Event Three - Fowler Museum

Source Fowler

The Third Event that I attended was in deep North Campus, farther than I had ventured in years, although I suppose that was the point. The Fowler Museum’s “Making Strange: Gagawaka + Postmortem” by Vivan Sundaram was an incredibly interesting exhibit, showcasing a number of very interesting dresses, and other clothing, made from non-traditional items.

Many of the dresses were made from industrial materials, car tires, chain mail, corrugated plastic. It was a very interesting discussion of just what could be made into clothes if no other materials were available.

I found it to be a really interesting comparison to the fashion trends currently sweeping the world. Although ‘real’ fashion never used medical breathing masks, or shoe leather as building materials, much of what is considered ‘haute couture” seems (to me, the uninitiated) similar.  A random assortment of odds and ends, poufy here, tight there.

The juxtaposition of that fashion trend with these dresses which were made by grabbing items intended to be strange, is a powerful parody of the current fashion world. I attended the event with a friend, and there were several (though not many) moments where she concluded “I might wear that.”

Source Fowler

Another of the interesting commentaries on contemporary fashion was how many of the dresses seemed to be incomplete, or at least far too expository that I would have preferred. Its possible that the artist was casting a future look into the next century of fashion, with lower decency standards.

All told, this made me think of the discussion of Orlan and MedTech in Art. I’m still not sure how comfortable I feel with body modification, expression and display being an art form, given that it has a objectification component of the subject, but they are similar in style. Both Sundaram and Orlan are using art to show the human body in ways it had never been shown before.

Source Me

"Making Strange: Gagawaka + Postmortem by Vivan Sundaram."Fowler.ucla.edu. The Fowler Museum, n.d. Web. 08 June 2015.

Event Two - UCLA Meteorite Gallery

The second event that I attended was a little closer to home, for me at least, the UCLA Meteorite Gallery in the Geology Building.

Me at the Meteorite Gallery - Source Me

 For anyone who hasn’t seen it, it’s a fantastic, if intimate, exhibit space, filled with all kind of interesting specimens that are not from this world.

4.6 Billion Year old Meteorite - Source Me

I had the opportunity, at one point, to hold a meteorite, a rock really, that was utterly unremarkable to look at. I would have tossed it aside without a second thought had I come across it in the road, at least until I learned an astounding fact. That rock was 4.6 billion years old, meaning it was older than our planet. Think about that for a moment.

Rock ages are measured by the time since they last melted. Hawaii, as an island, is only about 30 million years old; meaning the dinosaurs never got a vacation on the islands (USGS).  The oldest surface rock that we can find is still only 3.5 billion years old (Tapani) meaning some of these meteors were very old even then. They go back to the very formation of the solar system.

Basalt Meteorite - Source UCLA

One of the other fantastic parts of the collection was a few Martian Meteorites.  These rocks were blasted off of the surface of Mars by impacts, and then slowly made their way to earth in the intervening millennium.

These kind of facts truly astound me, much like Carl Sagan’s view of the Pale Blue Dot. It says something truly amazing that we as a species were able to collect all of these disparate elements, rocks from different pieces of the solar system that made their way to us on Earth on their own, and put them in a single room on the UCLA Campus.  If that isn’t art, I don’t know what is.

"Hawaiian Volcanoes." Usgs.gov. USGS, n.d. Web. 08 June 2015.

"Meteorite Collection." UCLA Meteorite Gallery. UCLA, n.d. Web. 08 June 2015.

Tapani, Mutanen. Bulletin of the Geological Society of Finland, Vol. 75 (1–2) Pp. 51–68 The 3.5 Ga Siurua Trondhjemite Gneiss in the Archaean Pudas- Järvi Granulite Belt, Northern Finland (n.d.): n. pag. Http://www.geologinenseura.fi. Geological Society of Finland, 2003. Web.

