Event 5

My last event was the La Brea Tar Pits. It was definitely the most science-y of all the museums I visited and it felt close to home. As a Pre Human Biology and Society major taking LS1 and Society and Genetics, I knew a lot about the evolutionary processes, anthropology, and science that took place. 

As I have said before, art is anything that provokes a response in viewers, such as emotions, learning, introspection, and change. I saw many forms of art in the sculptures, animal replicas, fossil presentation,  and wall paintings. Using science such as anatomy, artists reconstruct bones and design and model animals that most likely resemble animals from millions of years ago. They reconstruct lineages with the fossil record of phenotypic and DNA evidence.   

For example, we see the Dire Wolf which is widely known for its incredibly rich fossil deposits. The 404 sculls represent only a portion of the more than 1500 wolves whose remains have been found in LA. It is thought that packs of Dire Wolves attempted to feed on animals trapped in the asphalt and became mired themselves. Not all are exactly alike in size or shape which is why such bones are used to explain the process of evolution and natural selection. 

I call these large structures of bones art because it took ingenuity and creativity to piece together each and every bone according to anatomical and physical properties. Without the advent of art to circulate attention of anatomy, like in Gray's Anatomy, people would never take interest in finding out how bones work together to create a fully functional animals with living cells, muscles, and senses. This particular mamoth has artificial tusks that were created to replicate the actual broken ones found among fossils. Advanced science and physics were necessary to calculate the weight and curvature necessary, as well as nano technologically to make pigments that match the rest of the bones. Multiple forms of science were used with collaboration to make such a stunning, scientifically accurate form of art. 

In addition to multiple uses of art-science to demonstrate extinct species, artists can create scenery and set a tone for the environment. Geology is used to calculate climate and environmental shifts, so both an artists' interpretation and factual science are incorporated as a backdrop. 

I believe animals and all life are art, designed by a master Creator. Both biotic and abiotic art served to excite my imagination and cause me to think deeper about the origins of life. One wall lays out the sequences of life starting from space and abstract matter, progressing to eukaryotic beings, and astronauts. It reminded me of the evolution of art and science being perceived as two separate things to what it is now - mediums that are used in conjunction to further aid each other. Art inspires many futuristic ideas that drive science to make it a reality, like space travel, and science and technology allow for new forms of art, like photography. 

 This was great last stop for this quarter, but it won't be my last ever. I have learned a lot of about how art, science, and technology work together this quarter, which is something I never would have thought about otherwise. I'm thankful for the opportunity to broaden my horizons, try new things, and thing about life from a new point of view. The La Brea Tar Pits really contributed to my understanding of art and anatomy in the curriculum. I would recommend that all students go to learn about science in a way that utilizes art. 

Thanks for a great quarter!

Event 4

My fourth stop was LAMOTH. To start, I'd like to mention the architecture and design that went into engineering a building that's naturally green with insulation from both heat and sound by using a rooftop garden. It's aesthetically appealing and functional, while serving to enhance the experience inside.
The unique design enhances the viewer's experience by echoing the subject matter in each exhibit - moving from natural lighting to a subdued setting and descending into dimmer rooms with lower ceilings speaks to the viewers saddened emotions as they are immersed in the Concentration Camp room, then they ascend into the light while learning about the resistance, liberation, and art and music, then finally into full sunlight again once reaching the memorial outside. This ingenuity incorporates psychobiology and art by manipulating the senses to feel stronger emotions with the changing tone and setting within the exhibit. You feel like you are a part of the experience, not just on the outside looking in.

The key point that I took away was that art is not an inanimate object, it provokes emotions, actions, and change. Art comes in many forms, as we have seen, but in this particular case, we see an old Walt Disney Motion Picture, music and literature, camp models, and an interactive touch screen that displays photography of Jews who passed away during the Holocaust. Some of this art was used to encourage change during that sad times and some came about as a response to the bio-psycho-social phenomena of using gas chambers to exterminate mass amounts of Jews.




There were many inmates who produced drawings and depictions of their experiences in the concentration camps. Inmates who produced clandestine art did so at risk to their lives. Such artists used their talents to create works as an expression of their own humanity. When the liberation forces were examining the ghettos and camps, thousands of pictures drawn by children and adults were discovered. They bear silent testimony to man's eternal need to create, and portray for future generations a way of living and dying that the Reich tried to hide. David Olère, a camp survivor, depicted his experiences in this work of art. 

