Event 5 Jones & Terwillger Galleries

During my trip to Desert springs, I spontaneously stumbled upon an art exhibit called "Jones & Terwillger Galleries that displayed many forms of interesting glass art. The exhibit mainly consists of colorful garden scenes, European and American landscapes, masterfully painted figurative studies, still life, and seascapes in realistic and impressionistic styles. In the context of our course, I became much more critical in evaluating the source of inspirations that led to the creation of each piece of artwork, whether it stems from nature, beauty, or science.

 The double helix glass work was the first sculpture that caught my attention when I walked in. The first thought that came to my mind was the mathematics behind the sculpture. While the image taken to the left may look asymmetrical, the actual work is quite symmetric when viewed in 3D space rather than a 2D image. The asymmetry is actually an illusion made possible by spiraling symmetrical squares following a Golden Ratio.

At the same time, I came to realize the biological inspirations of DNA that might have led the artist to create this work. Like this artwork above, the helix cycles of DNA measures 34 by 21 angstrom in lengths, which also equate to the Golden Ratio. While it is unclear if the original inspiration or purpose of this artwork is based on a biological one, natural mathematical phenomenons never fails to find it's place in art.

Further information regarding the mathematical ratios found in DNA can be found at http://www.goldennumber.net/dna/ .

In addition to the spiral glasswork, I was intrigued by other designs within the exhibition. In the week of neuroscience & art, we learned that many works of art stems from the chaos and layered confusion that underlies our thought process and reality. Essentially, the theme of complication is portrayed in the work on the left. By first glance, the artwork looks like it is made from a variety of glass pieces. However, upon closer examination the glass sculpture is actually composed of the same fundamental piece of glass assembled together, similar to the way our brain is composed of fundamental units of neurons.

Fundamental units of neurons are very consistent and homologous.

Many individuals may have different perspectives on the sculpture on the right. To me, the sculpture on the right represents a compound similar to:

While I am unsure what the sculpture represents exactly, I am satisfied knowing that everyone can take away something different. Without having undergone biotechnology and art chapter in our class, I would have never noticed the relation of the sculpture to the sciences.

Realistic canvas art is one of the most prevalent forms of art throughout history, particularly in the 19th century. Growing up in the 21th century, I always resorted to utilizing camera or recording devices whenever I need to capture reality. After seeing the vivid details and exactness portrayed in the drawing above, I began to think about the important role of realistic art across centuries of human civilization before the invention of photography. While this particular work of art does not have any immediate ties to science and technology, the realistic work of art above reminds us to think about how the field of realistic artwork will be captured in centuries to come when digital photography and videos become obsolete. 

One of my favorite works of sculpture art in the exhibit was the mixed medium work above. As observed, the artwork is structurally composed of glass layers embedded within the stone designs. Without realizing until after measuring the artwork with a pixelated ruler, I confirmed that the proportions of the base of the artwork is in perfect "golden ratio" as the middle segment. Whether intentional or not, I am still astonished by the prevalence of mathematical ratios found throughout art.

"DNA Spiral as a Golden Section." Phi 1618 The Golden Number. N.p., 13 May 2012. Web. 18 May 2015. <http://www.goldennumber.net/dna/>.

Further information regarding this exhibit can be found at: http://www.jones-terwilliger-galleries.com/

References:

"Developmental Neurobiology." Max Planck Institut Für Psychiatrie. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 May 2015. <http://www.psych.mpg.de/2049085/cappello>.

"Jones & Terwilliger Galleries." Jones & Terwilliger Galleries. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 May 2015. <http://www.jones-terwilliger-galleries.com/>.

"PEOI Organic Chemistry." PEOI Organic Chemistry. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 May 2015. <http://www.peoi.org/Courses/Coursesen/chemorg/contents/frame12i.html>.

