, C. P. “Two Cultures and the Scientific Revolution.” Reading. 1959. New York: Cambridge UP, 1961. Print.

Vesna, Victoria. "TwoCultures Pt2." YouTube. YouTube, n.d. Web. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=20&v=GUr4xxZ_0gw>.

Vesna, Victoria. "TwoCultures Pt3." YouTube. YouTube, n.d. Web. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=15&v=4FOEuxrwxd0>.