Event 3: The Griffith Observatory

The Griffith Observatory has always been very interesting to me due to my love for astronomy. Despite having been there countless times, I still always find it exciting to go back again because I always seem to learn something new every time.

Entering the observatory the first thing anyone sees is the massive Foucault Pendulum, prominently and strategically placed as if to say “here is something about our own planet before we venture on to the others.”

The Foucault Pendulum was invented in 1851 as a device to demonstrate the rotation of the Earth. But of course in 1851 people were already well aware of Earth’s rotation, yet it has still managed to gain popularity as something amazing. I don’t believe this was misguided, nor was it a fluke. The pendulum may not have shown us any new scientific ideas, but it did demonstrate the sheer simplicity in proving something so large and complex. You did not need anything too fancy to build the pendulum, and you could explain to a child just fine how the movement of the pendulum denotes the rotation of Earth. It may now be a relic of years past but there is a certain elegance to it that draws crowds to gaze at its movements for extended periods while it slowly knocks down pins.

Moving through the observatory I came across various very interesting displays, most of which have not changed over the years. One I particularly liked was the Tesla Coil. I was not lucky enough to catch a show this time, but I did get to simply look at its components and admire the ingenuity behind it. The Tesla Coil to me speaks of boldness and ambition. Before the use of electricity and before Gilbert, people would see lightning strikes and have no idea what exactly they were. They could not dream of ever harnessing such power and somehow making it useful. Thanks to individuals like Tesla and Franklin, we now have an excellent understanding of electricity and are able to confine huge amounts of voltage in small rooms without worry. The drive to understand the unknown had allowed us to conquer our fear of the terrifying and change the world.

Another very interesting thing on display at the observatory was the observatory itself. This may seem a bit redundant and silly but it’s an excellent reminder that this is not just a place where they put up ancient artifacts for display. Observatories the world over are populated by scientists who look up into the cosmos and attempt to figure out where we are and where we belong in the universe. This grand and noble task may seem very scientific but it’s highly human in nature for it really seeks to answer the ancient questions: “Who am I? Where did I come from? And where am I going?” A great deal of what we know about how we got here is by examining the vestiges of evidence left behind from cosmic events that transpired millions and millions of years ago, and I believe must keep looking up to learn more about what’s going on right here on Earth.

Event 2: The Hammer Museum

My second museum of choice was the Hammer Museum. The Hammer Museum was relatively small but nothing short of stunning.

This was a bit different from LACMA in that many of the art pieces were not quite as self-explanatory. One that I particularly liked was a piece simply titled “Calculations,” by Gaines.

 Looking at it from a few feet away it appears to be some sort of symmetric tree.

Upon closer examination, however, you begin to see that it’s built with an array of ordered numbers. There is a positive side, a negative side, and an unbroken sequence of numbers. I have no idea what the purpose behind this work is (and the plaque did not help either) but I do see it as an interesting take on our perceptions. It reminds me of our study of nano-science and how everything seems to change when you go to a smaller and smaller scale. This may seem simple but we easily forget that just like getting closer to the artwork reveals numbers, we can get close to the numbers to see nanoparticles. Everything is made up of something else, and the scale upon which we examine it determines what exactly we perceive.

I then proceeded toward the Provocations: The Architecture and Design of Heatherwick Studio exhibit and came across the question: “Can you squeeze a chair out of a machine, the way you squeeze toothpaste out of a cube?” I thought this was a mildly interesting and a bit silly thing to ponder, and didn’t think much of it. Then I turned around and much to my amazement there it was – someone had actually squeezed a chair out of a machine in the same way you squeeze toothpaste out of a tube. I had to look at it carefully because I simply could not believe it, and I also had to resist the temptation to sit on it.

