Week 4: MedTech + Art

The connection between medicine and art may not seem like a clear connection. For many, medicine is strictly viewed as a field of science, and, thus, is not incorporated with the artistic field. However, medicine and art do have a connection in the form of plastic surgery. Plastic surgeons use the human body as their canvas, as they reconstruct the human body with artistic techniques. Plastic surgery has been used as a way to reconstruct the human body for thousands of years. Physicians in India were utilizing skin grafts for reconstructive work as early as 800 B.C. Even today, physicians still use artistic techniques to perform their operations, which shows not only the connection between medicine and art, but also shows how human anatomy provides this connection. 

The study of the human anatomy also began a very long time ago, when human dissection provided a more detailed way of viewing the human body. The Ancient Egyptians first used human dissection for a more religious purpose, using it mainly for mummification. Human dissection for scientific purposes was begun by the Ancient Greeks and continued through the Renaissance Era, where these methods resulted scientific breakthroughs in the human anatomy and also resulted in some of the greatest artworks of the era. Da Vinci’s “Vitruvian Man,” and Michelangelo’s “David” are both artworks that incorporated the newfound knowledge of the human body, as they thoroughly use realistic and scientific interpretations of human body parts. As technology progressed, newer, less-invasive methods to view the human body were created, such as the x-ray, MRI, and cat scan, which allowed for even greater discoveries. 

Since my parents are dentists, I have some experience with the human body, more specifically, with the head and the mouth. My parents keep detailed models of the head with an emphasis on the mouth, and from these models it is clear to see the connection between art and medicine, as artists such Da Vinci and Michaelango relied upon such detailed modeled to create such realistic works. 

Sources:

“Drawing Anatomy for Artists: Ultimate, Free Guide.” Artists Network,

www.artistsnetwork.com/drawing-anatomy-guide/.

“Science Museum. Brought to Life: Exploring the History of Medicine.” Art and Anatomy,

broughttolife.sciencemuseum.org.uk/broughttolife/themes/understandingthebody/anatomy.

Vesna, Victoria. “Medicine and Art: Part 1.” YouTube. YouTube, n.d. Web. 28 Apr. 2019. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=Ep0M2bOM9Tk>.

Vesna, Victoria. “Medicine and Art: Part 2.” YouTube. YouTube, n.d. Web. 28 Apr. 2019. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=psjnQarHOqQ>.

Vesna, Victoria. “Medicine and Art: Part 3.” YouTube. YouTube, n.d. Web. 28 Apr. 2019. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FIX-9mXd3Y4>.

Event 1: Hammer Museum

Salome Dancing Before Herod by Gustave Moreau

On Tuesday, April 23, I visited the Hammer Museum, located in Westwood. The museum housed many contemporary artists and works of art, such as Suzanne Lacy’s “Three Weeks in May,” while the Armand Hammer collection of the museum contained works of art dating from the sixteenth to the twentieth century, including works by Claude Monet, Edgar Degas, and Edouard Manet. As I made my way through the museum, most especially through the Armand Hammer collection, I began to notice and pay close attention to the connection between mathematics, science and art, which I had not done while visiting museums in the past. For example, while viewing Gustave Moreau’s painting, “Salomé Dancing Before Harod,” I recognized the use of perspective in order to create an illusion of depth in a detailed and ornate depiction of Salome, the daughter of Herod II and Herodias, dancing before Herod Antipas. Similarly, Camille Pissarro utilizes the technique in his “Boulevard Montmartre, Mardi Gras” in his depiction of the celebration of the Parisian Carnival, Mardi Gras. While browsing through the more contemporary exhibitions, I was able to witness the connection between technology/science and art in Alex Hubbard’s “Eat Your Friends,” a five-minute digital video depicting every stage in the creation of his final piece, which shows a connection between art and science and helps to prove CP Snow's claim of a new third culture that will bridge the gap between art and science. 