Event 3 Kathy HIgh exhibition

As a research scientist in the CNSI, I can't help but notice the number of "ArtSci" events taking place one floor below me. After the first few lectures of DEMSA 9, I realized that the ArtSci events are exploring what is popularized as the "third culture" or a cross between the arts and sciences. Essentially, the works in cutting edge biological and nanotechnology are utilized by artistically inspired scientists to work together with individuals from arts and humanities background to create scientific artwork with a deeper message than what art and science can deliver alone.

Kathy High is an established visual/media artist, independent curator, and educator. On May 18, I had the opportunity to visit her exhibition, which I consider the most interest exhibition that I attended for this class thus far.

According to Mick Lorusso, Kathy's inspiration comes from her own struggles with a chronic inflammatory bowel disease known as Crohn's disease, which affects almost one million Americans every year. The etiology of the disease stems from a variety of causes including imbalanced diet, stress, and mainly genetic and environmental factors. The artwork above portrays the large intestine and colon being colonized by plants and children playing, with the intention to convey the importance that healthy environmental factors and life styles.

On a similar note, Kathy further paints the picture of the entire GI tract in the context of happy teenagers sitting outside and enjoying nature to portray the same theme of healthy living. 

A more distinctive work of art, and field of familiarity - fecal transplant - particularly caught my attention. The field of gut microbiota transplant paved the way to how our medical society views the importance of natural flora within our intestine. In fact, microbes including bacteria within our body outnumbers our actual human cells by at least ten folds. More importantly, medical sciences have only begun to understand how the complex communities of bacteria within our intestines contribute to our overall immunology, physiology, and proneness to acquiring diseases such as Crohn's Disease. I believe artworks such as this is important for the public due to it's more extreme nature in its ability to capture attention, and thus raise awareness. Despite my major background in Microbiology, Immunology, and Genetics, I didn't learn about the importance of gut microbiota, and fecal transplant, until this year.

Nonetheless, It was a slight relief to find out that the fecal matter was made from porcelain. One particular note I wanted to point out was the inappropriate use of the rotavapor glass tube as the container as opposed to more suitable carriers such as a vial or test tube. 

Children is one of the more prevalent recurring themes in Kathy's work. I believe beyond the importance of emphasizing the medical aspects of diseases and what the field of microbiology entails, Kathy raises the point that the maintenance of health starts at an early age. Similar to early works of art above, Kathy continually emphasizes features of nature, young people, and plants/vegetables to convey the importance of gastrointestinal health.

While the term "art of medicine" is usually considered a figurative saying, I can confidently say that Kathy's work effectively brings medical awareness to the public through a medium that is on par with popular articles and scientific journals.

Thank Mick!

Other works by Kathy High (nudity discretion advised) can be found at: 

http://kathyhigh.com/project-embracing-animal.html

"Kathy High: Visual/media Artist, Independent Curator, Educator." Kathy High: Projects: Embracing Animal. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 May 2015. <http://kathyhigh.com/project-embracing-animal.html>.

Event 1 Hammers Museum

On April 23, I had the pleasure of visiting the Hammers Museum for the first time.

One of the first attractions I became drawn to actually involved quite a bit of physical involvement, balance, dexterity, and trust in the math/physics behind the art. The original design had a colorful appeal and physically resembles a top. And from what we know of tops, we can expect how it will function when it spins. But that all changes when we are now physically interacting with the art. 

Artistic inspiration for the Heatherwick Studio Spun Chair

Trying the chair for myself - considering purchasing for $766

While the exterior is aesthetically pleasing, the interior design is perfectly balanced to provide maximal centripetal force. Recalling back to physics.