The bench itself was not particularly extraordinary, but the fact that it was literally squeezed out of a machine made it so much more. It was no longer just a bench – it was now a work of art. I believe this goes back to the first weeks when we studied about the reconciliation of art and science because it gave me a bit more perspective on the issue. You cannot simply have science as questions such as the aforementioned one are not found in nature -- they are artistic wonders that push the limits of our technological capabilities and turn ordinary objects into things that are much more desirable.

Everything in this exhibit thoroughly amazed me. The glass bar holding up a 56lb weight.

The bridge that could be rolled up into a wheel like object.

As someone studying physics, I would one day very much like to work alongside such artists to create things that will inspire others. 

Event 1: Art & Technology at LACMA

The first museum I visited was the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), as it was the museum I know and love and have gone to countless times on previous occasions.

At the Ahmanson Building in LACMA.

The focus of this post will be on an exhibit being displayed conveniently called “Art & Technology.”

Displayed prominently at the Art & Technology exhibit.

It is unfortunately that this exhibit was confined to a small room because I found it immensely interesting. This whole idea came about in the late 60’s when artists were paired from professionals from aerospace, scientific research, and entertainment industries. Some of the companies that braved this journey include IBM, Lockheed Aircraft, and General Electric.

The first work I saw was titled Five Plates, Two Poles.

"Five Plates, Two Poles"

 This did not strike me as anything of value at first. They seemed to be a bunch of metal plates welded together with some rods near the bottom. But of course, this was not the case. As it turns out, the plates are not welded together, they are carefully balanced. It should also be noted that these metal plates are very large in size! Indeed, this display is an intricate control of mass, force, and balance. A closer look at the poles even reveals grooves that have been cut into them to allow for deliberate placement of the plates. I found this very clever – you must first appreciate the laws of physics being used here before you can truly appreciate the work of art.

Another very interesting physics-artwork at the exhibit.

The second installation was a mirror contraption created by Robert Whitman along with Philco-Ford. 

Robert Whitman's mirror artwork.

This consisted of a wall of corner cube reflectors and floating above the wall, large cylindrical mirrors made from reflective Mylar. The resulting affect was that viewers who entered the space would see their faces inverted and reflected back a myriad times in the corner reflectors. In the large mirrors they could also see seemingly random household objects that were floating (like a clock or a piece of cabbage). I found this one to be both a funny yet engaging take on perception. It’s always interesting to me to see the human brain become confused when something is a bit out of the ordinary. I believe it is a sobering reflection on just how much of our understanding of the environment is merely the result of the light that is reflected into our retina. 

Week 9: Art + Space

Never have I been so amazed yet so felt so insignificant than by learning about space this week. Listening to Carl Sagan talk about the humbling experience that is astronomy ironically left me inspired. Perhaps it was his soothing voice, or perhaps the music and images, but I simply cannot imagine the future of mankind without imagining the possibilities in space. Will Arthur C. Clarke’s vision of a space elevator become reality? Will we see daily launches into space like in Gattaca? Will there be battles in space similar to current battles on Earth, like in Star Trek or Star Wars? What about, more realistically, humans colonizing Mars? Artists, scientists, and writers alike seem to believe there’s no future without space. As Clarke puts it, there will come a time when there will be “more people living outside of Earth than on it.”

It seems unfair to me to ponder and muse about the future of space without considering the rich and thrilling culture of space that developed in the 20^th century. I can only imagine the awe ordinary people must have felt in 1969 when man walked on the moon for the first time. And maybe it’s better to not think about the heartbreak they felt less than 17 years later after the Challenger disaster. On the other side of the world the Soviets were dealing with their own trials and tribulations with the launch of Sputnik, Laika, and Gagarin. Given the context of the tense Cold War, staunch patriotism only made the race more exciting.

