Event 1: Growing Cells on Apples, LEGOs and Bread. Why Developing Unconventional Biomaterials Matters

 Event One 

    This event was a guest lecture from Prof. Andrew E. Pelling on the 26th of April, who spoke about unconventional Biomaterials. Prior to the lecture I did not realize what exactly biomaterials were used for or what he meant by "nonconventional". 

 

    From what I now understand, Biomaterials are materials from outside of the body, implanted into and accepted by said body. They are materials traditionally are highly manufactured and have strict criteria they follow as to. What marks Prof. Pelling materials as unconventional is that they are already natural and not manufactured. He uses thinks like apples and asparagus, which completely go against the grain, even making It a game with his colleges to go into grocery stores and finding the "cheapest" biomaterials there.

My largest take away from the lecture as less so to do with the actual study, and more to do with the scientific method that proved itself throughout the study. Starting with a fascination and resulting in a medical devise I believe is a beautiful thing. To carry out these experiments to try and answer a question, and to problem solve as the experiments lead down an unknown path is truly inspiring. There is also the business aspect that I have never considered, he mentioned that he has started several companies to market and produce their products, from medical devises to more affordable lab equipment. This is something I will try and incorporate into my midterm, not only the project itself but the marketing economics of the project.

Sources: 

Online brochure for the lecture: Microsoft PowerPoint - 04.26.21 Andrew Pelling.ppt [Compatibility Mode] (ucla.edu)

Could we treat spinal cord injuries with asparagus? (2020). TED. https://www.ted.com/talks/andrew_pelling_could_we_treat_spinal_cord_injuries_with_asparagus 

Pelling, A. (2020, November 10). Building the scaffolding of life. Spiderwort. CelluBridge - Spiderwort (spiderwortbio.com)

Pelling, A. (2020, November 10). Building the scaffolding of life. Spiderwort. CelluJuve - Spiderwort (spiderwortbio.com)

Pelling, A. (2020, November 12). FDA grants a Breakthrough Device Designation for Spiderwort Spinal Cord Technology. Spiderwort. https://spiderwortbio.com/news/fda-grants-a-breakthrough-device-designation-for-spiderwort-spinal-cord-technology/.

Image sources:

Image of Prof. Pelling: Andrew-Pelling-300x300.jpg (300×300) (apegaconference.ca)

Picture 2: A slide from the lecture that I took a picture of

Picture 3: A slide from the lecture that I took a picture of

Picture 4: A slide from the lecture that I took a picture of

Week Four: Medicine + Technology + Art

 Med + Tech + Art

This week we have talked about the different ways medicine and art and interacted. On one side there is a need for medicine to be designed well, such as a hearing aids, which an artist will help look nice. On the other side there are artistic movements that bring awareness and information towards medical issues, such as the Aids pandemic. Specifically, I would like to focus on the Aids Quilt project, which I had no idea about until this week. The founder Cleve Jones started the project in 1985, and the premise is to create a memorial for those whose death is aids related. I think it is genius because as quilts they can be made in a way that represents the interests and personality of those who have passed, showing that they are more than just an unfortunate victim to aids. Such huge projects like these not only help improve the lives of those that are currently living, but also those in the future that may contract the virous as well.

Cleve Jones

 

In my elementary school these was a classmate who left school and eventually passed due to HIV/Aids which he was born with. As a child this was a little lost on me but years later in high school I realized just how tragic it is. Especially considering that it could have been prevented if his parents were more educated on the subject, or if there was less of a negative connotation around it.

Sources:  

Casini, Silvia. “Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) as Mirror and Portrait: MRI Configurations Between Science and Arts.” (n.d.): n. pag. Web. 26 Oct. 2012. 

Tyson, P. (2001, March 27). The hippocratic oath today. Retrieved April 24, 2021, from https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/article/hippocratic-oath-today/ 

Vesna, Victoria. “Http://www.youtube.com/v/psjnQarHOqQ.” Lecture. Medicine pt2 . Youtube, 21 Apr. 2012. Web. 25 Oct. 2012. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=psjnQarHOqQ>.