The centripetal acceleration formula dictates that the lower "radius" or lever arm of the spinning object, the greater the acceleration. Thus, the low surface area and design for the individual to be "scooped" in while sitting isn't just for the purpose of the aesthetic design but also for the underlying functional purposes. This example changed my perspective of what defines "art." In retrospect, I have walked passed thousands of unique structures, buildings, and designs that are constantly present around us that requires a close collaboration between the architects, designers, and engineers to make it possible. <http://formulas.tutorvista.com/physics/centripetal-acceleration-formula.html>

seed cathedral in the exhibit

Of the artwork, the seed cathedral caught my attention the most. The world expo that takes place every five years can be considered one of the most exhilarating artistic and cultural indulging experience that one can ever experience. The world exposition transitioned from themes of industrialization to cultural exchange and eventually name branding (Wiki, World Fair). The mathamatical design underlying the bends of each beam that stems out of the base provides not only an incredibly stable but also aesthetically pleasing structure.

Life size version of the Seed Cathedral at the UK pavilion when I visited the World Expo 2010 in Shanghai China

Upon encountering Gridwork by Charles Gaines, I was reminded of the underlying mathematical concepts of art, particularly digital art. While the painting utilized numerical values spanning from the center of the portrait labeled "O", the artwork reminded me of how computers and televisions display/ reproduce the display of artwork digitally using binaries. Essentially, art can be reproduced by using a series of numerical values to describe the position of the pixel and also the color, brightness, and intensity. Nonetheless, the concept of grid art is definitely a form of art that encapsulates the bridge between the math and art. Likewise, the artwork above has different colors and numbers displayed purely to describe the placement coordinates. Essentially, mathematics can be an underlying way to either "create" or "describe" a piece of artwork.

"Biography." The Hammer Museum. N.p., n.d. Web. 01 May 2015. <http://hammer.ucla.edu/exhibitions/2015/charles-gaines-gridwork-1974-1989/>.

"Centripetal Acceleration Formula." Centripetal Acceleration Formula. N.p., n.d. Web. 01 May 2015. <http://formulas.tutorvista.com/physics/centripetal-acceleration-formula.html>.

"World's Fair." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 01 May 2015. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World%27s_fair>.

Event 3 Fowlers Museum

I am excited that I had to chance to visit the Fowlers one last time before graduating. Upon entering the museum I was particularly taken aback by the construction of the artwork.

The first mannequin I came upon was made completely of women's bras when examined up close. While there wasn't any particular defining characteristic for the faceless mannequin, I believe symbolically the main significance comes from materialism. Also in terms of originality, the entire artwork is created from a singular piece of bra in a repetitive fashion to create everything from the hat to the dress. This may symbolize that fashion and designs are simply building off of fundamental units, such as a plain bra.

Art and Medicine:
As a incoming medical student, the conglomeration of internal organs particularly caught my attention. The first thing I noticed was the placement of the organs : where the heart, kidney, and various organs were molded together in an unfamiliar orientation rather than according to their respective anatomy. After looking closer at the overall structure of the artwork, I came to see how each of the organs fit and near-perfectly "caressed" on another. Another perspective I formulated was that human evolution is not perfect, but rather an ongoing process. Evolution does not have a direction or purpose to create what is best, but rather it is a process that build upon what is currently available to work with. Essentially, the artists who created this work had limited amounts of organs, and also did what he/she could to create a functional series of human organs.

The artwork on acupuncture was the next medically related artwork that caught my attention. The underlying side of the musculoskeletal unit is embedded into a tree trunk, that possibly symbolizes nature and that the underlying part of a human being is essentially "one with nature." Thinking back to my background in traditional chinese medicine and acupuncture, I began to recall how fundamental chinese medicine principles are embedded with using the understanding of nature and balance to diagnose human diseases. I believe this artwork perfectly captures the principle of alternative medicine.

 This particular artwork caught my attention and took a while before I was able to figure out what was going on. From the picture we can see that a woman's head is centered and posted between a pair of legs without the body. My first impression was to comment on the switch between orientation of the foot and the head. My next impression was the missing body. While the anatomy is not exactly precise, I realized that the artwork captured the most important parts of the human anatomy- the head that carries out consciousness and thought process and the legs that move accordingly. However, I realize the interpretations are highly diversified.