"Earthrise." We always talked about the rise of the moon and sun, but never the Earth. Space travel gave us a new perspective.
http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/297755main_gpn-2001-000009_full_0_0.jpg

Going back further to the 16^th and 17^th century we see different yet still heated movements in science and our exploration of space with Copernicus, Kepler, and Galileo. This brings to my mind the question: how will historians and artists depict our own time in the future in regards to space? What are we to be excited about? While I don’t believe there will be space elevators any time soon, I find today’s technology nothing short of fascinating. Below is a video showing SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket crashing and exploding after attempting to land on a barge in the ocean following its launch into space! While it was unsuccessful, the proximity to success alone is amazing considering the unprecedented nature of the event.

People also often forget about Voyager 1, which was a space probe launched in 1977 that continues to operate to this day and communicates with Earth even though it is beyond our solar system. To put this in perspective, you could fit over one and a half million Earths between the probe and Earth now. So I hope when we are depicted in the future it is done with the intent to show boundless ambition -- that we believed the moon was not enough. 

Works Cited:

"Audacious & Outrageous: Space Elevators." - NASA Science. Web. 01 June 2015. <http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2000/ast07sep_1/>.

"Major Figures of the Scientific Revolution." . Web. 01 June 2015. <http://users.clas.ufl.edu/ufhatch/HIS-SCI-STUDY-GUIDE/0064_majorFiguresSciRev.html>.

"News and Archive" Voyager 1. Web. 01 June 2015. <http://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/news/pale_blue_25.html>.

"The Space Race." History.com. A&E Television Networks, Web. 01 June 2015. <http://www.history.com/topics/space-race>.

Wall, Mike. "Awesome New SpaceX Video Shows Rocket Landing Try and Crash | Space.com."  Web. 01 June 2015. <http://www.space.com/29119-spacex-reusable-rocket-landing-crash-video.html>.

Week 8: Nanotech + Art

The 21^st century is all about going big, but in a small way – on a nano-scale that is. When Richard Feynman issued his challenge of building a motor that was 0.4mm per dimension, he had no idea we would today be building carbon nanotubes just nanometers in diameter. More impressive perhaps is the Scanning Tunneling Microscope (STM), which exploits the tunneling phenomenon of tiny particles in order to resolve the contours and troughs and peaks of molecules. This has additionally allowed us to manipulate the positions of atoms and molecules to makes words and even artistic configurations.

A rendering of carbon nano tubes.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/53/Types_of_Carbon_Nanotubes.png

I found Chris Orfescu’s work in this field to be particularly exciting. Orfescu, a materials scientist by trade, not only creates art on a nano-scale but holds competitions for others to do the same. What happens here is a powerful scanning electron microscope is used to visualize an atomic structure, and this visualization is processed with various artistic techniques in order to make artworks.

One example of Orfescu's method is this piece by Dolores Kaufman. This takes the nano-sculpture and modifies it to look like a waterfall (and it was aptly entitled "Nano Niagra"). I found this very clever because, as Kaufman says, it "creates something so very large from something so very small, just as occurs in nature."
http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2008/01/17/technology/17NANO_NIAGRA.jpg

A more practical use of this technology can be found in the biotech realm, where scientists have discovered how to use bismuth nanoparticles in conjunction with a spectral Computed Tomography scanner to find a blood clot’s exact location. Gregory Lanza, a researcher at Washington University predicts more technology will be developed to not only find blood clots but also seal weak spots in the blood vessels. Given the tremendous rate at which innovations are being made today, this means there’s no telling what kind of medical procedures will be possible ten, twenty, or thirty years from now. In a hopeful vision for the future, we may just be able to inject certain nanoparticles to deal with any maladies for which today we may have to be hospitalized. 

The top image depicts a blood vessel with ruptured atherosclerotic plaque (with will develop into a clot) and the nanoparticles, are attracted to the protein fibrin in the blood clot. On the bottom left is an image of a traditional CT scan, which cannot distinguish between the blood clot and the calcium in the plaque. The spectral CT image however, shows the bismuth nanoparticles that are attracted to the fibrin.
http://nanowiki.info/img/clots.jpg

Works Cited

Ball, Philip. "Honey, I Shrank the Motor." The Guardian.  Web. 24 May 2015. <http%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fscience%2F2004%2Fjun%2F10%2Fscience.nanotechnology>.