Event One - Hammer - This is the End

The first event I attended was Ed Atkins movie feature “Even Pricks” in the collection “This is the End.” While the exhibit featured a number of interesting visuals, the one I found most interesting was his depiction of a talking chimp.

Talking Chimp from "Even Pricks" - Source Hammer

The chip appears several times, speaking enigmatic phrases, most centering on a kind of connection between the chimp and his addressed. This is reminiscent of the discussion of biotech an art, where we asked “what is intelligence?”. This is a question that I became interested in earlier in the course, where we were asked to consider how genetic manipulation could be considered an art form in itself.

By some people’s definitions, human’s ability to create art is what separates us from a purely animal being, therefore art and the expression of creativity is precisely necessary in order to be considered intelligent. And while talking animals have long been a part of the cartoon media, this was the first one done in a realistic enough manner to make me question whether a chimp could talk, given the right artistic push.

Thumbs Motif - Source Hammer

 A motif throughout Atkins movie is a human hand giving its thumbs up or thumbs down to various stimuli. However, at the end it does something very interesting, and we see, just for a moment, the camera view pan back and picture the human hand we have been looking at connected to a chimp body.

I love this particular image, as it ties together so well the ‘dystopian’ imagery of the rest of the piece. No matter how ‘intelligent’ we are, we are still evolved from chimps, and at levels we cannot even comprehend all of our motivations come from that animal part of us.

Proof of Attendance - Source Me

"Is There a Unique Human Quality That Separates Us from Animals?" Debate.org. N.p., n.d. Web. 07 June 2015.

"Schedule." The Hammer Museum. UCLA, n.d. Web. 07 June 2015.

Week Nine - Space

Earthrise, taken by Bill Anders on Apollo 8

The view of Earth rising from behind the surface of the moon was one of the defining photographs of the twentieth century, second only to Carl Sagan’s Pale Blue dot. This idea, as simple as viewing earth from space, was a remarkable motivating force on the culture of the time, and should be again.

People forget how much of everyday life is and was based on the original Star Trek (which premiered around the time this photo was taken). The idea of the cell phone finds its cultural roots in the Star Trek Communicator, including the fact that it flipped open. Voice activated computers, auto-opening doors that sensed your presence, even telepresence. And yet, currently NASA, one of the inspirations for Star Trek to begin with, is extremely underfunded.

 

 NASA as best as I can judge is a force of nature like none other….The most powerful agency on the dreams of a nation.

-Neil Degrass Tyson

Humanity should not die with Earth. That is something that I have fundamentally and philosophically come to believe. The eventual consumption of our planet and everyone on it is both inevitable and predictable. True, it is about 2 billion years (SCIMAG) away, but it is coming, and if humanity does not embrace space travel, it will be the end of the human race.

I firmly believe that as a culture, we need to embrace space travel, and do it today.  Not because I reasonably expect the world to end next week, but because waiting has never produced a better mousetrap. As any student who’s ever waited till the night before their term paper was due.

The universe is probably littered with the one-planet graves of cultures who made the sensible economic decision that there’s no good reason to go into space – each discovered, studied, and remembered by the ones who made the irrational decision. – Randall Monroe, XKCD 893

Anyone who hasn’t seen the short film "Wanderers" by Erik Wernquist should stop what they are doing and do so right now. I cannot put into words just how much  I agree with the message of this film. https://vimeo.com/108650530

Your life, or your band’s, or even your species might be owed to a restless few, drawn by a craving they can hardly articulate, or understand, to undiscovered lands and new worlds. - Carl Sagan

"From now on we live in a world where man has walked on the Moon. It's not a miracle; we just decided to go" - Jim Lovell, Apollo Astronaut

Humanity needs to decide it’s time to get off this rock, today. Who knows what we’ll find?  That’s the reason to go.

Anders, Bill - Earthrise, 1968

Kollipara, Puneet. "Earth Won't Die as Soon as Thought." Sciencemag.org. Science Mag, 22 Jan. 2014. Web. 01 June 2015.

