Extra Credit Event 2: The Hammer Museum

The last event that I went to was the Hammer Museum. The Hammer Museum is located in Westwood and is actually affiliated with UCLA. I'd been there previously, but never realized how relevant the museum was to our course.

The first thing I saw when I went to the hammer museum was a series of exhibits that feature large pipes displayed in a way that we do not usually see them. The pipe is is an artistic spin on an every day object. Pipes are used to carry cables, wires, and electricity everywhere. These pipes are infrastructure, something that all technology relies on. Oscar's display of pipes, in a unique way, is an artistic representation of a necessary infrastructure technology. This is a combination of art and technology, as an everyday item that is used for technology is manipulated to represent art. The pipes are placed in a way that we normally do not see them, making it a very unique sculpture. One pipe is combined with a tree trunk to create a fountain, a scientific and technological innovation to create a piece of art. Oscar's work is a representation of the third culture discussed by C.P. Snow, as art, technology, and science are being used together to create something interesting and unique (Snow 1959).

 The Pipe by Oscar Tuazon 

Vena Contracta (back) and Pipe Prototype (front) by Oscar Tuazon

Natural Man by Oscar Tuazon (it's a fountain!)

I had the privilege of being able to see the Black Mountain College exhibit at the Hammer Museum. At the exhibit, I saw a loom, a technological innovation, that was being displayed as an artwork. This loom was used in the past to create beautiful textiles. I thought it was really interesting how a technological innovation that was once used to create artistic works was now being displayed as art. This shows the constant overlap between technology and art, a topic that we discussed the first week of lecture and beyond (Vesna 2012).

The Loom at the Black Mountain College exhibit

Lastly, Christopher William's Cutaway model Switar 25 mm fl. 4 AR Glass, wood, and brass photograph is a great representation of an artwork that embodies technology. The photograph displays the inner workings of a Nikon camera. It shows all the technological parts. This photograph requires a technological understanding of a camera in order to cut it in a way that displays the inside of a camera well. The creation of this photograph requires a collaboration of art and science.

Cutaway model Switar 25 mm fl. 4 AR Glass, wood, and brass by Christopher William

Overall, throughout the Hammer Museum, I saw lots of artworks that were representative of the third culture that C.P. Snow discusses, the combination of art and science (Snow 1959). As the quarter comes to an end, I am glad that I was able to experience so many events, including this one, that helped show me how prevalent the third culture is in our world.

Proof that I was at The Hammer Museum

Me in front of the Leap Before You Look: Black Mountain College exhibit

Event Link: https://hammer.ucla.edu/

Citations:

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

Vesna, Victoria. “Two Cultures.” Cole UC online. Youtube, 30 March 2012. Web. 05 June 2016.

Extra Credit Event 1: The Getty Center

For one of my extra credit events, I went to The Getty Center. Many exhibits at The Getty Center represented the third culture that we learned about the first week of class (Vesna 2012). When I arrived, I immediately knew I wanted to visit the Cave Temples of Dunhuang exhibit, which is a replica of three caves located in Mogao, as the actual caves in China are now limiting visitors to help preserve the caves. Conservation of these caves is important, as the exhibit also tells the story of how the Getty Conservation Institute has worked with the Dunhuang Academy since 1989 on preserving and conserving the site. The act of preserving these caves is an extremely scientific process as researchers look at what causes the walls to deteriorate and work to prevent it (Vankin 2016). The director of the Getty Conservation Institute states that "He wants visitors to see not only the artistic works created there but also "the complexities of preserving and conserving such a heritage site in the modern day" (Muchnic 2016) This is a perfect representation of combining art and science to demonstrate the importance of preservation so that the public can continue to enjoy the beauty of the Mogao caves.

Replica Cave 285, the earliest dated Mogao cave

Another artwork that really caught my attention was the beautiful sculpture right outside of the cave exhibition. The sculpture is called That Profile and is made of stainless steel and bronze. The artwork is known as "a marvel of artistry and engineering" as much welding and artistic skill is required to create a complex structure that looks elegant at the same time. The act of having the whole sculpture stand up on only six legs, while the whole sculpture is 45 feet above the floor, takes a lot of engineering knowledge (Puryear 1999). This artwork is great representation of how science and art interact, as engineering knowledge is needed in order to create this beautiful sculpture.

That Profile by Martin Puryear

Another artwork that was very interesting was Saint Cyricus by Francesco Laurana. As stated in the plaque by the sculpture, "Saint Cyricus was a child martyr who was tortured before being killed for refusing to pray to false idols." The shape of the skull is extremely accurate in this sculpture, which "must have been based on careful observation of a real infant" (Dohnal 2014). This shows that in order to create this sculpture, the artist had to understand the anatomy of an infant very well. This is a combination of science and art, as accurate science knowledge was needed to create the accurate representation of Saint Cyricus.

