AyrtonGarcia-JuradoDESMA9

  Week nine’s blog discusses the relationship between space and art. The introduction of how art and space relate explains how early studies of space were held. Planets were dubbed “roman name of deities” (Intro Lecture). An early astronomer named Copernicus was the “first time that we scientifically had the idea of the Sun as the center of the solar system” (Lecture I), or heliocentric. Copernicus’s ideas were so significant that they are commemorated by “a crater on the moon” (Lecture I) being “named after Copernicus” (Lecture I). (Paris Peace Forum) Space technology developed because of the events on “July 16, 1945 when the creation of the first atomic bomb came to fruition” (Lecture II). The dropping of this led to the “end of World War II” (Lecture II) and created an “arms race” (Lecture II) between the United States of America and the Soviet Union.  (National Geographic)  Animals were the original astronauts. These animals “were the first ones to go into space” (Lec...

  This week’s blog discusses the influence nanotech has on art. Dr. Gimzewski’s lectures were fascinating. Obviously, the root nano is considered very small, however, in Greek it actually means “dwarf” (Lecture I). A new numerical system is actually used when discussing objects on the nano “scale” (Lecture I). On this scale, “10 would be one” (Lecture I) and “100 would be two”(Lecture I). The scanning tunneling microscope was a breakthrough in nanotechnology, and even won the “Nobel Prize for Physics in 1986” (Lecture II). Instead of manipulating “light and magnifying objects” (Lecture II) with lenses, the scanning tunneling microscope creates its image through “rastering” (Lecture II) “over the swamped surface” (Lecture II) creating a “three dimensional representation of the surface” (Lecture II).  Dr. Gimzewski then discusses nanoparticles. Nanoparticles “have diameters between, say, one and 100 nanometers” (Lecture 3). They are also considered one of the most prominent “com...

  This week’s blog discusses the relationship between neuroscience and art. The essential part of understanding the mind is grasping the concept of the certain state that the mind is in. Consciousness is defined as “a sense of one’s personal identity” (Lecture I).  This means that the mind is aware of its surroundings. It is able to sense the surrounding conditions and elements and interpret them to be advantageous to itself. The mind was not always perceived as the place of thought, however. Aristotles hypothesized that the “seat of thought and emotion was the heart” (lecture I).   (Madame Tussauds) Dreams are the mind in the unconscious state. Freud claims that the unconscious mind is where “significant psychic events take place” (lecture II). This process of unconscious thought has “both symbolic and actual significance” (Lecture II) in the eyes of Sigmund Freud. “Carl Gustav Jung, a Swiss psychiatrist” (Lecture II) claims that the “unconscious could also be a sou...

  Jessica Irish’s impactful video presentation highlights the dangers factorial industries and single-use plastics present to humans and the environment. Irish’s video was informative, however also, saddening and infuriating. It artistically encapsulated the emotions that every organism and ecosystem that exuded while under attack from the human’s waste products. She displayed plants, animals, and humans that have been adversely affected.   (Wordpress) Jessica Irish focuses on one case of environmental destruction called Cancer Alley. Cancer alley is home to “30 large petrochemical plants within 10 miles,”(ProPublica) says a resident of St. Gabriel Louisiana. Due to these industrial plants, there is “rampant air pollution” (Campisano). Cancer cases in this region “could be at 104 and 05 cases per million” (United Nations). Local groups are formed to combat these plants and the harmful environmental effects that accompany them. These groups have had much success. Irish tel...

  Biotech art and life are valid expressive mediums, although the morality of this subject is disputed. Artists create extraordinary works at the expense of living things. Personally, if the participant which is used in the exhibition consents to the certain process that will occur, then the artist’s work is completely moral. However, I struggle to find the justification in the exploitation of helpless beings like rats and other animals, like in the “rat laughter” (Part III) experiment.  (National Geographic) This conversation on consent also answers the question of limitations on human creativity. Art is what makes human beings special. Everything from music, dance, physical art like painting and biotechnological pieces distinguishes humans from other species. However, consent is needed if the art harms the individual. An amazing art piece was the experiment on how “e coli responds to jazz” (Part I) and George Gessert’s work on making “his own hybrids of irises” (Part V)....