Art, Science + Technology
DMA9 Fall 2007, Section BArchive for November 4, 2007
W5: Midterms
During the midterms, many of my peers presented innovative and original project proposals. These proposals had a variety of functions/purposes. Some projects were designed for only aesthetic purposes. Whereas other projects possessed functions that aimed to educate society or provide services. All the proposals cleverly incorporated art, science, and technology; demonstrating the third culture.
One particular proposal which I found intriguing is the project involving sculptures made out of iron dust (or some kind of metallic particles). The presenters proposed the use of magnetic fields for manipulating the magnetic particles into sculptures. The diagrams and concepts presented reminded me of an art piece, which was shown in a previous lecture, where certain particles reacted to noise.
Throughout the presentations, I noticed that several of my peers (along with myself) had proposals that involved robotics in AI. I felt that this trend reflected our society, how people and industry are placing more and more focus on technological creations such as robots. Most of these projects had ’service-like’ functions, for example, one presentation focused on robotic limbs for handicapped individuals. The presenter suggested the process of linking the robotic limbs to a person’s nervous system such that the limb acts as a real, biological limb. However, other robot proposals had more aesthetically inclined purposes. Some people focused on robots taking pictures of objects such as natural life.
Another project which I found quite fascinating involved the perspective house. My peer proposed the creation of house with objects inside rooms being of unusual sizes, creating a forced perspective. Her presentation had an image of an abnormally large kitten which I found quite amusing.
In general, the midterms were filled with brilliant projects that beguiled and made me consider how I perceive art, science, technology and the world.
Biotechnology and Art
Why disapprove of the advances in science?
Biotechnology and its affiliation to mutations and other artificial natural process, have advanced to a level that can actually affect our healths in a more prominent manner. The latest research incorporating both nanotechnology and Biotechnology now promises to allow humans live a longer life. The theory is made possible due to a miniature robot, the size of a cell, that has been created to enter the blood stream that will eventually destroy any cancerous cells, tumors, and diabetes. With the cell sized robot people are assumed to live a life of three hundred years. Why would i say no to that… The advances in technology and the sciences allow us to have a brighter and more prolonged future. Although in the process of defining such advances in the scientific culture the procedures seem inhumane the results prove to be beneficial. The debate that resulted from the first cloned mammal, Dolly the cloned sheep, whether cloning is ethical to be applied to humans; poses a pointless question. the cloning of animals and in the future possibly humans has frightened many to the fact that women will be able to reproduce without the help of a man. That in my opinion is an advancement in itself- it promotes the independence of women. As observed in the stereo types of artists; women were never placed upon a category of either scientist or artists. With this push for independence women get recognition for their labor with a scientist approach.
Mid- Terms: Breaking Paradigm
With the different presentations held during Mid- Terms; both the scientist and the artists of the class were able to acknowledge each others creativity and perceive how in each context the creativity is applied. If within the premises of the class each student recognized that in fact a world between the sciences and the arts exists, third culture, that only proves that both cultures are able to establish as one in the real world. As attempted by Da’ Vinci, utilizing both the science of the human anatomy and the art of a human figure he was able to produce art that broke paradigms and created new standards and concepts for others to interpret and thus again re-establish. Salvador Dali is another great example of how the third culture is infused. Dali, created art that was rich esthetically and at many times misunderstood by the viewer, but once he incorporated technology and visually explained his work with the use of the motion picture, the viewer understood the meaning of his works. He utilized his creativity of esthetics’s and the technology produced by science to create work that was perceived by a wider audience.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1462300
http://www.salvador-dali.org/en_noticies.html?ID=94
http://www.longevitymeme.org/articles/viewarticle.cfm?page=1&article_id=10
http://news.softpedia.com/news/Day-old-nanotechnology-503.shtml
