Desma 9 Week 2 Blog Math+Art

Math and Art

Math and art, from lots of people's perspective, are from two absolutely different worlds and they cannot be integrated together. However, there are obvious relationships between them and each of them relies on the other.

The study of mathematics involves a lot of art perspectives. For example, the idea of "zero". We all know that 1, 2, 3 are obviously numbers, but how about the notion of zero, is zero a number like one or not? What does it represent? This is a question that involves art thinking.

Also, the golden ratio is a good example of the fascinating interrelationship between art and mathematics. At the golden ratio of 0.618, the ratio of width and length of a rectangular is most beautiful to human's eyes.

Ancient Greek Architecture showed the golden ratio, http://britton.disted.camosun.bc.ca/

Golden Ratio from Da Vinci's famous painting the Last Supper www.goldennumber.net

It is also a fascinating fact that in the Fibonacci series of numbers, the next number is the sum of the previous two numbers, for example, 2, 3, 5, 8, etc... With the Fibonacci series of numbers involving, the numbers get larger and larger and the ratio of the previous number to the current number is getting infinitely closer to 0.618, which is the golden ratio.

In stock trading, the prices of a stock hit resistance and support levels and a counter direction price movement will occur. It has been demonstrated that support and resistance price levels often lies on the Fibonacci percentages of the distance between a past high and a past low.

Application of Fibonacci series retracement is stock trading www.investopedia.com

From another perspective, according to Professor Vesna's lecture, modern art design usually requires the use of computing techniques. And the computing technique heavily involves math. The subject of mathematics can be considered as a fundamental subject for scientific subjects and it demonstrated a lot of interesting art characteristics, so we believe that there are lots of interrelationships between science and art which we can discover.

Citations:
1 "Golden Ratio in Art Composition and Design." Phi 1618 The Golden Number. 4 May 2014. Web. 4 June 2015.
2 Kuepper, Justin. "Fibonacci And The Golden Ratio." Investopedia. 24 Mar. 2004. Web. 4 June 2015.
3 "Math Forum: Ask Dr. Math FAQ: Golden Ratio, Fibonacci Sequence." Math Forum: Ask Dr. Math FAQ: Golden Ratio, Fibonacci Sequence. Web. 4 June 2015.
4 "Nature, The Golden Ratio, and Fibonacci Too ..." Nature, The Golden Ratio and Fibonacci Numbers. Web. 4 June 2015.
5 Math and Art lectures, Professor Vesna, V.
6 "TITLE." Golden Section in Art and Architecture. Web. 4 June 2015.

DESMA 9 WEEK 9 BLOG SPACE AND ART

Space and Art

Professor Vesna introduced us the human exploration of space from the past times and into the future.

I learned about Capernacus's story in primary school, I learned that he was cruelly burned to death by the religious authorities at that time because his theories were believed to be false and have bad influence to the people at that time.  When I heard about that, I first thought was that are there any theories that we believe aren't possible today will be discovered as truth after a few hundred years?

Capernacus, from www.biography.com

When the topic of art comes to space, a very important and intrinsically interesting topic within space is time, and it has also been a popular topic with art. An interesting fact is for that the planets and stars we can see at very far distance through telescopes, we are not seeing their current image, we are only seeing their past image. If they are ten lightyears from us, then we are seeing its picture from 10 years ago.

The time machine from H.G.Wells's novel The Time Machine in 1895. www.flavorwire.com

There has always been a huge fascination in real world and in the movies about time machines, but apparently no one has succeeded yet. And the idea of gravity, black hole has also been popular. Some scientists think that gravity will cause curvature in space and time. Stephen Hawking's A Brief History of Time introduced this theory. And that is a great example of cutting edge science work can be in a form of art.

The curvature of space, time. www.tgdaily.com

From nanotechnology to space, we are experience a tremendous increase in measurements of objects from ten's power of negative fourteen to ten's power of positive twenty or thirty. Maybe the structures and concepts at the smallest level of our recognition have some connections with the structures and concepts at the largest level? When human beings are reaching the limit of our recognition of the world, lots of art presentations arise, representing our imaginations of the unknown. I think that the space and time is an extremely suitable topic for art and art associated of space have been familiar with us in life from paintings to movies.

On Space Time Foam, an interesting art expression of gravity, curvature of space time. www.weburbanist.com, citation #3

References and citations
1 Taylor, Kate. "Scientists Show How to Scrunch up Space-time." TG Daily. Web. 1 June 2015. .
2 Meier, Allison. "Art in the Outer Limits: A Look at NASA's Space Art Program." Hyperallergic RSS. 29 Aug. 2013. Web. 1 June 2015.
3 "On Space Time Foam: Surreal Billowing Art Installation." WebUrbanist RSS. 11 Dec. 2012. Web. 1 June 2015.
4 "Temple, Emily. "The 10 Best Time Machines In Movies." Web. 1 June 2015.
5 Tenner, Edward. "Controlling the Space-Time Continuum, With Art." The Atlantic. Atlantic Media Company, 8 Oct. 2013. Web. 1 June 2015.
6 Hawking, Stephen. A Brief History of Time: From the Big Bang to Black Holes. Toronto: Bantam, 1988. Print.

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

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