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>.

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>.

"NanoArt International Online Competition." NanoArt International Online Competition.  Web. 25 May 2015. <http://nanoart21.org/nanoart_contest.html>.

"New Nanoparticles Make Blood Clots Visible." Nanowiki.  Web. 24 May 2015. <http%3A%2F%2Fnanowiki.info%2F%23%255B%255BNew%2520nanoparticles%2520make%2520blood%2520clots%2520visible%255D%255D>.

Viktor, Erik. "Nanotechnology Now." Nanotechnology Art Gallery. Web. 25 May 2015. <http://www.nanotech-now.com/Art_Gallery/erik-viktor.htm>.

Week 7: Neuroscience + Art

With the rapid advancement of technology and physics in the 20^th century came our ability to better investigate the brain, and this ultimately led to rising interest in neuroscience. In Neuroculture Frazzetto and Anker describe how neuroscience seeks to answer questions that will ultimately reveal aspects of our individuality. They also discuss how work in neuroscience has impacted the arts community. One I found particularly intriguing was Susan Aldworth’s ‘Between a Thing and a Thought,’ which incorporates fMRI photos of her brain that she drew upon, giving the definition of ‘self’ in ‘self-portrait’ a more modern meaning.

But what’s a more rigorous explanation of ‘thought’ and consciousness? The Arisaka Lab at UCLA seeks to understand the origin of consciousness itself by mapping the brain behavior of C. Elegans under various environments and stimuli. The C. Elegans were chosen specifically due to their relatively simple brain (only 302 neurons vs. 100 billion in humans) and because of the relative ease of working with them. The process of this study involves supplying an external stimulation, determining how the neurons react to this, and the steps that lead to the excitation of motor neurons to respond to the stimuli.

The neuron mapping of C. Elegans.
http://home.physics.ucla.edu/~arisaka/home/Biophysics/CElegans/files/stacks_image_131.png

A different study of the brain involves the unconscious. While this term was first used by Friedrich Schelling, it gained popularity thanks to Sigmund Freud, who claimed a larger part of the mind’s processes took place in the unconscious. He believed dreams were gateways to the unconscious, and psychoanalysis was the way to interpret dreams. Carl Jung advanced several of Freud’s ideas about the unconscious further, making claims such as “It is, however, true that much of the evil in the world comes from the fact that man in general is hopelessly unconscious”  in his The Spiritual Problem of Modern Man.

A picture of Freud's idea of the levels of the brain. Much like an iceberg, the bulk of it is below the surface.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/be/Structural-Iceberg.svg/849px-Structural-Iceberg.svg.png

Of course, we cannot sneak up on the unconscious and take a photo to prove that it’s there, so we must look for indirect methods of studying it. I believe seeing the effects of psychedelic substances provides insight on parts of the mind to which we do not have access. Dr. Albert Hofmann, the first person to create LSD, stated that it gave him a “mystical experience of a deeper, comprehensive reality.” Aside from hinting at the existence of brain processes the un-altered mind does not have access to, this demonstrates the curious nature of the brain—how just a few micrograms of a certain substance can open a world previously undreamed of. 

An artistic interpretation of the effects of LSD.
http://fc00.deviantart.net/fs6/i/2005/113/3/7/LSD_by_RipRoaringReverend.jpg

Works Cited: 

"Carl Jung - Collective Unconscious." Carl Jung - Collective Unconscious.  Web. 17 May 2015. <http://www.carl-jung.net/collective_unconscious.html>.

Devlin, Hannah. "What Is Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI)?" Psych Central. Web. 17 May 2015. <http://psychcentral.com/lib/what-is-functional-magnetic-resonance-imaging-fmri/0001056>.

