Jorge's DESMA9 Blog

Space + Art "Space is the breath of art" - Frank Lloyd Wright  When I think of space, I think of star trek and this fictional world in which we travel across the galaxy and have space wars. However, the reality we live in is not as exciting as that, but when we start to look at the intricacies of space and the universe in which our planet is in we begin to see the beauty behind it and its strong connection to art, much like everything else. Like Carl Sagan said in his "Pale Blue Dot" speech, even though the earth is a tiny planet in a universe filled with planets and stars, this tiny planet still holds all the people we've once known, politicians, conquerors, good people, bad people, and everything in between. Space holds everything that is, nature, love, feelings, emotions. When thinking of this I became interested in other examples where we use art to depict the beauty and sometimes terrifying nature within space. Within this blog, we will be expl

NanoTech & Art  "The art challenges technology and technology inspires the art" - John Lasseter The world of NanoTechnology plays a much bigger influence on Art than most people might assume. This week's lectures were taught by Dr. Gimzewski, where we learned about the intricacies of Nanotechnology and the way that NanoTechnology is practiced and how it's integrated with art. NanoTechnology according to Dr. Gimzewski, is not just in the micro level but in many cases takes place in the microbiological level. When conducting my research on NanoTechnology, I found that there are many cases of NanoTech in nature that I was unaware of. The lotus leaf, for example, is an example of nature utilizing NanoTechnology, this is because of the physical and chemical conditions on the microscale of the lotus leaf allowing to effectively self-clean itself (NNCI 2019). I found this to be very fascinating and inspired my continuing research on this topic.  Just like

Neuroscience & Art  Throughout my time in this course, I have come to realize that there is no limit to what can be considered art. Prior to enrolling in this class, I knew of the very common joke made about art, that anything can be art even something as simple as a water spill or a correctly placed collection of artifacts can have a deep artistic meaning. This course has taught me to be open and willing to accept what art is and that if I do that I will begin to see the beauty in art. Within this section, Professor Vesna has taught us about neuroscience and art, and how the brain affects our perception of art and art can even influence and stimulate our brain back. We have come to learn that art in everything, art is all around us and in this section, we learn about how it is also inside of us. Picasso once stated that "We all know that art is not the truth. Art is a lie that makes us realize the truth, at least the truth that is given us to understand. The artist must

BioArt: Noise Aquarium As someone that is not very particularly fond of art, I found bio art to be one of the most intriguing and engaging art forms I have ever experienced. I went out to Professor Vesnas Noise Aquarium exhibit and my expectations were actually pretty high given that it was an art installation from our professor. I was pleasantly surprised and it confirmed that the reason I love bio art so much is because of my love for nature. Growing up I would go hiking with my aunt and because of that experience I have developed a love and a profound understanding of nature. In this blog, we will be taking a look at the "Noise Aquarium" as well as other forms of bio art and critiquing the morality of these art installations.  The very first instance of Bio Art that really interested me was the glowing rabbits that were created at the University of Istambul between a collaboration with universities from Turkey and Hawaii. According to the Technology Review , s

Biotech Art is the first topic in this course that I do not entirely believe in or have my complete faith in. According to the Science Daily Biotech Art "ranges from bacterial manipulation to glowing rabbits, and cellular sculptures" (2015). This can also extend into the creation of GMOs, experimentation of animals, and the creation of hybrid species according to professor Vesna (2019). Biotech art can have its positives and negatives, but in this blog, we will be taking a look at a few examples of biotech art and analyzing them within the context of this class. When you think of marvels in our world or natural creations that we would imagine being part of a cartoon or artists imagination, which animals or organisms do you think of? I personally think of the platypus, an animal that is an otter, a beaver, and a duck in many unique ways. According to national geographic, even the scientists who were first studying the animals were under the impression that it was all a

According to UCLA, the collection of meteorites is one of the largest if not the largest collection on the west coast. This collection contains over 2500 samples from over 1500 different meteorites. However, when actually there in person the exhibit only displays a few different rocks at a time. Even though it was smaller than what I expected I still enjoyed finding out that there was a museum hidden somewhere I actually didn't know was there.  Fun Fact: According to UCLA, the process of "Cosmochemistry is where a scientist will take a look at the chemical breakdown of individual meteorites in order to analyze the rocks.  What I found to be the most interesting collection at the geology exhibit was all of the extraterrestrial Basalts that were on display. The ones that stood out to me the most were the martian basalt, alkali basalt, and pahoehoe basalt. I found that most of these rocks really gave off an artistic feeling to them, they contained beautiful color sc