Eat Your Friends by Alex Hubbard

Boulevard Montmartre, Mardi Gras by Camille Pissarro

Overall, my experience at the Hammer Museum was a very enjoyable and informative one. I was able to see first hand and better understand how art, mathematics and science are connected, which will greatly aid me in applying these topics to a project proposal for the midterm project. I would highly encourage my fellow classmates to visit the Hammer Museum in order to see many of the concepts discussed during the course in person, most especially, the connection between mathematics, science, and art. 

Week 3: Robotics + Art

The Printing Press

This week’s topic explores the connection between industrialization and art, more specifically, the emergence of robots as a reaction to industrial processes. A key component of industrialization was the mechanization of labor and the emergence of the assembly line production system. Although the Industrial Revolution arose in the eighteenth century, Johaness Gutenberg’s introduction of the printing press in Europe in the fifteenth century utilized an assembly line production system, which allowed for the mass production of books, and, thus, contributed to the growing Renaissance. During the twentieth century, the assembly line was popularized by Henry Ford in the production of his motor vehicles, most especially his Model T. The introduction of the assembly line in industrial production allowed for efficient production of goods, as production time decreased while output increased. 

The Ford Assembly Line

The mechanization of labor and the emergence of the assembly line produced a variety of responses among members of society. In his “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction,” Walter Benjamin writes about what he perceives to be the impact of mechanical reproduction on art. He stresses how mechanical reproduction destroys the idea of uniqueness and authenticity in art, and adds that it releases art from its dependence on ritual. Additionally, the utilization and popularization of the assembly line drew attention to the fact that workers themselves were being treated like machines, which ultimately led to the emergence of the idea of the Robot. The word “robot,” which arose from the Czech word “robota,” meaning “work,” was introduced by a Czech playwright Karel Čapek in his play “Rossum’s Universal Robots,” and emerged as a reaction to mechanization and the assembly line production system. 

Walter Benjamin 

Sources: 

Benjamin, Walter. The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction. web.mit.edu/allanmc/www/benjamin.pdf.

Editors, History.com. “Printing Press.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 7 May 2018, www.history.com/topics/inventions/printing-press.

“Ford's Assembly Line Starts Rolling.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 13 Nov. 2009, www.history.com/this-day-in-history/fords-assembly-line-starts-rolling.

Palermo, Elizabeth. “Who Invented the Printing Press?” LiveScience, Purch, 25 Feb. 2014, www.livescience.com/43639-who-invented-the-printing-press.html.

“Science Diction: The Origin Of The Word 'Robot'.” NPR, NPR, 22 Apr. 2011, www.npr.org/2011/04/22/135634400/science-diction-the-origin-of-the-word-robot.

Week 2: Math+Art

Prior to attending UCLA and taking this course, I had always thought about the connection between mathematics and science. Throughout my years of taking art classes, I had noticed the detailed measurements taken by Renaissance artists, such as Da Vinci and Michelangelo, to make incredibly lifelike works of art, and the intricate ratios and measurements used by more contemporary architects such as Le Corbusier. 

A portrait of Ibn Al-Haytham, the pioneer in the discovery of optics and perspective

However, I was not aware of how these scientific discoveries influenced art, as I did not realize that the discoveries of Al-Haytham on vision and perspectives actually influenced the way artwork was created in the West during the Renaissance era. For example, the iconic artworks of Michelangelo, Leonardo Da Vinci, and many others during the Renaissance incorporated Al-Haytham’s discoveries on optics and how vision and the mind are subjective.  I was also not aware of the golden ratio that also influenced how art was created in the West during the Renaissance era, as I was not aware of a mathematical expression of the ratio of two sums whereby the ratio of both quantities combined to the larger quantity is the same as the ratio of the larger quantity to the smaller quantity.  Both of these eye-opening discoveries into the connection between math and art can be seen in one of Leonardo Da Vinci’s most famous works, “The Last Supper.” We can see how Da Vinci uses both perspective and the golden ratio in this piece to create a very detailed and symmetrical depiction of Jesus Christ and his disciples.  