Ferro, Shaunacy. "Why Doctors Can't Give You LSD (But Maybe They Should)." Popular Science. Web. 17 May 2015. <http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2013-04/new-science-lsd-therapy>.

"Katsuhi Arisaka at UCLA - C. Elegans." Katsuhi Arisaka at UCLA - C. Elegans.  Web. 17 May 2015. <http://home.physics.ucla.edu/~arisaka/home/CElegans/>.

McLeod, Saul. "Unconscious Mind | Simply Psychology." Unconscious Mind | Simply Psychology. Web. 17 May 2015. <http://www.simplypsychology.org/unconscious-mind.html>.

Week 6: Biotech + Art

“You are what you eat” – or at least that’s the old adage that seems to be reinforced in Gary Wenk’s article This is Your Brain on Food. It’s quite thought provoking to read how the chemicals in the food you eat mentally affect you only if they actually resemble some neurotransmitters in your brain. It’s also a sobering thought that food is itself not fundamentally different from drugs—in fact, food is just a type of drug. It affects our brains and who we are more than we realize, as is apparent from the “morphine-like chemicals” produced in your intestines after consuming things like milk and eggs. This raises the question of just how do we classify the human body and life, and I find artists’ point of view on this matter very intriguing.

Diagram showing the sheer complexity of the tiny mechanisms of the brain. Here we see neurotransmitters being released.
http://www.scienceofeds.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/Synaptic-Transmission-CSNforum.png

As Ellen Levy describes in her paper, classifying life is much more challenging than a simple biology book may lead you to believe. Entities like chimeras and cyborgs already seem difficult to classify as they take their defining characteristics from various groups. One may even ask: is it fair to classy life in groups at all? After all, we have seen the definition of life and humanity challenged decade after decade throughout history. The artist Stelarc, for example, had an “Extra Ear” constructed on his arm, making life itself a canvas. Does its traditionally unnatural growth alter its classification?

Stelarc with the "Extra Ear"
http://www.fluxnetwork.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/Ear_On_Arm_Stelarc1.jpg

Even more interesting to me is having Darwinian principles forcefully applied to machines. By random mutations to the machine code, the technology is allowed to “evolve” and improve over time. Previously it seemed common sense to think evolution was exclusively a “life” phenomenon, but with this creative application of Darwinism to machines, the question of biotechnology’s effect on what life is becomes much more difficult to answer.

Chris Kelty goes a bit further with the topic of pushing the limits of what’s allowed of human creativity with his description of “outlaws, hackers, and Victorian Gentlemen.” I find his view of “creativity breeds creativity” on the matter quite accurate regarding the current state of affairs. I believe the mindset of the “outlaws” will indeed be the one that reaches the cure for cancer and malaria because it appears in history that countless great discoveries are made by those who were told what they were doing was ridiculous or even unethical. 

Tumor seeking immune system cells are being developed by UCLA researchers to  locate and attack dangerous melanomas.
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4142/4919909041_26dc35d1bb_z.jpg

Works Cited:

"Ear on Arm." Web. 11 May 2015. <http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fluxnetwork.net%2Fear-on-arm-stelarc-at-the-media-gallery%2F>.

Sherweb. "5 Recent Breakthrough Innovations in Biotechnology | SherWeb." SherWeb. 23 Aug. 2010. Web. 11 May 2015. <http://www.sherweb.com/blog/5-recent-breakthrough-innovations-in-biotechnology/>.

Tetyana. "Benefits of Starving and Why You Don't Have a Chemical Imbalance." Web. 11 May 2015. <http%3A%2F%2Fwww.scienceofeds.org%2F2012%2F06%2F12%2Fanorexic-brain-neurocircuits-behaviour%2F>.

Wenk, Gary. "Seed Magazineabout." This Is Your Brain on Food . Web. 11 May 2015.

"What Is Biotechnology?" What Is Biotechnology?. Web. 11 May 2015. <https://www.bio.org/articles/what-biotechnology>.