Lovell, Jim, Jeffrey Kluger, and Jim Lovell. Apollo 13. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2000. Print.

Munroe, Randall. "65 Years." XKCD. XKCD, n.d. Web. 01 June 2015.

Schurr, Evan. "Neil DeGrasse Tyson - We Stopped Dreaming." YouTube. YouTube, 9 Mar. 2012. Web. 01 June 2015.

Wernquist, Erik. "Wanderers." Vimeo. Erik Wernquist, n.d. Web. 01 June 2015.

Week 8 Blog

Source: "Lycurgus Cup Roman 4th C." Ancient Glass Blog of The Allaire Collection.

The most interesting thing that I found about NanoTech, and how it can relate to art, is the idea of changing color on the nanoscale. The Lycurgus cup is a marvel to me, how a very common material, gold, can be made to have color properties very different than exist on the macro scale (Lycurgus Cup). I’m curious why more materials, glasses in particular, don’t have this effect today, it would be most striking, especially as the techniques have been rediscovered and quantified by NASA (High Tech Art).

"Pointillism." Artcyclopedia

Quantum dots are another really interesting idea which I think will revolutionize how art is perceived. These particles change color based on their size, a 50nm particle will have a different color than a 75nm particle, despite being made of the same materials. I would love to see art begin to join pointillism with this kind of technology, where entire paintings can be developed using pointillism. The sheer range of colors available with this kind of art would be phenomenal.

Source: "Buddy Ebsen." Wikipedia. 

These kind of quantum colorings also have the ability to revolutionize how pigmentation is done. One of the most famous cases of pigmentation gone wrong was Buddy Ebsen’s portrayal of the Tin Man in the 1939 Wizard of Oz, where he was almost killed by a reaction to the aluminum body paint used to make him appear to be made of tin (Snopes). Quantum dotting, and the promise of true nontoxic pigments of every color, would make this kind of accident impossible, while opening up the possibility of artistic expression.

"Buddy Ebsen." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 25 May 2015.

Gimzewski, Jim. "Nanotech Jim Pt4." YouTube. YouTube, 21 May 2012. Web. 25 May 2015.

High Tech Art: Chameleon Glass. N.p.: NASA, 1993. Print.

"Lycurgus Cup Roman 4th C." Ancient Glass Blog of The Allaire Collection. N.p., 24 Apr. 2012. Web. 25 May 2015.

"Pointillism." Artcyclopedia. Artcyclopedia, n.d. Web. 25 May 2015.

"Quantum Dots." Sigma-Aldrich. Sigma-Aldrich, n.d. Web. 25 May 2015.

"Wizard of Oz and Buddy Ebsen." Snopes.com:. Snopes, 17 Aug. 2007. Web. 25 May 2015.

Week 7 Blog

Dream like dripping clocks
 Persistence of Memory, Dali

Something I’ve always appreciated about the nature of art is that it replicates, a lot what you see in dreams. People’s dreams are often formless, or follow different rules than traditional sensory experience. They can be nonlinear, self-referential, inverted, and in a way, are extremely similar to art.

There are a lot of definitions of dreams, and theory’s about what they are and what they represent, but most circle back to them being conjured up by the unconscious or subconscious mind. What they mean is something psychologists and neurologists are still debating.

Freud on dreams

I shall demonstrate that there exists a psychological technique by which dreams may be interpreted and that upon the application of this method every dream will show itself to be a senseful psychological structure which may be introduced into an assignable place in the psychic activity of the waking state. The Interpretation of Dreams - 1900

Jung on dreams

Jung believed that dreams were a reflection of events the mind was trying to deal with, that the subconscious works on and presents ideas on how to solve them. (Jung, 1976)

Art, in many respects, is very good at speaking to the same portion of the mind as dreams come from. Artists intentionally use techniques designed to speak to the subconscious and conscious mind, creating emotions and connects that are not always clearly discernable. A great body of surreal artwork is in fact focused on dreams, probably because they still aren’t well understood.

