Desma 9 Week 8 Blog Nanotech and Art

Nanotech and Art: Cutting Edge in both Technology and Art

The combination of nanotech and art should possibly be the most fascinating topic of art we can enjoy today. And it is indeed cutting edge in both technology field and art field. The "best" and coolest hybrid of technology and art.

A C60 Molecule created by nanotech, photo credit to MSU

Dr.Zimgewski's lectures inspired me a lot on nanotechnology and I have understood that the most important and shocking, game-changing feature of the nanotechnology and nano materials is that the physical features of the material changes significantly at the nanotech level. According to Dr.Zimgewski, at nano level, the traditional physics laws, especially those on forces, can be dominated by other mechanisms such as surface tension thus change the characteristic of a material.

The above is a picture of a nano sculpture "Trust" by Jonty Hurwitz, in the sculpture, the women is dancing on a piece of human hair, the application of nanotechnology and art of sculpture is combined on this tiny sculptured women which cannot be seen by human eye.

nano gear by Eric Drexler, photo credit to IMM, Institution of Molecular Manufacturing

The nano gear designed by Eric Drexler is also fascinating, is involves the concept of molecular manufacturing, and engineering with atoms and molecules. That is a whole new ground of engineering and can be used in medicines and micro robots to conduct precise operations on our infected and disfunction body parts with no pain.

References and Citations
 "A Molecular Differential Gear." Institute for Molecular Manufacturing RSS. Web. 25 May 2015. .http://www.imm.org/research/parts/gear/
"C60 Isomers." C60 Isomers. Web. 25 May 2015. .http://www.nanotube.msu.edu/fullerene/fullerene.php?C=60
Feder, Barnaby. "The Art of Nanotech." Bits The Art of Nanotech Comments. 25 Jan. 2008. Web. 25 May 2015. .http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/01/25/the-art-of-nanotech/?_r=0
Hurwitz, Jonty. "Nano Sculptures by Jonty Hurwitz." Web. 25 May 2015. .http://www.jontyhurwitz.com/nano/
Lovgren, Stefan. "Can Art Make Nanotechnology Easier to Understand?" National Geographic. National Geographic Society. Web. 25 May 2015. http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2003/12/1223_031223_nanotechnology.html

Desma 9 Week 7 Blog

Neuroscience and Art

This week Professor Vesna introduced the connection between neuroscience and art. For centuries, human minds have been exploring the physical world surrounding us and have created great and fascinating arts in all categories of study and presences of world.
For now, our explorations have come to its starting point: the neurons which "created" our minds, the starting points of our mind are now a fascinating topic art creations done by our mind.
Professor Vesna introduced us the famous "Brainbow" project conducted by two Harvard professors.

Photo credit to Sanes Lab, Harvard University

By lighting up neurons with fluorescence, beautiful, colorful and clear images of the neurons and their connections in brain can be created. Because neuron cells have a large, round body and a long "tail" to connect with other neuron cells, lighting them up with different colors can help us visualize their "tails" clearly and thus have a visualized understanding of their connections between each other.
Not only a scientific project, the "Brainbow" itself is beautiful and stunning enough to be considered as an artwork.
Dreams is also an very interesting topic in arts, I have read Freud's book Interpretation of Dreams when I was young. It was one of the first scientific books I have read. In the book he stated that sex was the major drive for almost all human activities and mind activities. And he stated the idea of the importance of childhood in a person's mind development.

(Greg Dunn)"Gold Cortex 2" by Greg Dunn, photo credit to Greg Dunn

Neurons are popular element in artworks because of its exotic presence.

Cover of Freud's Interpretation of Dreams, photo from google books.

Dreams have always been fascinating, especially the idea of multi layer dreams. I first learned this idea in the movie Inception. The movie basically introduced a mutual multi layer dream by a group of people and greatly presented the combination of dream, neuroscience and art.

Inception poster, photo from imdb.com

Citation and Reference

"'Brainbow,' Version 2.0." Harvard Gazette. Web. 18 May 2015. .

  Freud, Sigmund, and Joyce Crick. The Interpretation of Dreams. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1999. Print. 

Lewis, Tanya. "Dazzling Images of the Brain Created by Neuroscientist-Artist." LiveScience. TechMedia Network, 10 Dec. 2014. Web. 18 May 2015. .

"Molecular & Cellular Biology - Harvard University." Molecular & Cellular Biology - Harvard University. Web. 18 May 2015. .

Inception. Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc. :, 2010. Film. 

 "Greg Dunn Design | Visual Art | Neuroscience Art | Gold Leaf Painting." Greg Dunn Design. Web. 18 May 2015.  

Desma 9 Week 1 Bolg

Two Cultures

In the lecture this week regarding two cultures, Professor Vesna introduced a famous British philosopher and novelist C.P.Snow and his statements. C.P.Snow was famous for his thoughts on two cultures. In his famous book, the Two Cultures and the scientific Revolution, he argued that the divergence between Science and art has been a major roadblock in the development of human civilization, including both art and science.

C.P.Snow and two cultures, photo credit to Matt Collins (citation2)

C.P.Snow (citation3)

He stated that because both science and art requires hard working in a specific field, they merely had time to explore the materials and thoughts in the other area. So after years of separation, both science and art will be limited in a narrow field of study without the panoramic view of the future of the human being as a specie.

