Week 4: Medtech + Art

When I thought about medicine and medical technology, I did not associate them with art. I believed that medicine was a science besides the interpersonal and emotional aspects of patient treatment, and it surprised me to find out that it started out as an art form. Medical art started out with dissection and drawing of the human body. Art draws its inspritation from natural, especially life. After considering the above, it is not that surpirisng that medicine is considered as an art. The dissections and drawings gave people a better understanding of the complex human body, which later lead to technological advancements for improved medical treatment. With the advent of modern imaging technology, we can nonintrusively and accurately recreate the internal structure of the human body. In our pursuit of comprehending the human condition and life, modern imaging technology provides us with a different  perspective. 

CT scan - Imaging in medicine (3/13)

MRI - Imaging in medicine (6/13)

Life looks really different through an MRI machine

Not only are MRI images beautiful, but also they serve as an "acoustic mirror" for introspection and reflection (Casini). It allows us to learn more about what we are and what it means to be human.

Artistic Prosthetic Limbs

Prosthetics is a field where the art aspect of medicine is more prominent.

I agree that the Hippocratic Oath is outdated in several places. For example, it forbids surgery (which was a separate craft at the time), euthanasia, and abortion. The latter two are highly controversial matters in modern soceity, and the former is an effective last resort when other nonintrusive medical treatments have failed. I do believe that the other points made in the Hippocratic Oath are valid, especially those regarding doctor-patient confidentiality, forbiddance of causing harm, and treatment of the patient and not the ailment. I believe that the Hippocratic Oath serves not as a binding oath but as a guideline for doctors and a momento of medicine's origins.

Works Cited

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

CT Scan - Imaging in Medicine (3/13). YouTube, 2008. Film.

Flint, Anthony. "Hippocratic Oath Loses Favor with Doctors Vow Fails to Address Modern Standards." Baltimore Sun 14 Aug. 1991. Baltimore Sun. Web. 26 Apr. 2015. <Hippocratic oath loses favor with doctors Vow fails to address modern standards>.

Geek, Uber. "Prosthetic Limbs That Are Not Only Functional But Also Works Of Art." Wonderful Engineering. Wonderful Engineering, 1 Jan. 2014. Web. 26 Apr. 2015. <http://wonderfulengineering.com/prosthetic-limbs-that-are-not-only-functional-but-also-works-of-art/>.

Life Looks Really Different through an MRI Machine. YouTube, 2014. Film.

MRI - Imaging in Medicine (6/13). YouTube, 2008. Film.

Panda, Sadhu Charan. "Medicine: Science or Art?" <i>Mens Sana Monographs</i> 4.1 (2006): 127-38. <i>PubMed Central</i>. Web. 27 Apr. 2015. &lt;http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3190445/&gt;.

Tyson, Peter. "The Hippocratic Oath Today." PBS. PBS, 27 Mar. 2001. Web. 23 Apr. 2015. <http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/body/hippocratic-oath-today.html#classical>. 

Week 3: Robotics + Art

Mechanical reproduction and distribution allowed the public to access art, which used to only be available to artists, critics, and the rich. The mass production of art has degraded the "aura" of the original. Benjamin's "The Work of Art in Age of Mechanical Reproduction" mentions how Dadaist works were a source of "distraction by making works of art the center of scandal. One requirement was foremost: to outrage the public." In modern society you can see works of art that are similar to what the Dadaists attempted to create. Hit songs like Nicki Minaj's Anaconda, an ode to the female posterior, have no contemplative value and serve merely as distraction for the public.

I have always been interested in robots, and whenever I saw Japanese robots, I thought that they looked somewhat silly. The guest lecturer, Machiko Kusahara, explained the difference of the views of robots in Western and Eastern culture. Eastern culture views robots as friendly helpers, whereas Western culture views robots as our potential demise. I was unaware of this drastic difference of views.

Real Footage - Atomic Bomb- Hiroshima and Nagasaki

Astro Boy

Tezuka Osamu's Astro Boy was created to be humanoid and friendly to restore people's hope in technology, especially after Japan's defeat in World War II, when it was demonstrated that technology could be immensely destructive and frightening. Astro Boy's power source is a nuclear reactor to show that nuclear technology could be harnessed for good as well. Influenced by Osamu, Japanese engineers have designed their robots to appear cute and friendly. 

Terminator T-800

In the Western world, the industrial revolution replaced workers with machines or forced them to become parts of machines by having them in mechanized assembly lines. Machines were more efficient and more powerful than humans. People feared that robots would take over. In Western popular culture, movies like The Terminator show robots making humans obsolete, and eliminating them.

Works Cited

Astro Boy. Digital image. Caamfest. Web.
<http://caamfest.com/2013/files/2013/02/astroboy21.jpg>

Benjamin, Walter. The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction. London: Penguin, 2008. Print.

Minaj, Nicki. Anaconda. Four Glocks Ent., 2014. MP3.

Real Footage - Atomic Bomb- Hiroshima and Nagasaki. YouTube, 2011. Film.

Terminator T-800. Digital image. Blastr. Web.
<http://www.blastr.com/sites/blastr/files/styles/blog_post_media/public/Terminator-Salvation_0.jpg?itok=lXTh-VWK>

"Tezuka Osamu and Astro Boy." University of Colorado Boulder. University of Colorado Boulder, 1 Jan. 2008. Web. 19 Apr. 2015.
<http://www.colorado.edu/cas/tea/curriculum/imaging-japanese-history/late-20th-century/pdfs/handout2.pdf>

The Terminator. Perf. Arnold Schwarzenegger, Michael Biehn, Linda Hamilton, Paul Winfield. Orion Pictures, 1984. Film.