The Last Supper, a great example of how mathematics is used in art

Before this week, I only had a brief overview between the relationship between mathematics and art, and how artists use this relationship in their work. However, this week’s lecture videos and readings gave me a much more detailed explanation about the incredible lengths artists go to in order to create their work, as they incorporate mathematical expressions and scientific theories to create more lifelike artworks. Discoveries in mathematics can lead to breakthroughs in both art and science, as they can influence artists to adopt new techniques to creating art, and can also lead to the discovery and explanation of previously unexplained natural phenomena. 

Linear perspective

Sources:

Chelsea. “Golden Ratio in Art Composition & Design: The Definitive Guide.” Art Ignition, 26 Aug. 2018, artignition.com/golden-ratio-in-art/.

“Ibn Al-Haytham and the Legacy of Arabic Optics.” International Year of Light - Ibn Al-Haytham and the Legacy of Arabic Optics, www.light2015.org/Home/ScienceStories/1000-Years-of-Arabic-Optics.html.

Math Intro. By Victoria Vesna. YouTube. Uconlineprogram, 26 Mar. 2012. Web. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eHiL9iskUWM&feature=player_embedded>.

“Op Art History Part I: A History of Perspective in Art.” Op-Art.co.uk, www.op-art.co.uk/history/perspective/.

Palmer, Lauren. “History of the Golden Ratio in Art.” Artnet News, 2 Oct. 2015, news.artnet.com/art-world/golden-ratio-in-art-328435.

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Week 1: Two Cultures

This week’s exploration into two cultures is a very interesting topic that I have a personal experience with. C.P. Snow first introduced this idea of two cultures in his work “The Two Cultures and the Scientific Revolution,” and explained the growing divide and tension between the artistic and the scientific worlds. Throughout my life, I have had experience both with the arts as well as with sciences, and have witnessed this tension for myself. For example, I participated in an art class in elementary school that sparked my interest for the arts through the many interactive projects it had. For example, we had to write a report about any artist of our choosing, so I chose to do that report on Vincent Van Gogh, and I immediately became interested in all of his works. 

A portrait of Van Gogh 

However, as I grew older, I began to place more of an emphasis on studying science rather than the arts because of parental influence as well as societal influence, as my parents did not believe that the arts was a successful field of study, which signifies the division that C.P. Snow discusses in his work. 

The balance between the arts and science

Upon attending UCLA as a freshman, my views about the division between the arts and science has been further deepened, which disregards C.P. Snow’s claim about a future “third culture” that will bridge the gap between these two disciplines. In my first year at UCLA, I have taken classes in both north campus (arts/humanities) and south campus (physical sciences), and I have thus seen the tension and hostility between these two cultures, as many south campus majors hardly spend any time working on projects related to arts/humanities, and many north campus majors hardly spend any time working in the field of science. I believe that this is an important issue that needs to be addressed, because moving forward, the arts and science will have to bridge the gap and begin progress towards working together in order to solve the world’s future problems.  

Royce Hall, commonly seen as the dividing point between north and south campus

Sources:
"John Brockman: Matchmaking with science and art." Interview by Duncan Graham-Rowe. Wired UK. N.p., 3 Feb. 2011. Web. 7 Apr. 2019.

Krauss, Lawrence M. “An Update on C. P. Snow's ‘Two Cultures.’” An Update on C. P. Snow's "Two Cultures", Scientific American, 1 Sept. 2009, www.scientificamerican.com/article/an-update-on-cp-snows-two-cultures/.

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

Vesna, Victoria. "Toward a third culture: being in between." Leonardo 34.2 (2001): 121-125.

Wilson, Stephen. "Myths and Confusions in Thinking about Art/Science/Technology." College Art Association Meetings. 2000, New York City. 7 Apr. 2019. Lecture.