Michael Lang Art of dreams

Its impossible, or nearly so, to have a discussion of dreams without discussing the modern movie called Inception. Leaving aside everything else, I found the technology very interesting. I most wonder if, with the coming kinds of technological advances some kind of directed dreaming technology will present itself.

Well dreams, they feel real while we're in them, right? It's only when we wake up that we realize how things are actually strange. - Inception (2010)

I think that that kind of performance art, with the ability to display anything, and still hold realism, would be extremely moving and interesting. Of course, it would probably just lead to mind control. (Vesna)

Inception(2010)
Freud, Sigmund. The Interpretation of Dreams. N.p.: n.p., 1900. Print.

Jung, C. G. The Practice of Psychotherapy. N.p.: n.p., 1976. Print.

Lang, Michael. "Abstract Art Painting 'Edge of Dreams' Modern, Contemporary, Mix Lang How to DEMO." YouTube. YouTube, n.d. Web. 18 May 2015.

Vesna, Victoria. "Mind Intro." YouTube. YouTube, 26 Mar. 2012. Web. 18 May 2015.

The Persistence of Memory, Salvador Dali - 1934

Inception (2010)

Week 6 Bio-Art

I've been a Michael Crichton fan all of my life, and so I would say that I have more than a passing familiarity with the idea of using biological manipulation for strange purposes. For those of you who aren't familiar with him, he was the original author of a story called Jurassic Park.  Some of you may have heard of it.

Scene from Michael Crichton's Jurassic Park, from Engadget

 He’s written a number of fairly famous works, most of which deal with the changing nature of genetics. One of his more modern works, a book called NExT, deals with genetically ‘elevating’ a chimpanzee to where it could speak and converse intelligently.

One of the things that he touched on in a number of his different works is the morality of manipulating and creating animals specifically for more frivolous uses. The latest incarnation of Jurassic Park notwithstanding, one could imagine any number of questionable uses for genetic manipulation.

 One of several others that Crichton proposed were engineering sea turtles to better ward off predators, while also displaying advertising.

Image of Alba from Marc Zimmer

I love the example that Professor V mentioned in lecture, that of Alba, because it demonstrates the almost totally subjective nature of what defines art. To the scientist its simply an application of an already in use technique, to artist its groundbreaking, and to animal rights activists  it is a travesty. If they can agree on anything, it’s that it was unnecessary, that is, not medically required or useful.

 If nothing else, bio art seems to make people more nervous than any form of art, as Steven Kurtz found out, perhaps because of its potential for catastrophic problems.(NBC) Joe Davis’s very interesting work with E-coli has certainly proved benign, but as anyone in the meat industry will tell you, E-coli could be incredibly dangerous bacteria if mistreated.(Scienctific American). I quite appreciate his efforts to send something he made into space however.

Crichton, Michael. Next: A Novel. New York: Harper, 2007. Print.

Gibbs, Wayt. "Art as a Form of Life." Scientific American. Scientific American, n.d. Web. 11 May 2015.

"Jurassic World - Official Global Trailer (HD)." YouTube. Universal Pictures, 20 Apr. 2015. Web. 11 May 2015.

O'Brien, Terrence. "A Look at How 'Jurassic Park' and Its CGI Dinosaurs Changed Cinema." Engadget. Engadget, 11 June 2014. Web. 11 May 2015.

Pasko, Jessica M. "Bio-artists Bridge Gap between Arts, Sciences." Msnbc.com. NBC, 04 Mar. 2007. Web. 11 May 2015.

Vesna, V. "5 Bioart Pt1 1280x720." YouTube. YouTube, 18 Sept. 2013. Web. 11 May 2015.

Zimmer, Marc. "Green Fluorescent Protein - Cool Uses - Alba." Green Fluorescent Protein. Cool Uses - Alba, n.d. Web. 11 May 2015.