Picture with a museum curator

This work of art perfectly captures the way American culture has come to label those from the middle east. This phenomenon is mainly attributed to the media culture and art. In the portrait, the same individual could easily match the profile of an extremist, terrorist, and fundamentalist as well as that of a refugee. Similar to artistic propagandas during the world war I and II, the way media art has portrayed middle Easterners follows the similar effect. While this work of art doesn't necessarily pertain to the overlap between the art and sciences, the artwork clearly demonstrates the how art penetrates almost every aspect of the way we, as a culture, perceive and judge those around us.

All in all, I believe the Fowlers Museum provided many artwork 

Event 4 Getty Museum

Gettys museum is a completely different experience when experienced through private tours and alongside thousands of UCLA peers, despite restrictions from taking pictures of the majority of exhibits. Nonetheless, a closer look at several artwork made me realize certain patterns: 1.68 ratios found throughout various statues and paintings.

  Upon arrival, the first event consisted of hundreds of students trying to replicate the drawing of a posing women. Recalling back to the lecture on Art and Math, I began to see how certain proportions determined the aesthetic qualities of the drawings. Looking a bit closer at the artwork produced by fellow artists, I came to realize those who had structured approaches and alignments to estimating proportions. For example, the fibonacci sequence is prevalent in nature, particularly in determining the aesthetic standards of human facial and body proportions. The video below further develops the idea of mathematical standards "phi" for judging human and artistic beauty. This would explain the various proportions that many artists take into account when drawing each of the facial features.

<http://www.goldennumber.net/beauty/>

Mathematical proportions could be found everywhere including the guidelines for the brushstrokes to the placement of artwork itself. One of the artwork I noticed to have near golden ratio was the picture of the two women in the drawing. For example, the base of their bodies in relation to height represents the golden ratio. In retrospect, I am starting to hypothesize that the relation of the artwork positioning also follow the golden ratio. Further discussion of prevalent artwork that contain the golden ratio include: Sistine Chapel and Last Supper.
<http://www.goldennumber.net/art-composition-design/>

Looking a bit closer, the golden ratio was also present in the artistic design of the vase. The proportion between the bottom segment of the vase is around 1.68x the length of the top segment of the vase is exactly 1.68x. The measurement of the bottom segment is around 101 pixel in length while the top segment is around 60 pixels, and 101/68 = 1.68333333. I am not sure if the ratio was intended or a coincidence. (This is accurate due to the lack of angular adjustments for the picture taken)

The article discussing the possibility of the golden ratio as a coincidence is discussed in the article here: <http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread945221/pg1>

Although I could not take any other picture that would further support the prevalence of mathematical iterations found throughout art and nature, I came across an interesting souvenir before leaving. This miniature device utilizes fundamental musical and physics concepts. Different The different lengths of the metal keys are measured to correspond to different frequencies and pitches to produce the sound.

The Getty Villa is next on the list.

"Beauty in the Human Face and the Golden Ratio." Phi 1618 The Golden Number. N.p., 12 Jan. 2014. Web. 05 May 2015. <http://www.goldennumber.net/beauty/>.

"Golden Ratio in Art Composition and Design." Phi 1618 The Golden Number. N.p., 04 May 2014. Web. 05 May 2015. <http://www.goldennumber.net/art-composition-design/>.

"Golden Ratio :: Evidence or Coincidence of Intelligent Design?, Page 1."AboveTopSecret.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 05 May 2015. <http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread945221/pg1>.

Week 9 | Space + Art | Star Destroyers to Black Holes

Professor Vesna begins the lecture stating that this week's lecture on space covers everything from robotics to nanotechnology and biotechnology. Space technology has intrigued not only scientists but artists as well, which led to the the creation of many of our childhood fantasies. As a child, I will never forget the inspirations that I had to become an astronaut by all of the artwork of space from images of foreign planets, astronauts, and space shuttles to movies such as E.T and Starwars.