There were government responses as well through use of propaganda art to spark support for purchasing war bonds, producing mass weaponry, and wartime technology. Art was used to fuel such technological drive and robotics just as much as chemical extermination and technology were driving art propaganda. Art always has been a medium that connects people by crossing language and cultural barriers to inspire feelings like sympathy, anger, and sadness. Art found by inmates, and effected family members also led to a revolutionary movement in music. 

We can see the the massive impact that the Holocaust has had on art, science, and technology through such documentation of literature, artwork, and propaganda, as well as by current technology. There is no better form of education than interactive learning. Visitors can listen to facts in a headset as they make their way through the museum, listen to music, see replicas of campsites, and interact with the touch screen table of personal victim's stories and artifacts. This technology was my favorite part of the whole museum, possibly because I'm kinesthetic and liked being able to manipulate my learning by selecting images, artwork, and artifacts. However, the overall experience was very enlightening and I would recommend going if you have never seen a Holocaust museum.    

Event 3

My third event was at LACMA with my roommate. While walking there, we passed under Levitated Mass, a boulder suspended in the air, bridging two separate fields. Before even getting to the museum we both commented on the fact that this solid connection between two conventionally separate spaces was similar to what we have learned this quarter in the bridging of art, science, and technology which are thought to be separate fields. It’s funny how we start to see connections when we aren’t expecting it.

Most of the time I think of how science influence art, in the chemical technology that goes into making pigments, physics that go into making a statue stand without tipping over, math that is used in architecture, and technology used in photography, lighting, and videography.

However, I have to remind myself that art equally influences technology. Without creativity and futuristic ideas to fabricate the concept of a moving, mechanical vehicle, we wouldn’t have cars or skyscrapers or a busy city like LA as we know it. Chris Burden’s Metropolis II represents an entire urban complex as a twenty-first century city with 1,100 custom-designer cars, 18 highways, and a variety of architectural structures made of wood, glass, natural stone tiles, and other materials.

 The See The Light exhibition was most inclusive to our course, covering photography, perception, and cognition and how photography parallels vision science and neuroscience. Emerging in 1839 in the context of the Industrial Revolution, photography served to give visual form to the experience of modern life and the modern visions of fast, factual, reliable, and replicable things. Its materials and meanings have evolved to reflect the social, political, and economic priorities of any given time and place. Experimental modernism and naturalism used photography as a medium to restore balance within the individual psyche and within society after WW1 with the dualism of perception and sensation.

Photography and psychology work together to capture viewers’ emotion, imagination, and attention by use of the scientific instrument and artistic tool called a camera.

Frederick H. Evans’ A Sea of Steps does just this; it makes perception subjective and engages the viewers’ mind.

The 80’s experienced huge leaps such as the development of staining methods to make nerve cells visible, tonal range enhancement, extended spectral range of emulsions, and recording of electrical activity in the brain. A big advancement was half-tone printing in 1881 as a photomechanical process that allowed photographs to be printed with texts in books, newspapers, and magazines.

 

I saw an image that was used in class in the context of a photographic timeline. This helped me better understand the mutualistic evolution of art and technology to be used in medicine for X-rays.

My last stop was Camera Obscura, which tied everything together. In a pitch-black room, an inverted image of the reality of the world around us was projected onto a wall with moving cars and upside down people. Experimental psychology was used to address the unfolding of sensation into interpretation, which validated photographers in their quest to make subjective pictorial statements, as opposed to objective material records. This is exercised in how the viewer questions reality and perception, two subjects that art and technology can manipulate and put into perspective.  

LACMA is an absolute must, it applies to every topic we covered this quarter. 

Event 2

For my second event, my roommate and I went to the Peterson Automotive Museum on Museum Row. From the Model 50 Traveler to the Ferrari 308 GTS Targa, this museum shoes the technological and social evolution of creating cars for getting to work and leisure to using assembly lines and mass production of sports cars for play and speed and others for artistic show with vibrant paint jobs and artistic accents.