Saint Cyricus by Francesco Laurana

Lastly, the exhibit called In Focus: Electric! was very related to the concept of a third culture. It shows the importance of electricity, light, and darkness (Getty Museum 2016). We take electricity for granted sometimes, but this exhibit truly shows the importance of electricity in our lives through art. Electricity was a scientific invention that truly changed our world, and art is being used in this exhibit to display the importance of this scientific innovation.

Poster outside of the In Focus: Electric! exhibit

Overall, the art I saw throughout my time at The Getty Center were all very unique. I enjoyed continuously being able to apply what I learned in class as I walked throughout The Getty Center. It was interesting to see that so many pieces of art represented the combination of art and science, the third culture that C.P. Snow talks about in which art and science are combined (Snow 1959). I am looking forward to continue to be more aware of how prevalent the third culture is in our world, even beyond my time in DESMA 9.

A volunteer at The Getty Center and I 

Proof that I was at The Getty Center

Event Link: http://www.getty.edu/visit/center/

Citations:

Dohnal, Jerry. "Saint Cyricus." Flickr. Yahoo!, 25 Mar. 2014. Web. 05 June 2016. <https://www.flickr.com/photos/jaroslavd/13634347133>.

Getty Museum. "In Focus: Electric!" 2016. Web. 05 June 2016. <http://www.getty.edu/art/exhibitions/focus_electric/>.

Muchnic, Suzanne. "The Getty's 'Cave Temples of Dunhuang': How Ancient Desert Outpost Became Remarkable Global Crossroads." Los Angeles Times. 20 May 2016. Web. 05 June 2016. <http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/arts/la-ca-cm-cave-temples-dunhuang-20160511-snap-story.html>.

Puryear, Martin. "That Profile, Martin Puryear." 1999. Web. 5 June 2016. <https://www.getty.edu/education/teachers/classroom_resources/curricula/contemporary_art/downloads/puryear_thatprofile.pdf>.

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

Vankin, Deborah. "'Cave Temples of Dunhuang' at the Getty Museum Wants to Transport You to China's Silk Road." Los Angeles Times. 16 Mar. 2016. Web. 05 June 2016. <http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/arts/la-ca-cm-cave-temples-getty-20160320-story.html>.

Vesna, Victoria. “Two Cultures.” Cole UC online. Youtube, 30 March 2012. Web. 05 June 2016.

Event 3: Griffith Observatory

I visited the Griffith Observatory before our lecture on Space + Art. Even before learning about the intersection of space and art, I found a lot of things in the observatory that represented an intersection of art and science.

What immediately caught my eye was the beautiful ceiling above the exhibit called The Pendulum. The Pendulum is a instrument that illustrates that the Earth rotates on an axis. A magnet is located at the bearing to help keep the pendulum in motion. As the day passes by, the pendulum knocks over pegs every seven minutes. However, the pendulum is not moving over to hit the next peg, but rather the Earth is rotating, moving the peg so that the pendulum will knock it down. This indicates how much the earth has rotated. It looks like the pendulum is swinging in a different direction as time passes by, but in fact, the reason is that the earth is rotating which makes it look like the pendulum is swinging in a different direction. There are 42 numbers indicated because it takes roughly 42 hours for the Earth to make a full rotation in California. The ceiling "celebrates the intersection of science and mythology, earth and sky, and the man whose vision brought the Observatory into being" (Griffith Observatory 2015). This exhibit is a great representation of the intersection of art and science as not only does the artwork on the ceiling represent mythology and astronomy, but also because the pendulum itself is an artwork that teaches us about science and demonstrates that the earth rotates on an axis. This is a great exhibit that demonstrates the third culture that C.P. Snow discusses, as the intersection of art and science is very prevalent (Snow 1959). The exhibit itself is a representation of the emerging third culture.

The W.M. Keck Foundation Central Rotunda above The Pendulum

The Pendulum exhibit at the Griffith Observatory

The pegs that the pendulum knocks down every seven minutes

The second exhibit that was a great representation of the intersection between art and science was the interactive periodic table, called Elements. The exhibit had the actual elements behind glass where they are located on the periodic table. The exhibit explained a lot about elements that are present in our everyday lives, elements that are created by humans, the formation of elements, and elements that reach our body (Griffith Observatory 2015). This exhibit was a perfect representation of the intersection of art and science, as the putting of the different elements into this beautiful display is art and the educational purposes and obtaining the different elements is science. Studies have shown that art is a great way to teach science, as it eliminates the fear of incorrect answers and boosts confidence (Krigman 2014). This exhibit shows that art can be used to teach science, which is a perfect exhibition of the third culture of mixing art and science.