Concept art included in the upcoming Star Wars VII

It is breathtaking to observe how the mixture of engineering and artwork has presented such a wide variety of magnificent artwork seen in the Star Wars.

<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fonNJMP2rNM>

While Hollywood has been accredited with most of the artwork related to UFO, Space Crafts, and Aliens, these recurring themes are popular throughout the history across the world as demonstrated by the site below: http://www.ancestryofman.com/art/

My favorite movie of all time, interstellar. features a marriage of artistic inspiration and scientific reality never accomplished before. Physicist Dr. Kip Thorne made sure that the almost artistic inspired images portrayed in interstellar was an accurate representation rendered from algorithms from existing scientific perspectives.

Physicist Kil Thorne describes the black hole.

Although the black hole has never been seen by human eye, an artistic representation rendered through physics algorithms was portrayed in interstellar.

Rendered realistic portrayal of the Black hole
<http://images.techtimes.com/data/images/full/47219/black-hole-jets.jpg?w=600>


As a result of this movie, the marriage between the arts and science has never been so strong as scientific publications actually spewed out from the creation of the movie. I was particularly taken aback when I found out the supercomputer resources necessary to compute the complex algorithm to produce the images we see in the theater. While just a decade ago, I remember most of the artwork and movies were based on fictional imagination. But with the current advancements in not only space technology, and computational sciences but also the arts including video and movie production, I cannot wait to witness what the future of space discovery and art has in store for us.
From this week's lectures, I found the video regarding the magnitudes of measurements particularly interesting. While we normally think about millimeters, centimeters, and meters as common measurements, we rarely think about exactly how far the entire spectrum of magnitudes can travel. An angstrom (10^-10m) can be comprehended as the distance of a hydrogen bond in water while 10^10 meters is so large that we cannot even visualize our planet immediately.

<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXRNEyrkosM>

Science based art isn't the only form of Space Inspired art available. Here we see how mediums including fire and spray paint have created beautiful artwork that any artist or scientist can appreciate. In fact, a large part of the artwork is the performance in creating it as you can see above.

Video demonstration regarding the power of 10 to understand measurements from nanosciences to space

<https://youtu.be/0fKBhvDjuy0>

Space is a fitting ending for our course after we explored many established fields such as mathamatics and biotechnology. We also explored other fields including neuroscience and nanoscience that are burgeoning fields like space.


In a way this course teaches us that artistic motivations and inspiration can stem from all aspects of reality from the scientific experiments so small we cannot visualize without advancements in recent technology to physical entities so large that are so many magnitudes beyond our planet that we can barely comprehend. As our science and technology develops, so will the art.

References

"Champagne Supernova by Matt Sorensen Spray Paint Art, Space Art."YouTube. YouTube, n.d. Web. 23 Apr. 2015. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXRNEyrkosM>.

Maynard, James. "'Interstellar' Team Publishes Scientific Paper On Black Holes." Tech Times RSS. N.p., 13 Feb. 2015. Web. 14 Apr. 2015. <http://www.techtimes.com/articles/32733/20150213/interstellar-team-publishes-scientific-paper-on-black-holes.htm>.

"Powers of Tenâ„¢ (1977)." YouTube. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Apr. 2015. <https://youtu.be/0fKBhvDjuy0>.

"Star Wars: Episode VII The Force Awakens." StarWars.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Apr. 2015. <http://www.starwars.com/films/star-wars-episode-vii-the-force-awakens>.

Thorne, Kip. "Kip Thorne - Why Black Holes Are Astonishing." YouTube. Closer To Truth, n.d. Web. 23 Apr. 2015. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oj1AfkPQa6M>.