 Jones, C. (n.d.). Quilt project. Retrieved April 24, 2021, from https://www.aidsmemorial.org/quilt 

Orlan – Carnal Art (2001) Documentary. Dir. Stéphan Oriach. Perf. Orlan. N.d. Film. YouTube. Web. 26 Oct. 2012. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=no_66MGu0Oo

Images

Aids quilt virtual exhibition [Video file]. (2020, November 30). Retrieved April 24, 2021, from https://youtu.be/tr0A9ssAzQM

Cleve Johns image: https://img.thedailybeast.com/image/upload/c_crop,d_placeholder_euli9k,h_1440,w_2561,x_0,y_0/dpr_1.5/c_limit,w_1044/fl_lossy,q_auto/v1491847035/articles/2017/02/22/cleve-jones-on-harvey-milk-when-we-rise-and-fighting-for-lgbt-equality-under-trump/170221-teeman-cleve-jones-tease_sboamb

Children's informational book: https://th.bing.com/th/id/R8430ecfda5d3c67566788ec270a94a59?rik=y4Jf%2brKeyTr0fw&riu=http%3a%2f%2fwww.blurb.com%2fimages%2fuploads2%2fcatalog%2f006%2f949%2f111%2f7708134-0cd43c7721a01bb622a3f364ceabca94.jpg&ehk=S06K8JzKPRXaoMwt1W00PcX1F%2f83mXg%2b9bue7GR9AfI%3d&risl=&pid=ImgRaw

Week Three: Robotics + Art

Robotics + Art

        Benjamin Walter covers a lot in his “The work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction”, because of this I would like to focus on section XII of the reading. Section seven starts with Walter saying, “Mechanical reproduction of art changes the reaction of the masses toward art.” I think that it is interesting to consider how the masses reaction towards art has changed.  Walter seems to think that a big factor is simply the sheer number of people that can watch a movie, compared to the comparative small number that view a painting, “individual reactions are predetermined by the mass audience response they are about to produce, and this is nowhere more pronounced than in the film.”

I think that this mentality of exposure is super interesting and makes me curious on what Walter would think of video games. Where the audience size is just as large as a movie, but the experiences can be vastly different, between the choices you make and your skill level. I think that he would argue it is a middle ground in a way. The audience size is the same, yet the experiences vary so much it is close to an isolated experience, much like a painting. A good example of this would be the games produced by Telltale games.

Image Sources

Movie picture Image: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUTYpAp0q5mffTRdCA0xKLVehdryeKR7L2zTXl85R2oxFO0EwdUAVMkoQ3HDtVRwip27YDPOChoHCLFouK3tw-Y_Jx3VJtssjTAE79k4jv5i58LnFNTpiMe_rOmJ_TejiC2c2axpss8Q/s1600/2+Cleopatra+1963+hh.jpg

Telltale games Image: https://th.bing.com/th/id/Ree4bfccb9a2b9f52ae0a497165e0d03d?rik=epn%2bnS8GzmIVwg&riu=http%3a%2f%2fd1506sp6x4e9z7.cloudfront.net%2fgamasutra%2fuploads%2f639649.jpg&ehk=Pw63dBBzoPlUm3XmVAmSxqwgwPPXW%2bXCKhCnfe068LA%3d&risl=&pid=ImgRaw

Telltale game collection Image:  https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B-Jh9D-CAAAkixI.png

Sources

Benjamin Walter. (1936). The work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction 

The Work of Art in the Age of Digital Reproduction (An Evolving Thesis:1991-1995) Douglas Davis Leonardo , Vol. 28, No. 5, Third Annual New York Digital Salon. (1995), pp. 381-386

Lipson, H. (Director). (2007, March). Building "self-aware" robots [Video file]. In TED. Retrieved April 15, 2021, from https://www.ted.com/talks/hod_lipson_building_self_aware_robots

Brooks, R. (Director). (2003, February). Robots will invade our lives [Video file]. Retrieved April 17, 2021, from https://www.ted.com/talks/rodney_brooks_robots_will_invade_our_lives

Brooks, R. (Director). (2003, February). Robots will invade our lives [Video file]. Retrieved April 17, 2021, from https://www.ted.com/talks/rodney_brooks_robots_will_invade_our_lives

Week 2: Math + Art

Math + Art

I knew that math and art were closely related prior to consuming this week’s content. However, I was only considering the connection in a traditional since. Keeping things in mind such as the importance of proportions and the value of symmetry to make something look pleasing to the eye. As well as in a tool perspective, different ratios of mixing colors, or different paper thickness. I was only thinking of instances that math can be useful to art.