Uclonlineprogram. "Robotics MachikoKusahara 1." YouTube. N.p., 14 Apr. 2014. Web. 19 Apr. 2015.

Week 2: Math + Art

Math is the universal language for describing nature. Since art draws the majority of its inspiration from nature, it is not surprising that the fields of art and math are intertwined.

Fractals in Romanesco Broccoli

Fractals are a prime example of how art and math are intertwined. They are complex and often beautiful geometric patterns that repeat at different scales. They occur commonly in nature. Fractal patterns can be easily represented by mathematical equations and generated by modern day computers. 

St. Peter Healing a Cripple and the Raising of Tabitha

Artists started out using intuition to understand perspective. As artists had more experience, they developed more rigorous and math-intensive methods of explaining perspective. Scientists have used the work by artists to study optics.

Scientists and artists alike were fascinated by the idea of the fourth dimension. Henderson's "The Fourth Dimension and Non-Euclidean Geometry in Modern Art: Conclusion" demonstrated that when artists and scientists work together to explore topics, they gain different views of those topics that expose new ways of thinking. Artists used the idea of the fourth spatial dimension as creative freedom to make more abstract art. Additionally in the 1970s, a group of artists and mathematicians worked together to visualize the spatial fourth dimension. 

Hypercube 3D Computer Animation

 Through the use of mathematical modeling and modern day technology, we are able to simulate four dimensional objects and visualize their projections into three dimensional space as shown by the three dimensional hypercube animation above.

In Abbot's "Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions," flatlanders cannot perceive objects of higher dimensions. Science has done an amazing job at making sense of physically observable phenomena, but it will need the help of art's creativity and imagination to make sense of that which cannot be directly observed.

Works Cited

Abbott, Edwin. “Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions.” N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Oct. 2012. <https://cole.uconline.edu/content>.

Da Panicale, Masolino. St. Peter Healing a Cripple and the Raising of Tabitha. Digital image. Science and Art of Perspective. Web.

Henderson, Linda D. "The Fourth Dimension and Non-Euclidean Geometry in Modern Art: Conclusion." Leonardo 17.3 (1984): 205-10. Print.

"Hypercube 3D Computer Animation." YouTube. YouTube, n.d. Web. 13 Apr. 2015.
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iXYXuHVTS_k>

Romanesco Broccoli. Digital image. Culturally Situated Design Tools Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Web.

Week 1: Two Cultures

Snow's "Two Cultures and the Scientific Revolution" informs us of the growing divide between literary intellectuals and scientific intellectuals. Nowhere is this divide more evident than at UCLA. North Campus houses humanities, social science, and art majors, while South Campus houses STEM majors. North Campus and South Campus are not only separated culturally, but also physically. Classes belonging to each side of the divide usually do not cross the border between North and South Campus, so literary intellectual and scientific intellectuals have few opportunities to interact with each other academically. When people from North Campus and South Campus do interact, it is usually in a social setting such as in the dorm or at an event, where academic discussion occurs much less frequently. This lack of interaction leads to misunderstanding, and conversation in one group regarding the other deteriorates to the use of stereotypes since they do not have sufficient experience with the other side. 

North Campus

South Campus

Eason provides a prime example of stereotypes used to describe the two cultures where "A South campus major decries his friend the political science major as 'lazy, lucky and showered' and a North campus major feels that her friend the physical science major is 'self-entitled, bitter and smelly.'"

 I would regard myself as on the scientific side of the spectrum, since scientific culture governs my thinking and my major is Computer Science and Engineering.  For recreation I express myself through dance and sketch. 

Problems in society require interdisciplinary approaches that necessitate the cooperation of people from a multitude of backgrounds. This lack of understanding between the two cultures holds us back as a society. This barrier must be brought down to bring about a better intellectual environment.

Although this divide still exists, people from the two cultures work together quite frequently. Film is one of the largest fields where art and science come together to create something amazing.

Caltech's Kip Thorne worked on Christopher Nolan's Interstellar to create "somewhat" scientifically accurate depictions of black holes. The equations developed for the graphical modeling of black holes generated stunning visual effects and could also help NASA interpret real astronomical data.

UCLA animators and mathematicians developed the material point method technology used to simulate realistic behavior of snow in Disney's Frozen.


Works Cited

Anna. "UCLA Math Behind Disney's Latest Animation Film." UCLA Department of Math News. 03 December 2013. Web. 04 April 2015.
<https://www.math.ucla.edu/news/ucla-disney-animators-explain-snow-dynamics-latest-animation-film>

Aron, Jacob. "Interstellar's True Black Hole Too Confusing" NewScientist. 13 February 2015. Web. 04 April 2015.

Court of Sciences. Digital Image. UCLA Events. n.d. Web. 04 April 2015.
<http://uclaevents.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/UCLA-Venue-Court-of-Sciences21.jpg>

Eason, Ryan. "Why North And South Campus Majors Need To Shut Up." The Odyssey. April 2014. Web. 04 April 2015.
<http://theodysseyonline.com/ucla/why-north-ca/39840>

Sculpture Garden. Digital Image. UCLA Housing. n.d. Web. 04 April 2015. <http://www.housing.ucla.edu/housing_site/guesthouse/gallery/SculptureGarden_RGB.jpg>

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