Week 8| Nanotechnology and Art | DNA Origami

As an undergraduate structural biology researcher in Professor Hong Zhou's lab at the California Nanosystem Science Institute (CNSI), this week's lecture about nanotechnology really spoke out to me. While most of the scientific nanotechnology discussion regards the translation of research into medicine, I became interested to learn about the influence that nanotechnology has led to advancements in art. This week, we explored how nanotechnology influence the creation of art. However, I would like to take this opportunity to discuss the literal creation of art down at the nano-scale level, particularly the material covered this week in Paul Rothemund's Ted Talk.

What the lay audience imagine regarding the future of "nanotechnology"

<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cG9P8DLuh0U>

While most people imagine nanotechnology is a futuristic endeavor, it is important to realize how the world of biological chemistry and material science has already set a precedence in the field.

The field of nanotechnology begins with the ability to first scale down measurements and detection down to the nanoscale level, particularly the atomic level rather than molecular level. The atomic force microscopy and scanning tunneling microscopy are innovations that led this first step.

For the past year, I led a group of undergraduate students to compete for a bimolecular nanotechnology contest to fold DNA origami. DNA, which has inspired countless artworks in and of itself, can undergo chemical reactions to fold into a desired pattern. For our competition, our goal was to create the most unique and useful structure out of DNA. In the past people have created anything ranging from molecular robots to spiders and even computer from DNA as seen above. Creative designs such as the images below could be generated from designing DNA in a particular pattern and undergoing a one step chemical reaction. Essentially, art does not have to be limited to the canvas, or even petri dish!

Literal DNA Origami artwork where DNA is folded and used to create art at the nanometer scale

<https://www.google.com/search?safe=off&q=dna+origami>

Paul Rothemund's TED talk on DNA origami, which is the subject that prompted me to form a team to represent UCLA in a biomolecular nanotechnology competition at Wyss Institute, Harvard

A large part of my our comes down to reconstruct biological structures at a nano-scale level. Due to the small physical limitations of the samples I work with, they are usually only seen in black and white or better known as gray scale. Yet, a quick glance at any biology textbook would reveal proteins and bacteria in all sorts of colorful variations that can almost be described as artistic. After joining a nanobiology laboratory, I never realized the level of artistic creativity that was asked from me.

Here is an image of a viral protein assembly sample after reconstruction

Please check out the original published manuscript on rsc journal below:
<http://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/2008/jm>

A textbook like example of semliki-forest-virus capsid, one of the first viruses ever studied, displayed for viewing purposes after custom artwork generation from the original raw data obtained from structural reconstructions. This is an example of the artistic requirement for scientists. Color application and 3D appearance is based on modifications from original data.

<http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/illustration/style-illustration-of-semliki-forest-virus-1dyl-stock-graphic/121843605>

According to John Gallery, many of the artwork is inspired through watching nanoscientists at work. Thus, I cannot wait to see the type of artwork to be created as the field of nanotechnology climbs out of its infancy.

References:

"How Will Nanotechnology Change the World ? - Full Documentary."YouTube. STAR Documentaries, n.d. Web. 23 Apr. 2015. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cG9P8DLuh0U>.

Rothemund, Paul. "Paul Rothemund: The Astonishing Promise of DNA Folding." YouTube. YouTube, n.d. Web. 14 Apr. 2015. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WhGG__boRxU>.

Stella E. Aniagyei, Christopher DuFort, C. Cheng Kaob and Bogdan Dragnea, Self-assembly approaches to nanomaterial encapsulation in viral protein cages, J. Mater. Chem., 2008,18, 3763-3774 DOI: 10.1039/B805874C <http://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/2008/jm/b805874c#!divCitation>

"Surface Studies with a Scanning Tunnelling Microscope [english]." YouTube. Archimedes Exhibitions GmbH, n.d. Web. 23 Apr. 2015. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wNEqRq6NyUw>.

Zhou, Hong. "The building of the Titan Krios | Electron Imaging Center for Nanomachines." The building of the Titan Krios | Electron Imaging Center for Nanomachines. N.p., 10 Aug. 2006. Web. 24 Nov. 2013. <http://www.eicn.ucla.edu/titanbuildup>.