I agreed with C.P.Snow's point of view and also believe that no matter whether you are a scientist or an artist, only knowing or at least superficially understanding the ideas in other field will lead you to real success and real achievements on exploration valuable to human beings.

I also have personal experience on this, in China, students are being divided to "letters" and "science" since high school and are divided since then, they merely study knowledge from the other side. And there are currently more and more examples of student who is focused in one field showing inability even in his specialized field due to knowing nothing in the other field.

In China, students will be divided to letters and science or art and science since high school with minimal knowledge in other field, this has been proven to be a bad policy(citation1)

Citations and Bibliography

1 Gu, Steven. "A World Outside the SATs: Meet the Gaokao from China." The Prospect. 28 Mar. 2013. Web. 11 May 2015. .

2  Krauss, Lawrence. "An Update on C. P. Snow's "Two Cultures"" Scientific American Global RSS. Web. 11 May 2015. . 

3  Snow, C. P. The Two Cultures and the Scientific Revolution. New York: Cambridge UP, 1959. Print. 

4  Thorpe, Vanessa. "A New Discovery for Science and Art: The Cultural Divide Is All in the Mind." The Guardian. Web. 11 May 2015. . 

5  Wu, Jenny. "The Art and Science Of..." Yale Scientific Magazine. Web. 11 May 2015.

 

Desma 9 Week 6 Blog

Biotech plus Art, Biotechnology and our living

Human being's technology has been developing since the Stone Age. However, for thousands of years, we only achieved technological advancements that have an impact on non-life objects and materials. Only until recent decades, we human beings started to have some real control over living creatures and genes within, including ourselves. 

Biotech has been a very hot topic or theme in arts as introduced by Professor in this week's lecture and materials. And we have seen many Artistic expressions combined with living animals or at the cell and even gene level. This includes interesting projects from the fluorescent rabbit to putting the image of milky way into DNA in a mouse's ear.

However, there is a reason why biotech has been a such popular topic in art expressions. The reason is that finally, our technology is so advanced that we can control or change something (gene) within a living creature, even including our selves, and many applications regarding the gene and biotech technology ring a bell to human beings' ethics. 

From cloning a sheep to modifying the gene of a baby-to-be-born in laboratories to reduce his risk of getting serious diseases, we have gone too far in the application of biological and gene technology. Are these applications and experiments ethical? Will they jeopardize our health and safety in the future eventually? Do we have the right to use, modify a living creature such as a rabbit as the object of our experiment? Is it inhumane to the animals?

Dolly, the first cloned sheep (right)(2)

I believe these applications are inhumane but all these questions have been raised as introduced in the materials.

These questions are too distant to discuss. However, our biotech advancements have also greatly influenced our way of eating. Some aspects of our food production have also become unhealthy and inhumane.

I have watched the interview with Michael Pollan on Food.Inc, and I have watched the documentary Food.Inc and have been impressed about the modern technology used to produce our food. The documentary, Food.Inc can be categorized as an artistic expression on the issue.

I have also read Michael Pollan's book, the Omnivore's Dilemma as a supplementary source to understand the issue. In the book, Michael Pollan explained the way our biotech is involved in our food production and how is this process harming the nature and our health. To uncover the industrial prints in our food production, Michael traced the footprints of oil, and corn. According to him, most of the cattles in the country are fed by heavily industrial grown corns and most of the sugar in our soda and sweets also come from corn. What is more important is that the great amount of cheap corns we have in production should all be credited to oil, it is artificial fertilizers from oil made it possible.

The Book: the Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan (4)

In Michael Pollan's book, the Omnivores Dilemma, he introduced that in modern cattle feeding industry, the fat from beef are used in the feed for the cattle.Is that humane? (The Omnivore's Dilemma, Michael Pollan)

Industrialized Cattle Feeding(1)

Some people may argue that although all of these industrial footprints in food production are unhealthy and sometimes even inhumane, they are required to feed all the people. That is true, but I believe any further involvement of gene technology in art or in food production should be halted or terminated until we really have an idea of what we are doing and have identified a clear line between humane applications and inhumane applications.

Citations and References:

1 "A Brutally Honest Look at Our Industrial Food System." PA Homepage. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 May 2015. http://www.pahomepage.com/story/d/story/a-brutally-honest-look-at-our-industrial-food-syst/20695/iXnJR5Jo50KY8FTwbnDKew (picture 3)

2 "Dolly the Sheep 'reborn' as Four New Clones Created." The Telegraph. Telegraph Media Group, n.d. Web. 10 May 2015. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science/8169817/Dolly-the-Sheep-reborn-as-four-new-clones-created.html (picture 1)

3 Food, Inc. Dir. Robert Kenner. Movie One, 2008.

4 Pollan, Michael. The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals. New York: Penguin, 2006. Print. (picture 3)

5 "POV | Food, Inc. | Interview with Michael Pollan | PBS." YouTube. YouTube, n.d. Web. 10 May 2015. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Ty0eehT8Y4

AN JIANG DESMA 9 MIDTERM UPLOAD

https://drive.google.com/drive/my-drive