 

    After engaging with the lectures and especially "The Institute of Figuring" I have learned that art can also help the development of math and science. I was able to read "The Crochet Coral Reef" which speaks of how art exhibits help scientists look at things in more creative and unique ways.

 

https://theiff.org/current/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Screen-Shot-2021-02-10-at-6.05.29-PM.png

I also enjoyed the Nathan Selikoff article where an orchestral performance articulates the transition through the four dimensions. Again, this is an instance where art is aiding math, the concepts may not be explained in a purely explicate way, but if you already have a basic knowledge of the concepts the piece allows for a new way for it to be expressed and considered.

https://nathanselikoff.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/9/2013/06/four-dimensions-featured.jpg

I want to choose this performance as my art piece to consider, specifically because of what they decided to do when tasked to represent the fourth dimension. I like that they decided to focus on volume and become terribly busy. They knew that it would be exceedingly difficult to try and convey a fourth dimension which is already hard to imagine regularly. so instead decided to double down on expressing the fact that by nature the fourth dimension is hard to picture.

https://youtu.be/N_d8pMxm8Ns

Sources:

2012 – Concert of the Future, with composer Keith Lay and the Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra. Full Sail University, Orlando, FL.

Four Dimensions - Real-time Audio-visual Performance. (2014, September 05). Retrieved April 10, 2021, from https://nathanselikoff.com/works/four-dimensions

Dance, A. (2021, February 11). Engaging in a creative pursuit can stimulate bold ideas, sharpen your focus and foster patience and perseverance in your research. ART GRAFT: PUTTING AN ‘A’ INTO ‘STEMM’, 590, 351-353.

Weisstein, Eric W. "Mandelbrot Set." From MathWorld--A Wolfram Web Resource. https://mathworld.wolfram.com/MandelbrotSet.html

Abbott, E. A. (2015). Part 1: Sections 1-5. In Flatland: A romance of many dimensions ; with illustrations by the author, A Square. London: Forgotten Books.

Week 1: Two Cultures

 Two cultures

    The core readings "Two Cultures and the Scientific Revolution” and “Third Culture: Being in Between” felt a both eye opening and slightly repetitive in a since that everyone is already aware of the dynamic between the two cultures. As someone with a sibling, from a young age it is apparent who has what strengths and who does not. My brother had an easier time with spelling than I had, yet I picked up sheet music with much less effort. I think that children in a subtle way digest the concept of strengths and weaknesses, which are seeds for "Two Cultures".

As someone who is interested in education, I have thought a lot about schools’ role in developing these strengths and weaknesses, so to read Snows interpretation on how universities should handle this divide of culture is interesting.

    When I read Mr. Brockman say, "scientists are communication directly with the general public." in his interview I got excited. I am interested in scientific articles and like to stay updated in the science community but too often they are written at such a technical level it is hard to understand even a rough idea without having google terms and read a whole separate article. One of my goals at UCLA is to find a way to write truly informative pieces that are technical enough properly display the findings but in a way that does not require a degree in the subject.

The main reason that I am interested in both my major and this class is summed up by Bohm when he says, "Creativity of some kind may be possible in almost any conceivable field". I chose material science because I fell it is a field which requires creativity and has a lot of room for artistic implantation. For instance, I find old paints and pigments interesting.

References

Snow, C. P. “Two Cultures and the Scientific Revolution.” Reading. 1959. New York: Cambridge UP, 1961. 
Print.

Vesna, Victoria. “Toward a Third Culture: Being in Between.” Leonardo 34.2 (2001): 121-25. Web.

Brockman, John. The Third Culture. N.p.: n.p., 1995. Print.

D. Bohm Leonardo, Vol. 1, No. 2. (Apr., 1968), pp. 137-149

Wilson, Stephen D. “Myths and Confusions in Thinking about Art/Science/Technology.” College Art Association Meetings. New York, New York, 2000. Print