This museum has about 150 vehicles on display. For example, we have the 1911 American Underslung Model 50 Fraveler with 50 HP and 4-cylinder, and T-head. The American Motor Car Company produced the first “underslung” automobile by mounting the chassis beneath the axles. The cars used extremely large tires to gain back some of the ground clearance lost by lowering the frame. Because the large tires helped the car pass over holes and rite, the American Underslung was ideal for fast touring over the unpaved roads of the day.

The ground floor displays a virtual history of the automobile in Los Angeles, complete with vintage vehicles and buildings. The third floor features the May Family Children's Discovery Center — an interactive exhibit where children can learn science through the workings of a car. The May Family Discovery Center consists of a variety of interactive learning stations, targeted to children ages 6 to 16, with the purpose of demonstrating basic principles that help reveal why a car works. 

Children can discover new insights into the scientific laws of motion, force, energy and mass distribution by using automotive components. I couldn’t take pictures, but the VroomRoom is an audio traffic jam, where visitors trigger infrared detectors that activate various automotive noises, demonstrating how sound travels. The Driver's Ed simulator replicates real-time driving situations including congested traffic, freeways and hazardous driving conditions. Additionally, there is a giant combustion engine where kids can become "human spark plugs" in an exhibit of large tires that discusses the laws of forces and motion - a "gravitram" that demonstrates the Newtonian physics principles of gravity and momentum. All of these interactive forms of learning bridge barriers such as age, nationality, and ‘right-brained’ or ‘left-brained’ thinkers because cars are an art for in and of themselves that are used by everyone.

Outside the museum is a wall of flags that you have to pass under to enter the building, which shows the continuity between cultures, car lovers, and art and robotics. Everyone can appreciate not only the functionality of vehicles, but also the strategically artistic ingenuity involved in creating fast, sleek, eco-friendly cars. It takes design teams and physicists and manufacturers to all contribute to one idea that is used by virtually everyone. Teaching this to children at a young age makes learning fun and all-inclusive, combining art, science, robotics, math, and technology.

This museum had the greatest influence in helping me understand the interplay between art and robotics because I could see how automobiles are not one or the other, but use both to design the model and both to physically create it. If you are a car lover, this museum is a must! 

Event 1

My first event was very close to campus, but somehow felt like such a distant concept and unaccessible  before actually going there. I am not the type to usually visit museums so I didn't think about going before taking DESMA 9. This amazing museum really surprised me with the colorful artwork and peaceful serenity in the midst of a fast-paced, business oriented city. You can see traffic and offices in the reflection of the museum's glass, which made me reflect on my previous choices to avoid visiting museums. There are not just for the artsy hipsters that I imagined, but rather for everyone to appreciate and relate to in their own way. 

After walking inside the first thing you see is elaborate paint patterns of lines on top of each other on the structure's walls. The somewhat harsh, strict lines begin to blur together into one woven, seamless image and the overlay of multiple pictures creates one piece of art, much like there are multiple components and layers to each person that make up the entire individual. The artistic and scientific interests of everyone are not separate characteristics but inclusive interests that work together to embody the whole person - there are not two separate cultures but rather one entity. The actual building is made of art and contains art for viewers to walk through an immerse themselves in.  

My experience continued as I went up the stairs and into the first room. There was art on the wall containing images with flashing lights that look like a pixilated, zoomed in image or TV screen. The artist incorporated technology (electricity, nanotechnology, and lighting) and art (color choice, design, space) to create one piece. 

The next piece, Aluminum Foil, by Welling, included small abstract paintings and photographs of aluminum foil that were crumpled and shaped into obscured, yet recognizable features. It was a two-part work - both of abstraction and representation. Welling also used velvet fabric and phyllo dough to make images that challenge perception and perspective by making the dough mimic geological events. The real importance that I got our of it was the unconventional way that he used art to represent scientific occurrences in nature. 

The technological advancements in lenses and creating cameras was a huge accomplishment that led to printed images that capture moments in life. Welling took it to the next level to manipulate images and invert the colors to make art that resembles railroad racks, which questions realism and transparency, and optics and description, and the material and chemical nature of photography. I end my journey with the black and white images that are similar to two divergent cultures, but that upon further inspection, resemble the continued theme of separate lines that are in fact woven and intersect each other to make a masterpiece. 

 Thank you for reading! I would recommend that you visit this easily accessible museum, especially if you are not a typical museum-goer.