The Elements exhibit at the Griffith Observatory

A close up of the Elements exhibit

Overall, I really enjoyed my time at Griffith Observatory. The view was gorgeous and the immense amount of exhibitions really showed me how prevalent art is in science. As a science major, I never really thought about the intersection of the two until this class. Having the opportunity to see it almost everywhere in Griffith Observatory was truly eye opening and helped me gain awareness to the prevalence of the third culture in our world today.

Proof that I was at the Griffith Observatory

A picture of me at the Griffith Observatory, where there's an awesome view of LA!

Event Link: http://griffithobservatory.org/

Citations:

Griffith Observatory. "Elements." Griffith Observatory. 2015. Web. 04 June 2016. <http://griffithobservatory.org/exhibits/hallofthesky_elements.html>.

Griffith Observatory. "W.M. Keck Foundation Central Rotunda." 2015. Web. 04 June 2016. <http://griffithobservatory.org/exhibits/centralrotunda.html>.

Krigman, Eliza. "Gaining STEAM: Teaching Science Through Art." U.S. News. 13 Feb. 2014. Web. 3 Apr. 2016. <http://www.usnews.com/news/stem-solutions/articles/2014/02/13/gaining-steam-teaching-science-though-art>

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

Event 2: Maša Jazbec Lecture

My second event was a lecture by Maša Jazbec, a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Tsukuba. Maša was a visiting researcher at the Hiroshi Ishiguro lab (ArtSci 2015). She taught us about the current robotics research which was really impressive and unexpected. Before this lecture, I had no idea how advanced robotics has become and this lecture made me realize how powerful artificial intelligence has become.

Something I never knew was that robots were classified into three categories: humanoids, androids, and geminoids. Humanoids are robots that are in the shape of a human being, meaning that they have parts such as arms and legs. Androids are robots that look like and move like a human being. Geminoids are a copy of an actual human being.

One robot that I found extremely fascinating was the Geminoid HI-1. As can see at 0:36 in the video below, the geminoid looks very human. Despite the many wires lying behind it, the skin is very smooth and beautiful. To create this skin takes an artist. The robot looks exactly like professor Ishiguro, the creator of the robot. This relates to the robotics lecture during Week 3 where we learned about how robotics came to be (Vesna 2012). The presentation was a representation of how advanced robotics has become. The creation of the Geminoid HI-1 is also a representation of the third culture that C.P. Snow discusses.  C.P. Snow introduces a third culture, one that combines the sciences and art (Snow 1959). The mixing of art to create the realness of the robot with the science to create the underlying mechanics of the robot is what creates a fully functioning geminoid. The geminoid not only looks real, but can talk and make expressions similar to the professor who created it.

At 0:36, you can see how human the geminoid looks

Professor Ishiguro next to the geminoid copy of himself 

Who is who? It is extremely difficult to tell

The most famous robot in the world, ASIMO, was very impressive because the robot could walk not only up stairs, but down stairs, a task that proved difficult for robots. This shows the extreme advancement of robotics, as robots are now able to move like humans. The robot can also do lots of other tasks, such as bringing coffee and dancing. This shows that robots are not only used to help out tasks that humans do, but also for entertainment purposes. This is a huge advancement that can use science to advance the human condition. Because robots can walk down stairs, they may be used to help the disabled and do other tasks. 

Maša meeting the ASIMO robot

Lastly, Maša talked a lot about sci-fi moves that had robots as primary characters. Movies included Blade Runner, Ex Machina, and Star Wars. Maša said that with our growing technology and advancements, robots that we are seeing in movies are becoming a reality. The movies are inspiring artists and scientists to collaborate to create robots that not only do tasks, but look real and similar to humans. This is a representation of the emerging third culture (Snow 1959). With the development of artificial intelligence and robotics, I am looking forward to the new inventions that artists and scientists will come up with together. 

Two geminoids in the movie Ex Machina

(Gonzalez 2015)

 Maša and I at the event

Professor Vesna and I at the event

Event Page: http://artsci.ucla.edu/?q=node/1262

Citations:

ArtSci. "Apologists of the New Civilization." Home Page. 2016. Web. 04 June 2016. <http://artsci.ucla.edu/?q=node/1262>.

Gonzalez, Ed. "Ex Machina." Slant Magazine. 19 Mar. 2015. Web. 04 June 2016. <http://www.slantmagazine.com/film/review/ex-machina>.

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

Vesna, Victoria. “Robotics.” Cole UC online. Youtube, 9 April 2012. Web. 04 June 2016.